Changing Residence Life Practice to Meet Current Student Needs
by Austin Korynta
As a young professional, one of my least favorite phrases from mid-to-upper-level administration is the phrase “I’m old school.” In my personal reflection on that phrase, “I’m old school” communicates, to me, an unwillingness to change and adapt to the current environment, the same as the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” It may be up for debate whether current higher education practices, Residence Life specifically can be considered “broken,” but what isn’t questionable is that our practices need to be adapted to match the needs of our student populations. Housing and educating a population of students that has grown up in the age of rising artificial intelligence (AI), the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and have experienced years of news relating to gun violence, our practices need to adapt to understand these experiences as long term impacts that should be informing our decisions in ways that highlight creativity, information, and safety.
This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, “How is the rising generation of college students changing residence life practice?”
The rise in AI generated content during the AI boom of the last five years has had a significant impact on students in terms of generating original human thought. To me, the biggest attack on education right now is generative AI and its lack of regulation in the United States. Students being able to use AI as an out to brainstorming and creating their own content is extremely harmful to the longevity and value of education, so as housing professionals, it is our role to encourage students to know what it looks like to create original thoughts. How we can adapt our practices to avoid AI use by our students is highlighting individualized, in-person facilitation of our learning curriculum strategies. Where possible, we should always be considering strategies that do not allow for any possible AI generative content. This would look like conduct sanctions that are hand-written or monitored during completion, roommate agreements that are completed in the presence of a staff member, or other events and programs that can educate students on how to lean into their own creativity rather than utilizing AI generated ideas.
Six years later, it is still important to note the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on current generations of students. Most recent classes of students were in middle school during the 2020 shutdowns and have degrees of separation from previous classes regarding the impact the pandemic had on their schooling. The pandemic furthered our field’s understanding of the need for information, particularly related to rapid response and health information. During this same time, information was also being challenged as to what is authentic and what is fabricated, all of which is still relevant years later. We know that students are hit with a barrage of information regularly, and it is our responsibility to make sure that the right information is coming their way, and how to verify this information. It is our responsibility to dispel information in a prompt timeframe, ensuring accuracy, and knowing what needs to be known at that given moment.
Above all, safety should be the number one priority in Residence Life practices in 2026. The question of safety has been on the minds of current students throughout a significant portion of their lives. It has become all too regular to have safety concerns become a reality for students, particularly as it relates to gun violence. School shootings and threats of violence on college campuses are a regular occurrence, and it is right for students to not be sure if they are safe or not. As professionals, we need to invest in making sure that safety measures exist. This includes building safety education beyond fire drills and tornado shelters. Students should have layers of access points to their buildings, including but not limited to turnstiles, corridor/floor access points, and auto locks on doors.
The “old school” argument can carry the value of remembering where we came from and what education is founded on. However, we know that even foundations can change, and our students’ needs have changed from when our practices first rose to prominence. It is my hope that from this point forward, campuses can continue to highlight student concerns and address learning in a way that promotes original creativity, verified information, and senses of safety and security for all students. I am hopeful that as students continue to change that major traumas will no longer impact our practice, but that we will continue to find ways to adapt to meet the modern learners needs.
