Join us in Anaheim - ACUHO

Join us in Anaheim
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REGISTRATION IS NOW
OPEN
IS WHERE YOU BELONG
Talking Stick
The Authoritative Source
for Campus Housing
RETAINING
WALLS
Hall programs
improve student
retention.
March + April 2012
Volume 29, Number 4
www.acuho-i.org
Published by the Association
of College and University Housing
Officers - International
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Talking Stick
march + april 2012
Volume 29, Issue 4
The Magazine of the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International
Features
28 Building Retention
It takes purposeful planning and programming to get the desired student
retention results.
36 Locker Room Talk
An increasing number of programs are providing safe havens for male
students to share their thoughts and feelings while discovering their
masculine identities.
Talking Stick
Columns
Symbol of International
Friendship
6
ACUHO-I’s talking stick,
or speaker’s staff, was
hand-carved of wood by
the Ohiat Band of the
British Columbia Indian
Nation. Canadian ACUHO-I
members presented it
to the association in July
1973 during our annual
conference at the University
of British Columbia. The
inscription reads: It is a sign
of authority carried when
proclamations are to be
made or a meeting of chiefs
is in session. ... A token of
common heritage both to
Canadians and Americans.
Cover:
Harrison Plaza, constructed
in 2002, is the hub of
the University of North
Alabama’s three pedestrian
walkways and serves as the
official entrance to campus.
The campus in Florence,
Alabama, is known as
the first state-chartered
institution to begin
operation in Alabama (in
1830). Its student population
is estimated to be around
7,100.
Photo: The University of
North Alabama
Vision
Looking forward, strategically.
18 Res Life
Is Political Engagement Dead?
The topic of disengaged students is not brand new,
but campuses are trying to wrap their minds around
why student activism is waning.
21 Special Focus
A Pet or a Necessity?
Changes in the law are forcing campus housing
programs to re-evaluate their policies regarding
animals in the residence halls.
24 Regroup
True Colors
While vying for the best prospects during the job
placement process, campuses must make sure to
present an accurate picture of their culture.
Departments
4 New Member Highlight
8 Just In
Spotlight on Dordt College PLUS
a company entices students with
cozy, pod-like surroundings; see
what members are tweeting and
emailing; look how green Indiana
students can be; mental health
gets a boost; and student housing
internships by the numbers.
13 Your ACUHO-I
14 Transitions
27 Calendar
44 Conversations
Let’s talk about getting policies
in place.
47 First Takes
48 Reporting Out
54 Welcome
56 Snapshot
march + april 2012
3
New Member
Online now
Highlight
Salve Regina
University
Talking Stick
The Magazine of the Association of
College and University Housing Officers-International
Talking Stick Staff
President
Alma Sealine
Case Western Reserve University
Editor
James A. Baumann
james@acuho-i.org
President-elect
Vennie Gore
Michigan State University
Managing Editor
Camille Perlman
camille@acuho-i.org
Research Librarian
Emily Glenn
emily@acuho-i.org
Art Director
Paige K. Connor
pkconnor34@yahoo.com
Copy Editor
Christine Freeman
freemanc@ohio.edu
Location: Newport, Rhode Island
Primary Contact: Joseph A. Lomastro
The William Watts Sherman House, one
of the greatest treasures of Salve Regina’s
campus, serves as a coed residence for 85
sophomore students. Designed by architect
Henry Hobson Richardson, the house was
built for New York financier William Watts
Sherman and his first wife, Annie Wetmore.
Richardson combined medieval European,
English Renaissance, and Colonial American
elements to create a fanciful shingle and
stucco structure enhanced by decorative
woodwork. Completed in 1875, the property
is one of America’s earliest examples of
Queen Anne architecture. Salve Regina
acquired the William Watts Sherman
House, designated a National Historic
Landmark, in 1982.
