When people find out I’m in Residence Life, I often get asked: “what are some of the  wildest things you’ve seen?” It’s a common ice breaker question that many of us in the  field, if not all, have been asked at least once. Roles and responsibilities vary across  careers in Residence Life and different institutions,... Continue Reading →

Steel yourselves, Residence Life colleagues near and far. When asked to think about a practice or  tradition that residence life departments need to let go of, it didn’t take me long to determine my  hottest of takes. What’s something that takes an inordinate amount of time, asks staff to employ skills  that we don’t hire... Continue Reading →

If I could time travel and talk to my impassioned-undergraduate-student-leader-self, I think she  would be pretty pleased with how things look on paper. With almost a decade of experience at  various institutions across the country, I’ve worked hard to become a successful mid-level  residence life professional, which puts me right on track to become a... Continue Reading →

Over the past year, I have spent a fair amount of time pondering the importance and value of door decs. As Res Life professionals, I know we love collecting all of our door decs from over the years and displaying them as badges of honor. However, I have started to wonder if our good efforts... Continue Reading →

This may be a hot take but I’ve always loved staff meetings, both from the perspective as a student staff member and as a Hall Director. It’s a great way to bring the entire team together during the week, checking in on how everyone is doing while getting some bigger picture updates for the community.... Continue Reading →

Residence Life needs to let go of the live-on requirement for all professional staff in their department. I’ve been living on campus for a handful of years at a few universities as a professional in Residence Life. In the last few years, I’ve started to question the reasons for me to be required to live... Continue Reading →

Guest Post by Benjamin Michael Dadzie, Residence Life Professional Implicit bias is something that we are mostly not aware of, but it happens in our everyday lives. These biases are buried deep in our everyday thinking and acting, and can also emerge in our residential communities. These hidden biases are sometimes inherent towards international student... Continue Reading →

Before working in a professional role, I had heard a lot of abstract discourse on the workplace from social media and friends. When I first started, I was fresh out of graduate school as well as a variety of highly-supervised student staff roles. Early on, it became clear that there wasn’t a singular, right way... Continue Reading →

Guest Post by Julia Corrie, Residence Life Professional Residence Life offices are the backbone of campus life. Similar to Campus Security and Mental Health Support offices, they provide essential services that ensure the safety, well-being, and development of residential students. Although Residence Life is essential to the function of any college with on-campus housing, the... Continue Reading →

It’s November, and as I’m leaving for work, my phone vibrates with a voice memo from my friend, Kevin*. Kevin and I have been friends for almost two decades, as he was my resident in undergrad and then we ended up working in Housing and Residence Life together in the two years that followed. We... Continue Reading →

Residence life professionals often joke about the perennial stress of the job: late-night duty calls, back-to-back meetings, endless emails, and an overwhelming list of responsibilities. While humor can be a healthy coping mechanism, it also hints at a larger cultural issue (one that certainly has been highlighted by work culture during and since the pandemic... Continue Reading →

At many universities, live-in residence life professional positions such as residence hall coordinators, assistant directors, and area coordinators are seen as "entry-level stepping stone" roles for individuals aspiring to move into higher positions within higher education or student affairs. This perception undermines the significance of these positions and the professionals who occupy them. These live-in... Continue Reading →

Whether they’re corkboard, tackboard, or a completely different material, I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that bulletin boards have been a mainstay in residence halls since their establishment on college campuses. In the days before social media and email, bulletin boards were one of the best ways to spread the word on events... Continue Reading →

The RA group process has been with us seemingly forever. But why? While group activities (such as group discussions, icebreakers, and team-building exercises) are meant to provide a sense of how potential RAs work in a team and engage with others, I don't believe they are truly effective. They are contrived and artificial. How does... Continue Reading →

I hate them. I have always hated them. I hated them when I was an RA filling them out before resident move in. I hated them as an RD, needing to keep them on file and process them. I hated them as an Assistant Director, fielding appeals to the charges. Room Condition Reports are time... Continue Reading →

Something has always bothered me about the way we approach residential education programs. We have an immense opportunity to challenge and support our students to help them learn and grow while in college, and yet we seem to leave things up to chance. Why do we continue to have student staff design educational programming? I... Continue Reading →

This blog series features different writers responding to the prompt, "What is one practice ResLife departments need to let go of?" Read More From The Series Ahh… a new month is upon us. I will let you in on a little secret, each month I rack my brain on topics to write about for this... Continue Reading →