ResEdChat Ep 56: Authenticity, Adaptability, and Support: Having Effective 1:1’s with Student Staff

Crystal Lay:
Welcome back to Roompact’s ResEdChat Podcast where we highlight cool people who do cool things and talk about cool stuff in residence life and college student housing. I’m your host, Crystal Lay, and I use the pronouns she/her/hers. Very excited to talk to you all today about having productive and effective one-on-ones with your student staff. We have a fantastic guest here today, Mimi Sullivan, who will introduce herself in a moment. But I wanted to do this topic because when I was an RA, my hall directors were fantastic. They were so good with these, they made them look easy. They were warm, they were engaging, they were compassionate. They also held me accountable and challenged me, which was actually really beneficial.
I found that when I actually became a resident director, one-on-ones were hard. I am an introvert and I don’t enjoy small talk, and so I had to find something that worked for me, but also made one-on-ones a lot less awkward for my student staff, but I have not supervised RAs in a very long time. And although I was an RA myself, the work that RAs do is very different because so many things have changed over time. I thought let’s talk to someone who’s really good at one-on-ones with student staff and also has more recent and direct experiences with student staff. I will start off with having our guest introduce herself.

Camille Sullivan:
Hi everyone. My name’s Mimi Sullivan. I use her pronouns as well. I have been working with RAs for a few years and I can’t remember how many years it is. So probably a lot. I recently transitioned to an associate director role where I still work with RAs, but I also get to work with professional staff now too.

Crystal Lay:
Wonderful. The other cool part is that I actually have known you since you were a student staff member when we both were at Sonoma State, and I am just so proud of you and it’s been really neat to see your journey and your progression in the field from a distance. Congratulations on your new role. Talk to me, you’ve supervised student staff for quite some time. What have you found to be the most rewarding aspects of supervising student staff?

Camille Sullivan:
I just love hearing everyone’s stories and getting to know them. I always thought I was going to be a teacher, and so I love seeing those ah-ha moments, whether it’s like I finally succeeded in this thing or my residents finally did this, or whatever that looks like. Or maybe it’s just like, wow, this year was tough, but we made it through together. Everyone has a different moment where it clicks and a moment where they can look back and be proud of themselves. I just like to be an active participant or cheerleader or I don’t want to use the word voyeur, but someone that’s looking in and watching them go through this journey. That’s really weird, but that’s my favorite part is watching people have that ah-ha moment where like, “I did this.” Yeah. Working with RAs is my favorite part. Yeah.

Crystal Lay:
Yeah, the ah-ha moments because there’s always going to be one of that where something sinks in or they realize this is why I’m doing this, this is pretty cool. Sometimes I think that ah-ha could be, I don’t know if this is for me. I think it varies, but that’s the moment that I think we get to see when you live with students who work and live in. Thanks for sharing that. Now let’s delve into the topic of creating supportive supervisory relationships with student staff. What would you consider to be your must-dos or top tips in that regard?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, my number one, above all else is be authentic. I appreciate you sharing that. You were an introvert and small talk was hard. I never felt that way with you, but I think being authentic is huge because I used to think that me being an introvert as well, everyone’s so loud in the field and so confident with themselves in the field, and here I’m this awkward little nerd sometimes. But I think being authentically me, they’re like, “No, that’s just Mimi.” And stuff like that. They’re like, “I like Mimi for Mimi.” Whereas when I tried to force myself to be in these positions, it made them be like, I don’t really know who she is, therefore how do I trust her? How do I build this relationship with her if she can’t be authentic with me? That’s my number one. Just be you. At the end of the day, whatever that is, but communicate how you is too, because I know that sometimes I’ll be like, “No.” I’m like, “Oh wait, people want an explanation or, so I’ll explain how I communicate.”
That’s my number two is definitely talk it through and get to know your team as well. Be like, “How do you like to be communicated with?” Sometimes I’ll wait until one-on-one to give feedback where a students’ like, “I’d much rather have that feedback immediately.” And I’m like, “Okay, well let’s do that.” I just don’t want to do it in public settings. So there’s different things to that. That’s the get to know your team and what they need, but then also authentically get to know them as a person. There’s going to be times where your personality does not match up with your team, and that’s totally fine. I had someone that was really into wrestling, but I’d ask them like, “Hey, how was watching the game? Explain it to me.” And stuff.
They knew that I didn’t know what it was, but they appreciated that I was taking interest in them. Even if there’s no interest and stuff like that, we all get into this role because we like working with people. People are going into this with kind hearts and open minds. I just encourage you to role model that, kind of like how I’ve learned to do as well. Then my last one is just be adaptable and consider alternatives. As a former teacher, I look at all of my RAs as students and everyone has a different learning style and therefore everyone has a different communication style or work style. As a supervisor, I see myself as adapting to their style so that way they can best receive information in a way that works for them or they can best be encouraged in a way that works for them. Whatever the situation warrants, I can do it in a way that clicks with their brain. That’s the best thing that I’ve learned coming out of a teacher credential program into this role is how easily that can be applied to just supervising student staff.

