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 →
3 ResLife Pro Quick Tips for Competing for College Students’ Time
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. Now, more than ever, residence life professionals are competing for students’ time. Technological... Continue Reading →
3 Pieces of Advice RAs Should Give First Year Students about Technology and Social Media Use
The start of the academic year means that we welcome a new group of students to campus. It is a seminal time for many students, and their first year, in particular, can bring forward a number of rapid developmental changes. As peer leaders in their communities, resident assistants can heavily influence, and shape these student... Continue Reading →
Teaching College Students To Use The Appropriate Communication Platforms
Technology has always impacted the way we communicate, but within the past decade, this has accelerated. Folks in housing and residence life have witnessed some of these changes first hand, including students not reading or responding to email, roommate conflicts being addresses through chat apps, and bullying occurring on social media platforms. Mobile devices, cloud... Continue Reading →
6 Ways of Building Residence Hall Community Updated for the Social Media Age
Employing a Residential Curriculum entails building a residence life program that is learning-centered. Previous movements within residence life focused more narrowly on wellness or community. Moving towards a learning-centered orientation is often more intentional, more transformational, more holistic, and leads to better outcomes for students. Making this shift, however, does not necessarily entail that one doesn’t engage in education around issues of... Continue Reading →
The Realities of Competing For Student Time in the 21st Century
Roompact "Perspective" posts are opportunities for individual staff members to work out ideas and provide their individual thoughts and opinions on a given topic. Now, more than ever, residence life professionals are competing for students' time. Technological change has brought about a revolution of choice for self directing one's learning and a multitude options for... Continue Reading →
Ways to Connect With Others Around Residential Curriculum and Curricular Approaches On Social Media…
Like every endeavor, understanding and implementing a curricular approach to residential life and student affairs is a journey. That journey, like most learning, is often a messy process. Although there is an Institute, a number of resources that can help guide you, and trainers and consultants that can help, connecting with peers and sharing challenges... Continue Reading →
10 Different Strategies for Promoting Residential Student Learning
The ultimate mission of student affairs work is to advance student learning. Although this occurs across campus, the professionals that work in residence life are uniquely situated in this process given the relatively high level of contact they have with students. Unlike most faculty members, however, the educational environment created by student affairs and residence life educators... Continue Reading →
Social Media Engagement in Residence Life Takes Courage. Do You Have It?
Higher education and student affairs professionals generally prefer the predictable. And yet, when it comes to engagement with students online, social media is the antithesis of control. For this reason, developing an effective digital engagement strategy in residence life, and in student affairs and higher education in general, requires a great degree of trust and a... Continue Reading →