Connect with ACUHO-I Online
blog.acuho-i.org
www.flickr.com/photos/acuhoi
www.acuho-i.net
Editorial Intern
Kristen Lott
editorialintern@acuho-i.org
Ad Sales
Alison Jones
alison@acuho-i.org
Talking Stick Advisory Board Chair
April Hicks Konvalinka
ahicks@astate.edu
Talking Stick Committee Chair
Curtis Erwin
cgerwin@uncg.edu
Contributing Writers
Laurel Dreher, Patrick Tanner, Erik Ziedses des
Plantes, Kate McGartland-Kinsella,
Stacy Oliver
ACUHO-I Central Office
941 Chatham Lane, Suite 318
Columbus, Ohio 43221-2416
Phone: (614) 292-0099
Fax: (614) 292-3205
E-mail: office@acuho-i.org
Web: www.acuho-i.org
The Association actively encourages
participation by members of
under-represented groups based on
ethnicity, age, sex, gender identity
and expression, religious preference,
sexual orientation, and disability in all
ACUHO-I and institutional activities.
www.twitter.com/acuhoi
44
Talking
TalkingStick
Stick
Vice President
Patricia Martinez
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
Finance and Corporate Records Officer
Peter Galloway
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Business Practices and Enhancements Director
Bonnie Solt Prunty
Ithaca College
Facilities and Physical Environment Director
Shannon Staten
University of Louisville
Globalization Director
Rebecca Chan
City University of Hong Kong
Inclusion and Equity Director
Deb Schmidt Rogers
DePaul University
Knowledge Enhancement Director
Mary Howard-Hamilton
Indiana State University
Residence Education Director
John Buck
Webster University
Regional Affiliations Director
William Fox
Denison University
Workforce Development Director
Allan Blattner
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
The Association of College and University Housing OfficersInternational is a nonprofit organization that provides
professional development experiences for its members
by sponsoring programs, services, publications, and
research. Association members on college and university
campuses worldwide participate in conferences, workshops,
committees, and networks. These activities provide a means
of exchanging and distributing professional information
related to the various aspects of student residence facilities
and their related operations.
The Talking Stick (ISSN 0746-455X) is published bimonthly, six times a year in January/ February,
March/April, May/ June, July/August, September/October, and November/ December
by the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International.
This publication is the sole property of ACUHO-I, and the information herein may not be transferred or
reproduced in any form whatsoever, including entering into electronic databases, without written
permission. Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of references, quotations, tables, and figures
submitted for publication. Authors further hold ACUHO-I harmless from any liability resulting from
publication of articles. Editorial mention of commercial interests is intended entirely as an information
service to readers and should not be construed as an endorsement, actual or implied, by the association.
Postmaster
www.facebook.com/acuhoi
ACUHO-I Executive Board
Executive Director
Sallie Traxler
sallie@acuho-i.org
Send address changes and
subscriptions to:
Talking Stick
941 Chatham Lane, Suite 318
Columbus, Ohio 43221-2416
Subscription Rates
$37Members
included in dues
$45Nonmembers
$25Additional
subscriptions for members
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vision
The View from Above
Back in February, ACUHO-I executive board members were in the meeting room of a Columbus, Ohio,
airport hotel immersed in strategic planning for the association’s future. At one point someone said it was an
appropriate setting, with jets taking off and landing just outside, as it would remind the group that they needed
to stay at the 30,000-foot level as discussions progressed.
On the table were two mega-issues that have been identified as priorities for ACUHO-I. The first is taking
the next steps to implement guiding principles regarding diversity, inclusion, and
We want to
equity. ACUHO-I is proud of its tradition of openness but also recognizes that there is
room for growth in this area. Using principles created by the members of the Council
move policy
of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA), a group of ACUHO-I
to practice,
volunteers will create resources and directions to be shared with our workgroups
enable our
and membership. These resources will allow groups to evaluate and assess their
groups to work
membership, their goals, and their work to ensure that they meet our association’s
purposefully and high standards of inclusion and equity. We want to move policy to practice, enable
our groups to work purposefully and appropriately, and make sure that everyone feels
appropriately,
represented in their association.
and make
sure that
everyone feels
represented. . . .
The second mega issue is membership. This one is considerably more complex, has
been under consideration for several years, and could have a considerable impact on
what ACUHO-I looks like in the future.
The campus housing profession — as well as the association world — is changing,
and ACUHO-I must be positioned to grow with those changes. To that end, we have
started conversations with an association consultant who will help us examine issues
such as identifying membership categories, what benefits they can receive (including voting and leadership
rights), and what membership costs. It will be a long process that involves the executive board, volunteer
leaders, and many others, whether it happens via surveys, focus groups, or individuals simply providing
comments. What I can assure you is that the process will be as open and transparent as possible.