Crystal Lay:
One of the things I love that you said was making sure folks know who you are or your expectations so that it’s both. And this piece of being comfortable with yourself and being authentic and no one knows how you operate. I can not read your mind. That’s something that took me a little bit to learn if I want to be honest, is that I think a lot and those words can’t just sit in my head.
I was in a training session a couple of weeks ago and the presenter said, “Have you told your staff what your vision is? Have you told them what your goals are?” When you apply that to student staff and the pieces that you’ve shared Mimi, I think it comes down to who are you, what do you need? Then how are you going to set your team up for success? But the other piece you said too is being adaptable and really truly adjusting based on what they need too. There’s a relationship it sounds like that needs to happen. It’s not just I am the supervisor, we are a team potentially, and how do we work together? Yeah.

Camille Sullivan:
I definitely agree with the team part. I see myself as learning from my team as much as they learn from me also because they’re younger and they’re keeping me young and hip at heart, but they’re in it. They’re the ones working directly with students a lot of the time. There’s so much that they bring that I’m learning and be like, “Okay, well this is how we’re going to need to adapt our whole style as a team to best meet the needs of our students.” I definitely look at our brains on equal levels because they bring in so much as well.

Crystal Lay:
That’s why you’re so good at this. You really focus on how do we make sure that they get what they need? Then you talked about you learn from them as well. Right? It’s a definite two-way street in that relationship. I want to focus on what I think is a crucial part of the RA experience, and I think you would agree with me one-on-one meetings between RAs and their supervisors. What are the key topics or elements that you believe should be covered in a one-on-one?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, at the end I’m going to say it depends on the day and the situation. However, no matter what, I always try to do a personal check-in with them, see where they’re at, because at the end of the day, they’re students number one, but they’re human beings above that. We all go through things. We all go through feelings, life, stress, happiness, joy, everything that life comes with that we all go through. I always try to check in with them. Number one, that’s the first thing that I do. Sometimes it’s like we need to send our whole meeting talking about this incident to debrief or process or come up with next steps. In that I will always make sure to, one, start off with seeing how they’re doing, and two end with seeing how I could support them going forward.
I’ve learned the biggest thing about support is me just saying like, “Hey, how can I support you?” They’ll be like, “I don’t know. Thanks for the words of encouragement.” There’s been times where I’ll say like, “Hey, I think I’m going to do this. Is this supportive for you?” For an example, I had a student that just had a roommate conflict and then just multiple issues, one after another, one after another that I was like, “Hey, how about you don’t schedule any one-on-ones with students next week, you just take the week and you just plan your events and stuff like that. How does that sound for support?” And that was much more tangible for them than me being like, “Hey, I care about you.” Which of course I say that, but having that support being like, “Okay, I know that I can do this.” Tends to help them. I’ve tried to do that.
Not every situation I can find the perfect answer because sometimes it’s just like, I’m here with you, we’re going through this as best we can together, but there’s only so much that I might be able to take off of a plate or rearrange or anything like that. Those are my bookends that I try to do. But then after that, if it is as best as possible a normal week, a normal check-in, I try to do work related check ins and be like, “Hey, what are things that are going well in your community? I want to get them in the habit of saying things that they are doing well. Because I know humans as society, we tend to focus on the bad customer service experiences or the stressful residents. I want my RASS to get in the habit of tooting their horns so that way they can say, “This is everything that I’ve done. I’ve done all this for my community.” And that’s great. Also secretly helps them slowly put together a resume in their head of things that they’ve done as RAs.
But then to talk about things that they’re working on, maybe things that don’t escalate at my level, but they’re like, “Hey, there’s this roommate conflict coming up.” We’ll talk about that. Also like, do you want to process that? Do you not want to process that? Then of course if feedback’s necessary, I’ll provide them with feedback. But then there’s some weeks where it’s like, I don’t know if y’all are going through it, but I know we definitely go through it with the roommate conflicts right now. There’s weeks where it’s like, “Okay, there’s checked in with you, but let’s walk through this situation and come up with a game plan together.” That way they don’t always feel like they have to make all of the decisions together.
At the end of the day, they’re students and some of them might be seeing a conflict like this for the first time in their lives too. I’ll take the time and use it. Sometimes that’s helpful for them because it allows them time to either vent or process or debrief and stuff like that so that way I can hopefully make the situation weigh less on their shoulders as they leave my office. So like I said, a lot of it’s adaptability and figuring out what they need for that one-on-one in that moment. But my two main things are check-ins and support.

