Guest Post by Yoke Tassent, Residence Life Professional
Happy New Year!! As a ResLifer, I enjoyed the serenity of campus the past couple of weeks. For many of us, it is a time to plan for the coming academic term and reflect on the prior. Many folks will say it is time we are “Out with the old, in with the new.”
In mid-December, many of us become visionaries. Constructing new practices and developing new models with the goal of future implementation. We consider ways to fix the problems plaguing Residential Life and leading to high rates of attrition within our field. We problem solve opportunities to improve staff morale, adjust our hiring practices (less time intensive for both current staff and applicants), improve the transition to summer camps/conferences, and reduce reliance on overtime work. We also think of ways to better support our students such as adapting programming requirements to better fit the student body, smoothly integrating student feedback into policy revisions/practices, and improving our housing assignments process.
This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, “What is one practice ResLife departments need to let go of?”
This year my December dreams were about the housing assignments process. The current system is archaic at best and un-inclusive at worst. During my December brainstorm, I highlighted the following three points as the areas needing the greatest improvement in our housing assignments process:
- Supporting students with diverse identities
- Students with Accommodations (ADA Housing) Non-binary/Trans/Gender Fluid Students Students of color
- Non-traditional students
- Utilizing technology
- Better matching software
- Advertisement of the process
- Assist transfer students
- Ensure space in desired locations
- Provide a new-student experience
Currently, most colleges denote different buildings and floors of residential halls to students based on class year and gender. While there are benefits of clustering students by class year, this process does not account for non-traditional students. For example, when working as a live-in staff member, there were times I had residents who were 21 years old (and older) who struggled to connect with their 18-year-old neighbors on a social and emotional level. Similarly, the intention of splitting floors by gender may be good as it allows for students to have greater proximity to a restroom that they can use, but in reality, this intention is an archaic practice that does not properly support the diverse student body currently enrolling in our high education institutions as the number of students identifying as nonbinary doubled since 2020 according to the NCHA. For students who identify as Non-binary/Trans/Gender Fluid, the binary layout of our residential halls is harmful. While I do not believe it is necessary to eradicate gendered suites nor do I suggest first-year students should be housed adjacent to seniors, there must be greater nuance in our practices. As Housing Professionals, we believe in developing practices as diverse as the needs of our students. So, now is the time to make the adjustment. There should be greater opportunity for students to live in gender fluid zones or areas of the building where students, regardless of gender, can cohabitate. Similarly, there should be greater consideration when placing students of non-traditional college age in first-year halls. Perhaps, these students would be better suited having an option for the type of community they are placed within or consideration for transfer living communities.
Speaking of transfer students, they deserve our support too. Since many colleges denote firstyear housing separately to returning students housing, first-year students are given priority for those communities. However, transfer students make up a sub-group that is frequently neglected and ignored. Transfer students are frequently left as the last student group to be assigned housing as they did not select with returning students and were not considered for traditional first-year placement. This system leads to many transfer students being expected to fend for themselves and find housing off-campus. This expectation directly opposes how we should be supporting this vulnerable group. Transfer students have transferred for a reason; for many transfer students, this reason relates to lack of support or belonging at their previous institution. Our current practices are going to further induce harm in this population if we do not enact necessary changes in our assignments process.
The last area within housing assignments I want to address is technology (or lack thereof). If we can use so many acronyms within Student Affairs, we can find ways to use their acronyms and technology too. Ultimately, we need to be “hip with the kids” and find platforms that they use to advertise our processes on. This change matters as many students miss the application period for ADA or general housing selection within our current systems. While it is many ways the responsibility of the student to be aware of deadlines, it is also in our best interest to continue to re-envision ways to garner their attention. Otherwise, their inaction will cause pain and frustration when we need to manually add them on the back end of these systems. It is not fair to you, and you care too much about your students to not consider adjusting this process to something that is mutually beneficial.
Now that you read about my December dream, I ask you to reflect on yours. While the clock has struck midnight and we have started the new year, do not forget about your December dream. When you return to your offices a few days into the new year, find ways to continue dreaming. It is okay to acknowledge being short on time, resources, and energy to implement the changes you dreamt about, but do not let yourself give up. We tell our students adages like “the path to success isn’t linear;” so, we must let our actions match these words. Allow yourself to be dreamer and then challenge yourself to be a do-er because while the implementation will be challenging, the reward of your dreams will be worth it.
From your fellow dreamer…