We recognize that an association is only as strong as its members. That is why we dedicate our time to these
types of issues and strive to keep ACUHO-I as engaged, inclusive, and representative as possible. We may be at
30,000 feet now, but we’ll be swooping closer and closer to the ground as we progress. I thank you for joining
the executive board and myself on this journey.
Alma R. Sealine
ACUHO-I President
6
Talking Stick
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Just In
Spotlight
Dordt College
Sioux Center, Iowa
Name: Kuyper Apartments
Opened: August 2010 • Cost: $12 million
Architects: Angelini & Associates
Noted as a high traffic area for both students
and faculty, the campus green at Dordt
College has become a popular pass through
and gathering spot within the campus
community. Student engagement within
this area has continued to grow with the
construction of Kuyper Apartments, a student
housing complex emphasizing distinct
partnerships and programming.
In a collaboration between the residence
life office and the business department,
the 55th Avenue Coffee Shop was designed
within the residence hall. Run primarily by
students in the Dordt College Business Club,
the proceeds from the coffee shop are used
for the club’s financial investments as well
as field trips for members. Located above
the coffee shop is The Loft, an area featuring
retractable glass panels along with sink and
counter space, bathroom facilities, movable
tables and chairs, projection capabilities, a
retractable projection screen, and a white
board. The north end of the building is also
home to a slate fireplace area as well as
a stage, which hosts various groups and
performances.
Characterized by a contemporary color
palette with rich finishes, Kuyper Apartments
also has various sustainable features
throughout the facility. Along with highefficiency windows and lighting, the building
also features low-flow toilets, polished
concrete floors in place of carpeting, and
renewable wood finishes.
Further amenities available to students
include study rooms, laundry rooms, and a
meditation room. Various artwork created
by students and graduates is displayed
throughout the walls of these public spaces.
Providing housing for 192 students, the
residence hall is primarily occupied by
seniors, providing them with the resources
and amenities desired in on-campus housing.
8
Talking Stick
Pod Sweet Pod
High hotel costs and limited housing have residents and
tourists in Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China, scrambling
for a decently priced apartment, bed, or even a capsule pod.
Galaxy Stars HK produces these capsule beds (pods), which
include wireless Internet, air conditioning, light switches,
computer tables, and power outlets. Each one is slightly larger
than a twin size bed, measuring 1.9 meters long (6.3 feet), 1
meter wide (3.3 feet), and 1.15 meters high (3.8 feet).
This stackable housing could be an alternative to
residence hall living, which bears lengthy wait lists and
intense entrance requirements. About a dozen students have
expressed interest in the pods, but 15 students of one gender
must show interest in order for this future-oriented housing
to become a reality. The small areas would provide easy
maintenance, but students and officials are concerned that
these pods are too confining for long-term stays. The pods
also would drastically limit student interaction – a main
reason for the existence of student housing. Could these
become the new style of residence hall living in Hong Kong?
”I think the capsules are creative solutions for cities with
high rental. Nevertheless, these are solutions for short-stay
visitors rather than long-term dwellers,” says Rebecca Chan,
director of the student residence office at City University.
“The solution can only meet the need of sleeping. Tight
space and lack of study and interaction space will be the
biggest issue and fall short of the minimum standard of
student residence.”
The size of the rooms may prevent Galaxy Stars HK from
legally licensing the pods under the hotel and guesthouse
accommodation and the bedspace apartments ordinances
which require rooms to have “at least 2.5 meters of
headroom, provide adequate natural lighting and ventilation,
and comply with requirements concerning fire-resistant
materials and means of escape.”
Also, the price for each pod would be HK$3,500 (about
$450 USD) a month, which isn’t rock bottom for such
limited space. In 2011, residents on Hong Kong Island had
an average living space of 12.8 square meters, about 137
square feet, and paid about HK$46 (about $6 USD) per
square meter each month.
Originally, these pods were designed for guests and
tourists, modeled after Japanese capsule hotels. International
housing officials think the pods will most likely remain in
the tourist sector due to the legislation and the problems the
university could face managing public criticism and parents’
reactions to their children living in such capsules (http://
www.galaxystarshk.com/?file=kop2.php).
