Residence life and education, residential curriculum and curricular approaches, student housing, and technology.
In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, we chat with Stewart Robinette, who was most recently at The George Washington University and was instrumental in some of the staffing structure changes they made to their residence life program. This episode will get you thinking about alternative ways to organize our work and how we construct the roles that serve our residents.
In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, we chat with Dr. Rose Waples, who did research on RAs and crisis and emergency response, specifically looking at the experiential training experience known as Behind Closed Doors (BCDs). Many campuses have a BCDs session in their training schedule, but there are certain concepts to keep in mind when designing it to make it the most effective learning experience possible. Dr. Rose Waples is here to give us research-backed tips!
Looking to creatively advertise your floor meeting, program, or event? Or perhaps you want to get information out to your residents that they will pay attention to. The following are A to Z idea starters that will make you think beyond the traditional poster.Some of them are a bit whacky (admittedly), but some of them... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, we sit down with longtime Roompact software users at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). The staff at TCNJ have been with Roompact for six years and share their journey along with some of their best practices and Roompact "pro tips." Learn about how they use data to better tell their story, assess the effectiveness of their initiatives, and aid in student retention.
I recently was having a discussion with a colleague about conference registration rates that got me thinking... What do these cost in 2023? (What is the cost of anything anymore in 2023?!) I'm often aware of the conferences I attend, but what about the others? How do they compare to one another? Which are the... Continue Reading →
As the end of the term approaches, it brings a number of rites of passage and end-of-the-year celebrations--from banquets to award ceremonies to graduations. Residents are also preparing for finals, saying goodbye to friends, planning for summer work and internships, and, for some, leaving school for the last time. As a RA or student staff member... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, Paul chats with Crystal Cyr and Kimberly Kruchen-Spaulding about their findings from a multi-institutional survey of resident assistants on their role, their experiences in the position, and their well-being and experiences of burnout. Learn about what this may mean for the future of the RA role and how we can better support RAs through both structural and practical reforms.
The "Pro-D in a Bag" series provides all the details you'll need to create a professional development opportunity for your staff around a given topic. Each facilitation guide outlines free and open source videos to watch, articles to read, quizzes and inventories to complete, and suggested questions for discussion and activities. You can facilitate this... Continue Reading →
A key component of building out your student life curriculum is the creation of facilitation guides. Facilitation guides (sometimes referred to as lesson plans) are detailed plans that provide all of the information necessary so that anyone with the appropriate level of training and skills could execute the planned strategy. Beyond just the execution of... Continue Reading →
As we say goodbye to Ted Lasso, we thought it only appropriate we revisit some quotes from the show. There's a reason why this show is so popular, particularly among student affairs and residence life folk, it speaks to our authentic hopes and wishes for our students and the values we try to uphold in... Continue Reading →
One of the essential elements of a curricular approach is to have a regular review process in place. Peer review is one of the best ways of building buy-in for your curriculum and improving its effectiveness. Divisions and departments will approach the peer-review process differently. Some may choose to set aside a "review day" a... Continue Reading →
Having a "vendor fair" is a feature of the the ACUHO-I annual conference and at the various regional conferences (NEACUHO, AIMHO, UMR-ACUHO, SEAHO, WACUHO, MACUHO, GLACUHO, SWACUHO, and NWACUHO). If you're a first time attendee to these conferences, you may not be sure how to approach these fairs and how to interact with vendors. Don't... Continue Reading →
What does the future of AI-based technology hold? We're doing a little experiment, specifically with the AI chat-bot, ChatGPT. This post is part of a series where we ask ChatGPT interesting, unusual, or just plain fun questions related to residence life and college student housing. All answers were generated by the AI. At the end... Continue Reading →
Bulletin boards have been a fixture of most residence life departments for decades. Creating fun, engaging, and educational bulletin boards is a common requirement for resident assistants and student staff. But since the advent of the internet, smart phones, and all of the other ways we can now engage residents, do bulletin boards still have... Continue Reading →
Occasionally divisions and departments may be called upon to provide a more formal rationale for why they pursue (or why they wish to pursue) the development of a residential curriculum or curricular approach. I developed the following to provide a succinct overview of the curricular approach, its history, the work and research that supports it,... Continue Reading →
For Pro Staff For Student Staff Roompact's "Quick Tips" series highlights ideas and suggestions you can put into your practice as either a professional staff or student staff member working in residence life and education. Click to read more from the series. During staff training, conferences, and at other points of the year, you may... Continue Reading →
As a facilitator of residential curriculum and curricular approach workshops, one of the challenges I have is how to explain the process in a way that makes sense to attendees. One of the reasons this is challenging, is that curricular approaches introduce a number of new terms and use those terms in very specific ways.... Continue Reading →
For Pro Staff For Student Staff Roompact's "Quick Tips" series highlights ideas and suggestions you can put into your practice as either a professional staff or student staff member working in residence life and education. Click to read more from the series. Social media can be an excellent platform for student engagement. We wanted to... Continue Reading →