Crystal Lay:
I love that. You also talked about do we need to make a game plan for how to approach this thing that’s happening in your community and working that through with them. The support piece was really interesting because that’s a question we even asked our professional staff. We say, “I care about you, I want you to do well. How can I support you?” And some folks don’t know how to respond to that. I like that you provide examples to say, these are some things you can ask for or I would be okay with because then as you all get to know each other, they can say, “Oh yeah, remember when you named this thing, can I do that?” You’re helping them learn skills to ask for what they need and answer that question differently and better, not just under your supervisory support, but as they move throughout and whatever career to be able to name what their needs are. That’s a very valuable skill I think. Thanks for sharing that. Logistics, how often do you think RA should meet with their supervisor or basically what do you think is the best practice?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, I think it’s really tough to answer that question. I think it depends on the RA. Generally within the first six weeks, they have all of their roommate agreements that they’re working on, all their one-on-ones that they’re working on. So during the first six weeks, I usually meet with them weekly for 30 minutes just so that way we’re having those touch points. If it’s a quick check-in checking in really on them, I realize those first six weeks are probably the most stressful six weeks for an RA. I don’t want to create one more meeting with them as they’re doing all these one-on-ones, but I want to make sure that they’re doing okay. Really it’s more of a care check-in versus like, are you doing your job check-in?
Then after that, I tend to evaluate the needs of the staff. I think it’s good every two weeks to spend an hour with an RA. Whether that’s 30 minute one-on-ones weekly or every other week for an hour or something like that. But I might tailor that to the RA because I have some RAs that are talkers and putting them in a 30-minute meeting. Sometimes I feel like it bumps up against another meeting. Then I never want them to feel rushed out of my office and be like, “Hey, I got to go. We’re done.” That’s a terrible feeling, especially when they’re either talking about something that’s really exciting to them or something that’s really stressing them or something like that. I’ll strategically plan how after the six weeks of getting to know them, I’ll kind of strategically plan that out, but then honestly I tend to give them the option of would you prefer every other week? That way the weeks that we’re off, you can use that as dedicated work time. You can put this on your calendar as a weekly thing, but we should talk every other week.
Then there’s some that are like, “No, I want to process every single week.” We might do 30 minute weekly one-on-ones with the understanding that maybe one week we can cancel or something like that. For best practice, I would never go more than two weeks without checking in on an RA. I don’t know how your institution might do it. Our institution does weekly staff meetings and then alternating weekly in-services. I try to time my one-on-ones for the weeks where I might not make a personal connection to the staff meeting one where it’s just the however much my staff size is, maybe that would be the off week for one-on-ones.
That way I know that I’m going to make a personal check-in with them that way too. It depends on how your institution is structured. It depends on how many students you manage and your conduct and all that kind of stuff too. Ultimately, I see checking in with RAs as a priority in my schedule as well. As I cancel or rearrange meetings because we know meetings just get plopped on our calendar sometimes.

Crystal Lay:
Yes.

Camille Sullivan:
I always try to make sure to allow RAs alternatives to check in because I never want to make sure that they are like, “I was looking forward to this meeting so we can process this and now I don’t have time.” I try to provide alternatives if that happens as well.