—Kristen Lott
march + april 2012
9
Just In
OVERHEARD
On Twitter
Looking for returning CA/RA interview questions. Anyone have some they
are willing to share? #resllife #acuhoi #sachat
From @LynnEllison
Very appreciative of the @ACUHOI Conference last summer. One session in
particular I attended really helped IUPUIHRL this week! Good stuff!
From @JoshSkillman
Just referred to my binder from my #acuhoi internship with <@
SIUEHousing. That was a good time!
From @JamMathe
It would not be an understatement to say Vennie’s [Gore] session changes
everything about how I do my job. #acuhoi #CHOI12
From @StacyLOliver
Indiana Students Take the
Sustainability Wheel
On the Mailing List
Hello Everybody! I work at a public
institution and I’m
looking into search
procedures for residence
life staff. If an RA/RD suspects a
violation but the student
will not give permission
to conduct a search, can
staff still enter, or is this
a violation of his/her
constitutional rights? Have you had a student
refuse to give permission
for a search? If so, what
are your next steps for
addressing the violation? Thanks! Troy Ross Pitt-Greensburg Response: At the University of Florida, if a student
refuses to allow us into a room for a possible
policy violation we (1) call the graduate or
professional staff on call to talk with the
student and explain the reasoning for entering
the room and possible consequences or
(2) We call UFPD, who then speak with the
resident and assess if further action such as a
search warrant is necessary. We only do plain view searches. If a student
refuses entry for things that are specifically
[against] residence hall policy, we usually
handle that at the hall level calling a
supervisor on call. We do not enter the room
without permission due to the constitution
issues you mentioned. However, if there is a
safety, drug, or alcohol concern, we then call
UFPD who assess the situation. This does not include issues of health and
safety, security, and facilities maintenance
where we would key into the room as stated
per our housing agreement. Hope that helps! JoCynda Hudson
10
Talking Stick
A new sustainability initiative at Indiana
University in Bloomington is putting green
certification in students’ hands. The Green Dorm
Rooms Certification Program was developed
to promote awareness of other sustainabilitycentered groups and programs on campus and
for students to spread sustainability knowledge
to their fellow students in a casual and accessible
manner.
On the program’s website, http://www.
indiana.edu/~greenrm/, there is a list of 40 efforts,
divided into eight different categories, that
students can pursue to make their residence hall
room green-friendly; in order to obtain green
certification from the university, students must
fulfill 20 of them. After a certification request
is submitted, the criteria are evaluated by a
program coordinator, and special certificates are
issued for students to hang on their doors. The
criteria range from simple tasks such as turning
off faucets while brushing one’s teeth to more
involved activities such as attending sustainability
seminars or classes. Within three weeks of the
program’s launch, more than 40 rooms had
achieved green-certified status. Students have
even held contests to see which floor of their
residence hall can obtain the most certifications.
—Erik Ziedses des Plantes
First Aid for Mental Health
College students are 70 percent more likely to
develop a mental illness than are other adults,
according to psychologist Christy Hutton
and partner Sharon Thomas-Parks, who are
coordinators of the Mental Health First Aid
(MHFA) training program at the University of
Missouri in Columbia. Mental health awareness
has increased because of better treatment, more
knowledge, and available resources, and this
program adds another boost to treating mental
illness. MHFA originated in Australia in 2000
and has since spread its practice to 14 other
countries, including the recent implementation
into college and university residential programs.
associate director for residential academic
programs at the University of Missouri. “The
greatest impact on residential life is the knowledge,
skills, and confidence that the staff gained that
will make them more effective in their work with
students,” Temple says. “Staff will be able to more
competently recognize the behaviors that indicate a
student may have a mental health concern.”
MHFA includes a 12-hour training session
teaching how to notice signs among peers by
learning the risk factors, warning signs, disorder
prevalence, and available resources associated
with mental health. Participants learn how to
recognize a variety of mental health problems,
including anxiety, depression, psychosis, and
substance abuse – the latter a problem that college
students are ten times more likely to develop.
The program also develops a plan to
assess a potentially dangerous situation,
implement appropriate interventions, and
help the individual in crisis connect with
appropriate professional care. The five-step
action plan, ALGEE, helps people respond to
a crisis situation: Assess for risk of suicide or
harm, listen non-judgmentally, give reassuring
information, encourage appropriate professional
help, and encourage self-help and other support
systems.
