I didn’t do an assessment. I didn’t know how.
I didn’t do an assessment. It seemed too time-consuming.
I didn’t do an assessment. A student crisis took priority.
I didn’t do an assessment. I had a creative idea for gathering data, but the university denied my funding request.
I didn’t do an assessment. I have many explanations for why that is.
Is assessment important? Absolutely. It’s essential. Assessment tells us where we’re succeeding, where we need to improve, and, most crucially, what our students truly need. In Residence Life, the reality is that many of us lack the support and resources to conduct meaningful assessments that will allow us to improve the services we offer. While some institutions have mastered the art of assessment, many others are still trying to figure it out.
As I began brainstorming for this article, it quickly became apparent just how little focus I had given to assessment in my Hall Director roles. Looking back, I realize I could have made it a priority—but I didn’t. I didn’t do an assessment for many reasons. No one told me it was expected of me. I didn’t know where to begin or how to gather reliable data. And, quite frankly, there were always other tasks that seemed more urgent.
In the three different Hall Director roles I’ve held, I never had the chance to implement meaningful assessments. That’s not to say we didn’t do good work—we did. But without concrete data, how do we know what’s truly working and what isn’t? Are we just guessing? Is it all based on intuition and anecdotes?
The Struggles of Assessment in Residence Life
To gain a deeper understanding of the challenges around assessment in student affairs, I reached out to colleagues across the department—from Residence Life Coordinators to our Director. In my email, I asked them a few questions about their experiences with assessments, particularly about whether any assessments had led to significant changes in operations or decision-making. The response I received, and lack thereof, was eye-opening: I had only one colleague respond and in our conversation he admitted he had “never seen this happen.”
When I asked about the barriers to conducting assessments, I received a response consistent with my experience: there’s a lack of understanding about the purpose and value of assessments, a perception that they’re irrelevant to students who won’t be with us next year, and most significantly, a lack of time. In the fast-paced, ever-demanding world of Residence Life, assessments are often the first thing pushed aside when competing priorities and crises take over.
The Reality of Assessment in Student Affairs
The reality is that assessment is absolutely critical to our work as student affairs professionals. It’s not just about gathering data for the sake of it. Assessment helps us improve our services, measure our effectiveness, and make data-informed decisions. But the truth is, assessments often fall by the wayside due to systemic challenges like short staffing, overwhelming workloads, and competing priorities. Too often, we don’t have the resources, time, or support to conduct meaningful assessments. As a result, we miss opportunities to better understand and meet the needs of our students.
I didn’t do an assessment. And, as you can see, I have many explanations for why that is. But here’s the thing: those explanations don’t make it okay. We owe it to ourselves—and more importantly, to our students—to prioritize assessment, even if it means getting creative about how we can make it feasible within our resource constraints. It’s not just about collecting data; it’s about improving our practice and ultimately better serving the students who depend on us.
Why It’s Time to Rethink Assessment in Student Affairs
We can no longer afford to treat assessment as an afterthought or a luxury. The work we do in Residence Life and Student Affairs directly impacts students’ lives, their sense of belonging, and their overall experience in higher education. Without assessment, we’re flying blind. We’re making decisions based on assumptions, not facts. We’re responding to crises rather than proactively addressing long-term needs.
We need to reframe assessment—not as a daunting, time-consuming task—but as a tool that helps us make smarter decisions, improve our services, and, most importantly, create a better experience for the students we serve. It’s not just about having data for data’s sake—it’s about having the right data to make informed, thoughtful decisions that truly impact students’ lives.
In a field that’s often scrambling to keep up with the next crisis, it can feel like there’s never time for reflection or evaluation. If we don’t make time for assessment, we’ll never know if we’re truly meeting our students’ needs, and we’ll miss the opportunity to improve our practice and our impact. We need support for our departments and from our supervisors in order to make assessments happen.
I didn’t do an assessment, but I’d like to.