Crystal Lay:
It sounds like it also gives you the ability to manage your schedule and all the things you have going on too. That’s a piece of this that came out. I remember my first year as a resident director, I had 12 RAs and I was meeting with them every week for one hour, and my supervisor was like, “Crystal, I can never find you. You’re always busy. What is going on?” I told her and she’s like, “No.” She’s like, “That’s 12 hours of your work week that you’re sitting in these meetings.” And while that’s important, she said, “You can do every other week, you can do all 12 one week and then a week off, you could do six each week.” I just didn’t know. That drastically improved my schedule, but then also theirs. I think those are some really cool tips you added is what’s the structure and expectation at your institution?
What else is happening in their lives, in your life? But never letting more than two weeks go without making some form of communication. Those off weeks like you talked about, is it an email follow up or check-in? Some places do weekly reports. Whatever style works to let them know that they matter and that you’re available as a supervisor. I think that’s really, really cool. If an RA finds that their supervisor isn’t doing some of the stuff you’ve mentioned or we’ve been talking about, how would you recommend an RA could approach that? Let’s say an RA watches this and says, “My hall director, my supervisor doesn’t do that, I want this thing to happen.” How would you coach that RA or how could they bring that up to their supervisor?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, I would definitely say talk directly with a supervisor. If we go around our supervisor, it already creates this sense of tension that makes creating some sort plan much harder, we’re adding that friction in the middle that we have to get in between versus directly going to the supervisor and being like, “Hey, watch this video. I think this might be really helpful to do. Would you be on board with it? Or something similar or something like that. I’m excited because I think it might help me X, Y, Z.” Or something like that. I think coming in and just having an authentic conversation, and I try to do this with everything in life, not just with supervisors, but anytime where I ask for something and I try to make it a collaborative conversation versus, “Hey, I need this and this and this and this.” Versus demands, because I might not know the full scope of their work, they might not know the full scope of my work and stuff like that. I try to go in without assumptions about what my supervisor might be going through.
Last year, we were short-staffed, so I had 19 RAs. If one person was like, “I would like more time.” I’d be like, “Cool, let’s work it out together with the schedule that I have. I don’t want to say no to you, but let’s look at this together and we can figure out what works.” I think that’s the biggest thing is, one, have a direct conversation directly with your supervisor, but two, look at it as a collaborative experience. Now if you feel like there is legitimate lack of support and it’s being met with frustrations or anything like that, you can be very direct about that and be like, “Hey, when this is presented to me this way, I feel like this.” The I statements that we talk to our residents about apply this to everything in life.
I think the best thing to do is always have a conversation, but to be able to explain things too. Because I might not understand from the context and history of my life why someone would want something a certain way, but if you explain it and I can understand like, “Oh, this is actually really helpful for either your schedule or how your brain works.” Or anything like that, it makes more sense. While I might not be able to do it exactly as X, we might be able to find Y or Z or whatever plan we can come up with, it at least allows some sort of cooperative experience that we can go through. Just communication skills in general is great to have.

Crystal Lay:
Yes, I’m so impressed with you. I’m trying to keep all my praise to myself, but I love these answers that you’re sharing. Speaking of one-on-ones, as I shared small talk, oh no, not a thing for me. I think that pick whatever descriptor, I think they can be nerve wracking for both parties at times. How do you personally prepare yourself to create a comfortable and supportive environment when engaging in these conversations?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, it’s definitely nerve wracking at first, especially as a fellow introvert who I’m very happy to get down to business and skip a small doc, which I realize it doesn’t build relationships that well all the time. I feel like I have a good relationship, but I realize it doesn’t appear that way all the time. I definitely make it a part of my schedule. And back in the day when I first started supervising staff, I had very structured and it just felt so stale. And I was kind of role modeling after a supervisor that had lists of things, but I was also professional staff. It looked a little bit different. There are things that we have to cover sometimes, but it made it feel very stale and very transactional. That’s not how we can build support and trust in a job that requires a lot of support and trust.
We are in a lot of cases like crisis management and so much stuff. So we have to have each other’s backs and feel like we have each other’s backs. And so now even if I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll be like, you tell me about this, explain it. And even if I don’t understand, I won’t pretend to be like, “Oh wow, cool, interesting.” I’ll be like, “I don’t know what that is, but I see you’re really excited. Tell me more.” That kind of thing. That’s what I go in preparing myself is just like, “What can I learn about them?” And that actually isn’t much work that I have to do in this situation. I think that eases my nerves because I can just be like, “I need to find something that they feel comfortable sharing with me.” And then I just get to sit back and watch them get really excited about something.
That helps me and my nerves because, oh, that’s step one done. Check it off the list. I had to ask three questions. We’re good. But also, I try to make my environment conducive to having conversations. I generally have fidget toys and tissues in my office at all times as I play with a fidget toy right now. It’s just habit to talk about creating that comfortable setting. Those are things that I can do ahead of time, create a comfortable setting. I’ll try to keep a list of things so that way I don’t forget if there’s anything important that they need to know.
Sometimes I’ll tell them like, “Hey, I’m going to run through the spiel really quick of all the things that we need to cover, but let’s chat about you afterwards too.” Because I realize that when I get very task oriented, it does feel very transactional. It does feel very stale. But when I say, “Hey, we’re going to do this now.” It feels less stale and transactional. It shows that I’m seeing them as a person, but also recognizing the gravity of the situation, not situation of a one-on-one, but that we need to go through certain things in our one-on-one and then be transparent. Sometimes I’ll be like, Hey, I also know that I’m about to get this call for the student that might come through. I don’t want to interrupt your one-on-one, but also I want to make sure that the student’s physically safe right now and stuff too.
So if I have those kind of things coming through, I’ll be transparent with them. And I embrace the weird, it gets easier after a while once you embrace your awkwardness, the awkwardness, and sometimes we’ll be like first one-on-one, it’s okay to be nervous, that kind of stuff. And then it slowly becomes routine that you’re like, “Okay, every year, every new RA, we will have our couple of funky one-on-ones.” And then after that we’ll figure out our style that works for us. But I try to learn from my peers a little bit too and see what they’re doing. There was one resident director that I used to work with, and he would have themed one-on-ones. One week he’d bring his Nintendo in and they’d play games together for 10 minutes into the one-on-one and then loosen them up and stuff like that. It was like the small talk without the small talk.
Then the next week they’d be like, “Let’s make Play-Doh monsters.” He always had an activity in the office. While that’s not always a hundred percent what I’m able to do in that situation that worked for him and his style. Figure out what’s fun for you. Figure out what’s fun for your RAs. Not every one-on-one is going to be a hundred percent fun all the time, and that’s okay. Just go with the weird. That’s kind of my thing. I’m trying to think if there’s anything else. Just get to know them. That makes it so much easier.