MHFA’s systematic assessment and
intervention steps are similar to other trainings,
such as First Aid and CPR, and could become
just as common, according to Kristen Temple,
Does the
Talking Stick
reach enough
of your staff?
Call (614) 292-0099 or
e-mail talkingstick@
acuho-i.org for more
information about
additional membership
subscriptions.
Other schools, such as the University of
Iowa in Iowa City and Queen’s University in
Kingston, Ontario, Canada, are implementing
or have considered implementing MHFA. Much
depends on available time and funding. After
a positive response from the Missouri faculty,
Temple believes that upper-level administrators
are convinced that the knowledge and skills
of this training are extremely applicable to the
college and university community, and this
reaction will likely lead to additional financial
support.
—Kristen Lott
In the next Talking Stick
Coming in the May + June issue:
·   Milestones in the history of campus housing
·   Using diplomacy to better advocate for students and staff
·   Addressing the challenges of pest control
march + april 2012
11
Just In
BY THE NUMBERS
284
Number of member
organizations hosting
summer internships as a
part of the ACUHO-I Housing
Internship Program this year
In January, 690 undergraduate and graduate students
applied to the program’s 501 openings at the various host
sites. Selected candidates will have the opportunity to
immerse themselves in the world of housing professionals
to shape their future careers and current education. Interns
will experience housing operations at a different institution
to learn new strategies and policies from mentors. Next
year’s call for host sites and interns will come in October
2012, so begin planning now.
12
Talking Stick
Your Acuho-i
Dates You Need to Know
Mark your calendars and stay on top of all the latest ACUHO-I happenings.
Information on these and all other ACUHO-I initiatives is online at www.acuho-i.org.
2012 ACUHO-I Conference Series
Albuquerque, New Mexico
ACUHO-I/APPA Housing Facilities
Conference: October 2-5
ACUHO-I Living-Learning Programs Conference:
October 11-13
64th ACUHO-I Annual Conference &
Exposition: Register before May 23 to
receive the early registration discount.
Take part in some of these special
events for 2012:
International Study Tour:
June 28-July 6
STARS College: July 5-7
International Symposium:
Saturday, July 7
ACUHO-I Golf Tournament:
Saturday, July 7
Fun Run, Walk, and Roll:
Monday, July 9
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Mark David Milliron
Chancellor
Western Governors University
Texas
ACUHO-I Business Operations Conference: October 23-26
STARS College 2012: Application deadline is April 6, 2012.
Do you know of a superSTAR who would benefit from
the ACUHO-I STARS College experience? STARS
College is a three-day experience for undergraduate
students interested in learning more about student
affairs and the housing profession that will take place
July 5-7, 2012, prior to the Annual Conference & Exposition.
There is limited space for this exceptional program, so be sure
to have your students register before the April 6 deadline. STARS College
accommodates up to 50 current sophomores and juniors who are interested in
pursuing a career in housing.
APPA Facilities Institute: APPA and ACUHO-I have
established a Registration Fee Waiver Program available
to those interested in attending the APPA Institute
for Facilities Management in September 2012 or
January 2013. You must be an ACUHO-I member and
have at least five years of professional experience in facilities
management as well as supervisory experience of facilities staff (i.e.,
custodial, maintenance, or the like). Application deadline is April 1, 2012. Visit
the ACUHO-I website or www.appa.org/training/institute/index.cfm.
Austin, TX
Featured Speaker:
Gwen Dungy
Executive Director (Retired)
NASPA-Student Affairs
Administrators in Higher
Education
Expert-in-Residence:
Gavin Henning
Director of Administration
Dean of the College Division
Welcome New Major Donor
The ACUHO-I Foundation welcomes the newest major donor, pledging
to donate $5,000 over the next five years.
Steve Wisener, director of residential life at Carleton College in
Northfield, Minnesota, has recently made this commitment to the
Foundation.
We salute our major donors, and all our donors, for their continued
support.
Dartmouth College
march + april 2012
13
Transitions
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Katie Peterson is the new residence community
coordinator for Whitney Hall.
Valerie Heruska is the new residence hall director
for Shields (“C”) Tower at Warren Towers.
Jeffrey B. Harrington is the new assistant residence
community coordinator for Whitney Hall.
