Housing and Residence Life: Community & Engagement | Competencies & Learning | Care & Case Management | Assessment
By Danielle Jones Becoming an RA for the first time is an exciting time. There are many possibilities of what the future may hold and the impact one may get to have on their residents. However, returning as an RA can sometimes bring challenges. With a year or two of experience, returning may feel draining.... Continue Reading →
by Alli Hurtado Residence life is a field deeply rooted in tradition. Many of our core practices, health and safety inspections, multi-week student staff trainings, door decorations, on-call rotations, and structured programming models have remained largely unchanged for decades. These structures were built with care and intention, designed to create safe, supportive, and engaging residential communities, places... Continue Reading →
by Matthew M. Inman During a recent focus group with resident assistants (RAs), one staff member said, “I’m supposed to talk with my residents about leadership, but some can’t even speak to their neighbors.” As an educator, this statement had a lasting impact. It represents a misalignment between what we currently focus on in resident... Continue Reading →
By Austin Korynta In the (highly unlikely) event that nobody has told you this yet, congratulations on accepting the RA role! Being an RA is such an integral part to so many students’ lives. Throughout your time, you will make a significant impact on your community of residents’ lives, providing care in critical moments, outlets... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact's ResEdChat, Crystal is joined by Jennifer Pridemore, Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual, for a practical and compassionate conversation about financial wellness for live-in housing professionals. Together, they explore how living on campus shapes financial habits, the importance of planning early, and ways to build healthy, realistic money practices. This episode encourages listeners to approach financial goals with flexibility and confidence.
Students with chronic illnesses deal with many additional stressors that other college students would struggle to imagine. As someone who went through cancer while in college, this topic is important to me, especially as I haven’t seen it talked much about in Higher Education circles. Resident Assistants (RAs) and student leaders won’t always know which... Continue Reading →
Do you actually know how to have a 1-on-1 meeting? For most of us in residence life, one-on-one meetings with supervisees are built into the job. But when’s the last time you thought about how you’re doing them? Too often, we slap them on the calendar and call it “supervision,” when in reality, they’re structured... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
by Yoke Tassent In many ways, college students will always be college students. They will be under-rested and over-caffeinated. Planning their days full of opportunities to prepare them for the work force while making “core memories”. They will have a large appetite they must fulfill on a small budget. Relying on ramen and a meal... Continue Reading →
By Abby Schuck It’s 7:30pm on Tuesday night (the time your Cocoa and Coloring program is set to start) but only you and a couple other RAs are there. You decide to give it a little more time. but now it’s 20 minutes later and still…nothing. You can’t figure out what happened. You were intentional... Continue Reading →
by Dr. Julie Ridgway Have you noticed your student staff engaged with your curricular approach? Are students attending or utilizing your strategies? Have you thought about if your curricular approach is Gen Z enough? Generation Z is the current generation of students living in our residence halls. As defined by Pew, Generation Z individuals were born... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Roompact's RA*Chat, we we are joined by Marcus Zacarias (UC Berkeley) to solve the puzzle of low attendance and low energy. The secret? It doesn’t require a massive budget or hours of planning. We dive deep into the art of micro-programming and intentional conversations. Discover how RAs and student staff members can maintain community momentum even during the busiest times of the year by focusing on low-effort, high-reward interactions that meet residents exactly where they are.
Within your role in Residence Life as a student leader there can be turnover. Sometimes a fellow student leader needs to step away, leaving a position that needs to be filled. Depending on the timing of this occurrence, it is typical for the now open role to be offered to a student leader candidate from... Continue Reading →
Number of events. Average attendance. Number of *unique* attendees in a semester. Average student staff GPA. Number of Intentional Interactions per month. Number of outreach attempts for unenrolled students. Percentage of monthly report forms turned in. Number of room moves. Number of duty calls related to a smoke detector. This is but a small portion... Continue Reading →
Abstract Am I ready for the next step in my career? Should I stay or should I go? If you are asking yourself these questions, then this presentation may assist in discussing when and how to move on or create space within. Content will also include what a mid-level mindset means as you consider advancing... Continue Reading →
by Ryan Taylor It’s been six (can you believe it, six years!) since the pandemic impacted how we do this work. Remember the Zoom 1:1s, the virtual curriculum strategies, and for some, the closed residential communities? It’s just wild to think that was now 6 years ago - it still feels so recent. Six years... Continue Reading →
By Rachel Caine Welcome to an exciting new chapter in your college life! Being an RA requires a special kind of person, and I hope you are incredibly proud of yourself for landing this role! I invite you to go in ambitious, ready to take on new challenges and learn. You will learn so much... Continue Reading →
by D.J. Moore From learning about En Loco Parentis during graduate school to attending Title IX and other important trainings as our institutions, part of working in Higher Education is being dedicated to a growth mindset and being a life-long learner (whether that learning takes place in a formal classroom or on the job). Psychologists and sociologists... Continue Reading →
