Residence life and education, residential curriculum and curricular approaches, student housing, and technology.
A tale as old as time! A supervisor asks, “How do you like to receive feedback?” and the supervisee confidently replies, “I prefer direct feedback.” Time passes, the supervisor provides that direct feedback, and suddenly, the supervisee is shocked, defensive, and hurt. Everyone leaves the conversation feeling a little worse for wear. Feedback is one... Continue Reading →
In 2017, I found myself as a freshman in college, rooming with three other strangers in a dorm where I knew nobody, on a campus where I knew no one. Even though I was surrounded by thousands of students my age, with whom I should have easily been able to connect, my freshman year of... Continue Reading →
By Erin Brown To all the returning RAs out there, welcome back and congratulations – you made it through at least a semester of staff meetings, on call nights, bulletin boards, and programming. You worked on building community, developing yourself through 1:1s and programs, and showing up as a leader to your area. You’re getting... Continue Reading →
...and What it Means for Student Affairs Practitioners Trying to Build Community When I started college, I was excited about my new dorm and especially curious about who my roommate would be. Now, though, students are changing how they live and connect. More students see privacy as an important part of living on campus and... Continue Reading →
By Molly Murray Stop me if this sounds familiar. “Why do I have to go to training again? I’ve been an RA for years and I’ve already sat through all of this.” You’re not wrong. Attending RA training as a returner can feel like watching a rerun of a TV show. But hear me out,... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, Crystal is joined by her mentee, Leya Deickman, Associate Director of Residence Life at William & Mary, for an honest conversation about mentorship in housing and residence life. Together, they reflect on timing, expectations, boundaries, and accountability, encouraging listeners to think about how mentorship might support their own growth and leadership.
Resident Advisors (RAs) are first and foremost community builders. One of the simplest and most useful frameworks you can use to understand how your residents grow as a group is Tuckman’s stages of group development. This includes five stages (four of which I'm focusing on here): forming, storming, norming, (performing), and adjourning. In university housing,... Continue Reading →
When I entered my third year as a Resident Director, I itched for the days when I finally had a seat at the leadership table – making actual contributions to departmental decisions, dedicating most of my time to long-term departmental planning, processes – vowing that when I was in a position of leadership, I would... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact's RA*Chat, it's a post-break reset for RAs focused on rebuilding momentum, re-establishing expectations, and reconnecting with residents after winter break, with Assistant Director Chasten Conway. This episode covers strategies for addressing burnout, re-engaging residents, and setting a strong tone for the semester ahead.
❄️ Biggest Year Yet? ❄️ We're releasing a small avalanche of big new software features including Tasks, and Staffing. Not to mention we've got our first stand-alone users conference this year. Keep reading on. What has Roompact been up to in 2025? Read our annual letter from our founder, Matt Unger, to find out! Read the Letter ⬆️... Continue Reading →
For many of us working in student affairs, whether fresh out of our undergraduate programs or a few — or fine, many — years into our careers, it can feel exhausting to field the steady stream of Resident Advisor questions that dissect every policy, procedure, and email. It can feel like there’s always something. Our... Continue Reading →
Residence life is one of the most change-saturated environments on a college campus. Students arrive during moments of transition, staff juggle evolving expectations, and institutions regularly introduce new priorities, policies, and pressures. In this context, change can either feel intentional and supportive or confusing and destabilizing, often simultaneously. Change models provide residence life professionals with... Continue Reading →
You can look at change in one of two ways: either the thought of adapting and trying new things feels daunting and super scary, or it excites you. Either way, the only constant in life is change and that’s exactly what our students do year after year. They evolve, and so do their expectations of... Continue Reading →
We're awarding a "Top Ten" Get a little something back for your time and effort. Roompact is holding its annual RA bulletin board contest! Here’s how it goes. This contest is only open to RAs at schools who currently use Roompact's software on their campus. Create a bulletin board and email us a photo (high-quality... Continue Reading →
Roompact's poster competition is now closed and we're ready to announce the winners. With so many diverse designs, events, and topics, picking ten was incredibly difficult. In some cases it was the design, in other cases it was the event or information itself. We tried to select a diverse group of winners that reflected the... Continue Reading →
In this first episode of the year, guest host Dustin Ramsdell speaks with Katie Munshaw to wrap up our episodes featuring the 2025 blogging team. They discuss how to lead with vulnerability and what makes it especially important when working in the residence halls. Katie shares reflections from her own life that have reinforced these lessons as well as encouragement for how others can find the right balance of how to do the same. Guest: Katie Munshaw (she/her) - Residence Director at Roosevelt University Host: Dustin Ramsdell, Independent Higher EdTech Content Creator
This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, "How is the rising generation of college students changing residence life practice?" Read More From The Series Re-evaluating Traditions Today’s college students are not interested in “what we’ve always done”, and they’re not afraid to show it. When first year students unapologetically call students just... Continue Reading →
Every year, Roompact puts out a ton of content on topics of interest to college student housing and residence life professionals. This year included nearly ~300 new posts, including ~70 new podcast episodes. Come take a look at our most viewed content of 2025. In our most viewed post of the year, it was the... Continue Reading →