Zachary Hobbs is the new residence hall director
for Myles Standish Hall.
Juan Miguel Blanco is the interim residence
student conduct coordinator.
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois
Jessica Graf is a new resident director.
Anya Villatoro is a new resident director.
Robert Braswell, Quanisha Hawkins, David Jaeger,
Eric Minix, Danielle Merrill, and Amber Rucker are
new residence hall coordinators.
Bridget Buoniconti is a new graduate resident
director.
Shea Bernard and Katie Pratt are new assistant
residence hall coordinators.
Katy Maher is a new graduate resident director.
Guadalupe Montalvo has been promoted to area
coordinator for Watterson Towers.
California State University, Chico
Chico, California
Kristin McPeak has been named associate director
of university housing for residence life. Most
recently, she served as director of residence life at
the University of Redlands in California. McPeak is
an active member of WACUHO, previously serving
as co-chair of the Host Committee, co-chair of the
Programs Committee, and member-at-large for the
South Sub-Region; she is currently the annual
conference co-chair. She holds a Bachelor of
Science in Education in secondary education and a
Master of Education in counselor education, both
from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Sarah Beth Lasnik is the new residence community
coordinator for University Village.
Pablo A. Soto is the new assistant residence
community coordinator for University Village.
Chad Pettay is the new residence community
coordinator for Sutter Hall.
Mark Brice is the new assistant residence
community coordinator for Sutter Hall. 14
Talking Stick
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest, Illinois
Carolyn Golz was recently promoted to senior
associate dean of students and appointed as
director of residence life. She previously served as
the associate dean of students for community
standards at Lake Forest College. In her new role,
Golz will oversee the housing operations and
residence life program for the college, in addition
to chairing the students of concern team, providing
leadership for the student conduct process, and
supervising the director of the Gates Center for
Leadership and Personal Growth.
Golz earned a Bachelor of Arts from the
University of Alaska Fairbanks. She also earned a
Master of Science in criminal justice administration
from Ferris State University in Big Rapids,
Michigan, and a Master of Science in experiential
education from Minnesota State University,
Mankato. She is currently a doctoral student,
studying organizational leadership, at the Chicago
School of Professional Psychology in Illinois.
Douglas Eck is the new associate director for staff
training and selection.
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Stacy Oliver is the new associate director of student
success.
Sean Johnson is the new residence director for the
Springs Residential Complex.
Lee Karraker is a new resident director.
Vern Rogers is the new coordinator for graduate
and family housing.
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon
Courtney Sandler is the new residence life
coordinator for academic success and retention.
Nachel Glynn is the new residence life conduct
coordinator.
Russell Jones is a new resident director.
David Prinz is a new resident director.
Matt Lewis is a new area coordinator.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York
Marc Goldman is the new associate director of
residence life. Previously, he was the senior assistant
director of residence life at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign. During his 15-year tenure there,
he also held the positions of area coordinator and
assistant director for academic programs. Goldman
received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell College in
Ithaca, New York, and his master’s degree from
Syracuse University in New York. He also earned a
master’s in library and information science from the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Sharon Kompalla is the new associate director/area
director (interim) of University Commons and is
responsible for over 3,200 beds in five different
apartment communities as well as Greek housing.
Charon Sattler is the new associate director of the
Women’s and Gender Center. University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Bradley Mohs is the new assistant director for
academic initiatives.
Amy Baumgartner is a new residence life program
coordinator.
Linda Varvel is a new residence life program
coordinator.
Ben Walizer is a new residence life program
coordinator.
Amy Oswald Baccei is the new west neighborhood
area coordinator.
Erica Ehardt is the new coordinator for Building 3
at The Lodge.
Matt DiCicco is the new hall coordinator in
Hillcrest Hall.
Amy Franco is the new hall coordinator for
Mayflower Hall.
Cassie Schmiling is the new hall coordinator for
Rienow Hall.
Ryan Van Loo is the new hall coordinator for Daum
and Centerstone.
Tabitha Wiggins is the new hall coordinator for
Slater Hall.
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Victor Adebusola is the new graduate assistant for
Oakland Hall/Denton Community.
march + april 2012
15
Transitions
Andrew Anderson is the new graduate
assistant for Syn*Quest Collaborative.
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida
Patrick Bateman is the new graduate
assistant for Cambridge Community Rights
and Responsibilities.