Crystal Lay:
Build rapport, rapport building. That also sounds like a page from your teacher book. Building rapport, being yourself, and I think there is a place where you can be so much fun to where you’re not getting anything done or you’d be too tasky. That’s what I’m hearing. It sounds like there has to be a balance between both. I know we used to do these things called fun-on-ones where it’s like, “Hey, take me to your favorite place on campus.” Or maybe I’m meet in your community and you take me through your floor and show me your door decks or talk about what you’re most proud of. I think even getting out of your office can be a really cool trip as well.
Overall, what I heard you saying is that how can you show support? How can you tell yourself, “Okay, this is the human I’m about to meet with. What helps them feel excited and supported? And then that’s the mind space I’m going to be in for the next 30 minutes or 45 minutes with this person.” Okay. If folks want to learn more about how to hold one-on-one meetings or anything where it’s really trying to be supportive or build a community or connection with their student staff members, do you have any recommendations for where they can learn more?

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah. The internet is full of resources. Sometimes I’ll Google, sometimes I’ll be like, “What’s an interesting idea?” Or, “Is there anything that I’m missing?” But outside of just Googling and seeing what kind of resources are out there, I’ll talk to my supervisor. They’ve been in a little bit longer than me, see what worked for them. But I’ll also talk to my peers because they might be coming from a different program than me. They might be coming with different experience, what’s worked with them. A lot of learning that I’ve done as a professional has honestly just been observing how other people do things and then taking bits and pieces. I might not be as high energy as someone else, or I might not be as like, “Let’s delve into the deep questions on day one.” Because some people, you can naturally feel that with them, and it just feels so natural. I don’t know if that’s my style, but I’m able to take bits and pieces.
I do this with my conduct meetings too. I’ll hear the spiel that one person gives. I’m like, “Wow, that’s really good. I want to add that to my spiel now.” And stuff. Talk with people that you’re working with. Then there’s also Facebook groups or just general boards that people join. I’m part of a few online and people just ask questions, be like, “I’m noticing this trend this year. Is anyone else doing this too?” Or, “I’m struggling with trying to get someone to open up with me.” And stuff like that. What does that look like? You know what? You might not have that ah-ha moment with your RA the first one-on-one. Some people, it takes a while for them to feel comfortable and open up. Some people will be like, “Here’s my open book day one. Let me tell you everything.” And that’s okay because that’s us too as supervisors. Some of us might be that way, some of us might not be that way. It just shows us as humans, and I think that’s the beauty of it.
But really, I look at everyone around me as an expert because we’re all humans, therefore we all have different personalities. Therefore, there’s a key in everyone’s style that can apply to this specific RA or this specific RA. It depends on the situation, but those are my primary methods of learning and growing and evolving to have these one-on-ones, just seeing what everyone else is doing. Also, secretly, we know our RAs talk about us and be like, well, my supervisor does this and my supervisor does that. I think it’s good for us also to be on the same page and be like, “We’re all doing this.” That way as they do that, they’ll be like, “Oh yeah, mine does this too.” And stuff like that.

