Housing and Residence Life: Community & Engagement | Competencies & Learning | Care & Case Management | Assessment
As I hope this post’s title indicates, I love The Lord of the Rings universe. I also love duty and on-call work. While I always hope that students never experience crises, it’s important that we are able to be there and facilitate the community’s navigation through these impactful moments. I find on-call work an engaging... Continue Reading →
With the release of Toy Story 5, and topics floating around on student loneliness, I couldn’t help but notice a connection. I remember seeing the fourth Toy Story in a drive-in and thinking “that’s it, this is the last of these amazing movies.” But the creators saw a market years later that I had never... Continue Reading →
Creating a sense of belonging and an atmosphere that we often describe as a student’s new “home away from home” is central to the work that we do as Housing and Residence Life practitioners. But, there isn’t a singular “right” way to do it– if there was, wouldn’t we all be doing so uniformly? And... Continue Reading →
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary this Fourth of July, colleges and universities across the country will likely join in the celebration. There will be patriotic social media posts, historical reflections, and conversations about progress, democracy, and the opportunity education affords us. And to be clear, there has been progress. More students from... Continue Reading →
Send a Supervision Questionnaire Include the cutesy get-to-know-you things like favorite color and favorite snack, but also ask about how a supervisee likes to receive feedback or praise! Add birthdays to your calendar (and maybe write birthday cards!) Check first with a supervisee if they like to celebrate their birthday (insert it into that supervision... Continue Reading →
Summer training for student staff members is usually jam-packed with learning policies, absorbing information, and acting out real-life crisis scenarios. Although all of this is incredibly important for being a trained student staff member, we often forget that there are many ways student staff members can and should learn to incorporate fun into their roles.... Continue Reading →
One of the many facets of our work in Residence Life is incident and crisis response. And unless you’re at a school where most, if not all, of this work is dedicated to a specialized incident response team, you may struggle to find an effective approach to training the on-call staff on this part of... Continue Reading →
How many residence life trainings have you been to? 10? 15? Do you see your staff spending more time on their laptops and phones, rather than engaging? I started to feel that over the past few years. Yes, staff still know how to do their jobs once they have sat through boring training, but how... Continue Reading →
A lot of people dream about a big inheritance someday and what they plan to do with it. No one would turn down an inheritance, right? I mean at least in the movies, I’ve known a person or two to even kill for an inheritance. When it comes to inheriting a team of student staff,... Continue Reading →
Every summer, Residence Life departments across the country run some version of the same script. Professional staff gather in conference rooms for days of policy review, emergency protocols, and community-building icebreakers. The binders are thick. The coffee is plentiful. And by move-in day, everyone is trained, certified, and ready to go. But are they connected?... Continue Reading →
When people first step into supervision, there’s often an unspoken assumption: if you pay attention, if you observe closely enough, you’ll catch issues early and fix them. Supervision, then, becomes a matter of having really good eyesight (see what I did there?). But the longer I sit in a mid-level role, the more I realize... Continue Reading →
It’s truly the most glorious time of the year. The days are longer, the sun is shining and we are days away from the peace that comes with our students moving out of the residence halls for a few months. This might be the time to deep clean your office, reach out to all of... Continue Reading →
Two years ago, I became a residence life graduate assistant, drawing on prior experience as a student staff member, relevant coursework in pedagogy and sociology of higher education, and participation in a student affairs seminar led by my alma mater's senior student affairs officer. My undergraduate capstone project centered on the curricular approach, the main... Continue Reading →
I used to call the students that I work with my team or my students, but I don’t anymore. Surface level, there is nothing wrong with that. It is super normal to claim ownership over something you are a part of, especially if that something is a group of people that you hired. That group... Continue Reading →
Residence life is full of noise: resident needs, constant programming, staff follow-ups, and the day-to-day unpredictability of the work. Yet beneath that noise are patterns, rhythms, and repeated practices that shape our communities year after year. Ask yourself: when was the last time you truly reflected on your community or department’s practices? What did that... Continue Reading →
I am a major fan of both Hamilton: The Musical and utilizing a curricular approach, and recently presented these topics at the Western Association of College and University Housing Officers (WACUHO) annual conference. My fabulous colleague and I had the opportunity to share a few of the ways utilizing elements of a curriculum can help... Continue Reading →
Let’s set the scene: Your supervisor asks when you’re next planning to take a vacation. Maybe they’re even encouraging you to do so. Your (at least internal) response: “Yeah, sure, in the summer.” If you’re like me, that may come from the stress of planning leave at any. other. time. There’s always something - a... Continue Reading →
When I began supervising, I quickly identified my “go-to” RA. They always showed up, completed tasks, connected with the community, and followed through without reminders. When something was missed - a program, bulletin board, or interaction - I knew exactly who would step in. And they always did. At the time, it felt like good... Continue Reading →
