This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, “What is the future of the RD position and role?”
Guest Post by Hannah Elliott, Residence Life Professional
There are plenty of higher-level administrators who began their careers in Higher Education within the idealistic culture of being an impactful student leader and a devoted graduate to move into an overworked but ever so grateful Resident Director (RD or acronym of your choice based on institution) with the big dream of becoming a Dean of Students or Vice President of Student Affairs. Working their way up to proverbial pyramid to look back on the downline of employees beneath them, all waiting to be inspired to start their journey into the multilevel marketing scheme (MLM) of Higher Ed. I joke often that I was a good RA who knew her way around a bulletin board and somehow ended up here. Now that “here” is being an Assistant Director that supports a team of RD-level positions, there is much to reflect on with how departmental leadership chooses to invest in their teams beyond idealism. Gone are the days of the RD role selling itself. It is time for departmental and institutional leadership to unlearn the MLM-style ways of leading and making space to imagine a more livable position for the future.
Be forewarned: this post will pose more questions than solutions.
Pay Yourself First
You have likely heard it tossed around in a professional development session or as a comment from someone who “wishes they heard it sooner” and is no longer in a live-in role. “Pay yourself first” is a sentiment targeted towards live-in roles to put money that would typically go to rent and commuting into their savings or retirement accounts. While this advice is important for those who can swing it financially, this disregards the fact that many RD roles are severely underpaid due to the live-in compensation. With growing rates of inflation and the national housing crisis, paying yourself any amount first is not as lucrative as it once was if there are still 5-10 years of career between living in and making enough money to live comfortably. Living in as a savings strategy is less of a selling point and is has increasingly become more of a necessity to many who feel stuck in their current RD role – unable to move up or out for a variety of reasons. As an entire blog post (or research project) on its own, I will not dig more into RD compensation within this post, though I encourage anyone with hiring influence to interrogate your current pay structure and make the necessary changes to pay a livable wage with necessary benefits for RDs to not just survive, but thrive within and outside of their position.
Outside of money-in-pocket compensation, RD roles need to be structured from the position description forward with a “pay yourself first” mindset when thinking about how the department supports RDs paying themselves holistically. We are beyond the call for work-life balance and self-care at the individual level. How do departments make space for RDs to take time off? How do departments create opportunities for RDs to connect and network with one another and campus partners outside of meetings and committee work? How do departments center the humanity of their RDs while still balancing the needs of our students – residents and RAs alike? There is no way to do it perfectly, but there are ways to put in effort. Rather than leaning into criticisms of the Millennial, Zillennial, and Gen Z employees “not wanting to work,” make space for dialogue around concerns (shoutout to my fellow Zillennials). Instead of shutting down what cannot happen, brainstorm what is possible and what is possible though may need more time.
Professional Development
Many MLMs market their brand through the idea of “investing in yourself” which we quickly see in Residence Life with the overuse and misuse of “professional development” (or ProDevo). Whether it is using ProDevo as a mask for exploitation (“take on these 3 new committees/projects to help build your resume”), only investing in the team through conference attendance, or not having any funding or effort put into development initiatives, there are plenty of ways we communicate to RDs that ProDevo is a fancy recruitment season term never to come to fruition in their tenure.
Professional Development extends far beyond conference attendance and may still require funding and time that some departments are not willing to invest in. From weekly roundtable current event discussions at staff meetings to free webinars from professional associations to Roompact’s very own ProD In a Bag Series, there are a myriad of ways for department leadership to invest in their team. Even within conference attendance, make space for those who attend conferences to share back what they learned in a staff meeting rather than leaving any learning to hang idly by in an office with their conference name badge and lanyard.
With the current state of Residence Life nationally, many are choosing to leave the field, and, even among those who do not leave the field, many are still choosing to leave housing. Rather than the vague promise of transferable skills, it is imperative for supervisors of RDs to understand the ambitions of their team to give RDs applicable experience that is leverageable beyond soft skills. Most RD positions will include some level of committee work or special projects; however, professional development is not a passive task. Make space for your team to do good work with support and intention. This begins with knowing what RDs will get out of the experience being assigned to them and being able to connect that to their ambitions and goals.
Recruit Ethically
It is important that we give back to the field in many ways, including contributing to those who come after us. I do not believe this is done by convincing committed student leaders and RAs to become us, especially if we are once again pitching it as an MLM with talk of how they can continue to impact students all while not paying rent. We recruit through example starting with how we exist within the work we do. With caffeinated drinks in tow and bags under our eyes, forced smiles and talks of passion are not selling Gen Z and Gen Alpha on the Residence Life experience. How RDs are able to talk authentically about their position and how they are able to show up day to day within the role exemplifies the hope for the future of Residence Life and RD-level positions nationwide. The students I have had ask me about my time as an RD when I held that position were interested in the joy I got from talking about training or curriculum and how I healed and came back after responding to crisis situations with authenticity and purpose. Not once did those conversations start with my compensation package or my hopes to move up in the field. We need to create environments that show our students that doing this work with care and intention is not only possible but is actively happening, even if the change is slow moving rather than steamrolling their career plans by hyping up their community building and bulletin board skills.
The Future Is Here
We cannot sustain ourselves within Residence Life, especially within RD roles who are often responding firsthand to crisis, student needs, and escalated community issues, without first understanding how to move away from the toxic culture that likely got those reading this post into the field in the first place. Models of marketing the position and keeping people engaged enough to move up and continue the same cycles belong to the Residence Life of yesteryear. The best time to start thinking about how to reimagine the RD role is yesterday. The second-best time is now. And it is going to take all of us who are or work with RDs to create a sustainable reality for RDs of the future.