Crystal Lay:
I think it was called the RA Code of Silence where they would talk to each other, but you better not let the supervisor know that we’re talking about these things. There has to be space for them to process with each other and at some point say, “Okay, we really need help. We should probably tell our supervisor that we feel this way or we want these things. But yeah, we definitely had that too when I was an RA. But I like this peer-to-peer learning piece at any level that you’re talking about and asking for help. I’m struggling with this thing, or I’m doing this really cool thing and I want to share it, and maybe you want to try it too.
I’m going to sneak in another question because I think you might have a really good perspective on this. Let’s say there’s a hall director, resident director, pick your title, who had a bad one-on-one. This did not go well. How do I repair this thing? How do I fix this? What type of encouragement or tips do you have to say, “Hey, you can do this.” How do you come back from what feels like an awkward or a bad one-on-one? I don’t know if you’ve had that experience, but that question popped up.

Camille Sullivan:
Yeah, I feel like we as student affairs professionals really hold it more than we need to sometimes. We’re in this job because we care. Right? We’re here for the people, and therefore when something doesn’t go right, we feel like our job didn’t go right because we’re here to make a positive experience. When the experience doesn’t feel positive, we’re immediately like, “Oh, this is terrible. But sometimes it’s not as terrible as we make it out to be. That’s my number one. I’ll be like, “Was it that bad?” Okay, if it was, I’m not going to downplay anything and stuff like that. Your emotions hold truth, but we need to give ourselves some grace. A great piece of advice that I got from a supervisor one time was either don’t reply to an email or a phone call until your blood pressure has calmed down and when you think about it, your blood pressure doesn’t rise again.
This is for any angry parent or angry student that comes your way and stuff like that. But sometimes it’s like that with RA staff too, of sometimes I need to give myself and just a little space, not too much space. Right? Because we don’t want them stewing on a situation longer than they need to as well. But I’ll give that advice to my fellow peers and just be like, “Hey, give yourself some grace. Give them some grace and stuff like that. But then come back to it.” Sometimes it might be an email the next day of being like, “Hey, I know we didn’t leave our one-on-one where we usually do, if you need to check in, let me know.” Reassuring that no matter what, I’m still here. I’m still your supervisor. We’ll still work together.
But then also know, we’ll have how many other one-on-ones throughout the rest of the semester to do things. I don’t know if this is a great thing of mine or not, but I’m a compartmentalizer. I’ve learned to do that. Sometimes I have to give feedback and that feedback is hard for someone to hear, and I’ll do it, but I’ll be like, “Okay, feedback over. Now we’re going to move on to the rest of our job.” Closing that drawer in my head. For some people, they need that drawer to be open a little bit longer and that some people are like, “Oh, thank goodness you’re closing it right away. We can move on.” And not pretend it didn’t happen because that’s not a good learning experience, but not let the emotions of the situation have to be going on longer.
I think it depends on the situation, but ultimately, no matter what we’re their supervisors for the rest of the year, potentially the next year, depending on what RA selection looks like and staffing and villages and buildings and all that kind of stuff, but letting them know, Hey, no matter what, I’m here to support you through thick and thin. I know this job has its ups and downs, but I also know that we’re learning together, and every new batch of students that we get, whether it’s RAs or residents and stuff like that, every year is going to be different. So there is a learning period for all of us collectively as a university together each year and relearning how to work together as a team.

Crystal Lay:
That is excellent, excellent advice. We’ve just had such a delightful conversation, full of great information. Thank you so much, Mimi, for joining me today and talking about having productive, and then lots of other advice that I think can apply to so many different settings, not just in our working one-on-ones, but like you mentioned, conduct meetings and just life stuff and how we talk to each other and treat each other. Thank you so much.

Camille Sullivan:
Thank you so much for having me today. It was great. Kind of catching up with you a little bit and getting to speak about where we’re at in our careers and with students and all that fun stuff.

Crystal Lay:
Yes. To you all listening, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of RezEdChat. If you have an idea of a topic or person that you’ll like us to have on the show, please let us know by reaching out to Roompact. Take care.