Kyle Robin is the new director of housing
operations and outreach. Robin was
previously a regional manager for Capstone
On-Campus Management. Prior to that,
Robin served as associate director for
residence life with Campus Living Villages
at George Mason University in Fairfax,
Virginia, and held professional housing
positions at Arizona State University in
Phoenix, the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia, the University of Maryland in
College Park, Texas Tech University in
Lubbock, and the University of Arizona in
Tucson. Robin has presented and published
on topics pertaining to storm preparedness,
community development, team
development, diversity, and customer
service. Robin earned a Bachelor of Music
degree from the University of Louisiana,
Lafayette, and a Master of Music degree
from Yale University in New Haven,
Connecticut. Robin is an avid tennis player
and a life-long New Orleans Saints fan.
Edward Bempong is the new coordinator for
Syn*Quest Collaborative.
Jonathan Ferguson is the new graduate
administrative coordinator for South Hill
Community.
Kelly Hartman is the new graduate
coordinator for Off-Campus Housing
Services.
JaQuan Bryant is the new resident director
for Easton Hall.
Craig Leets is the new resident director for
Ellicott Hall.
Laura Matsumoto is the new resident
director for South Campus Commons
Buildings 5 and 6.
Dennis Scott is the new resident director for
North Hill Living/Learning Programs.
Amanda Torres is the new resident director
for Elkton Hall.
Jacklyn Welsheimer is the new resident
director for Leonardtown.
Ren Werbin is the new resident director for
Centreville Hall.
Dan Hairfield is the new assistant
coordinator for South Campus
Administrative Operations.
16
Talking Stick
AD placeholder
res life
Is Political Engagement Dead?
By Kate McGartlandKinsella
Members around the world report students’ lacklustre
attitude.
Photo Credit: Brian Barksy, UC-Berkeley professor. From the November 9, 2011 “day of action” on campus
Rising tuition, service cutbacks,
substantial student loan debt, and
bleak job prospects: These are the
harsh realities that today’s postsecondary students face. While
the expectation that achieving an
undergraduate degree ensures career
success upon graduation is starting
to fade, students are still seeing a
degree as a means to an end. However,
tensions surrounding the growing
obstacles facing these students are
becoming more apparent, and students
are more likely to speak out about it.
18
Talking Stick
Traditionally, it has been collegeage individuals who through various
student movements have led
successful reforms. We find numerous
examples of this in recent U.S. history
alone. In his article “The Times, They
Changed,” Jerry Lembcke notes that
“when President Barack Obama broke
the color barrier to the White House
in 2008, pundits noted the large
numbers of student campaigners
and voters who turned out for him.”
Perhaps the most poignant example
of student activism is the response to
the shootings at Kent State University
in Ohio in 1970. Angus Johnston, a
professor at City University of New
York and a student activism historian,
Looking back to past examples of student activism on college
and university campuses shows us that student involvement in the
political issues of the day tend to be less formalized and more
localized.
is quoted in Jennifer Reeger’s
article as saying “the deaths at Kent
State changed student activism. . . .
Universities started to include students
in campus governance. Black student
unions, women’s studies courses and
gay and lesbian groups formed to give
students a voice.” And now, as Reeger
explains, “as then, many student
protests focus on issues that directly
impact them, such as recent rallies
across the country to protest reductions
in state funding for higher education.”
The question now is whether
the current generation of students
will continue the trend of activism
on campus and what housing
professionals can or cannot do to
increase student engagement in
political issues.
A recent provincial election
in Ontario, Canada, gave housing
practitioners the chance to create
opportunities for political engagement
in residence. Each major political party
addressed post-secondary concerns
(mainly tuition, student loans, and
access issues) in their platform,
making it especially important for
students to be aware of their options.
Chris Eley, manager of residence
at Laurier Brantford in Waterloo,
Ontario, notes the importance of
collaborating with campus partners to
bring political awareness to students:
“The main effort on our campus to
educate students and encourage them
to vote comes from the student union
and student publications. The student
union hosted a debate on campus for
the local candidates on the election in
general but it did focus primarily on
issues that would impact students. The
student newspaper then ran coverage
of the debate and profiles of each
candidate in the school paper.” The
residence office, in turn, made sure to
inform students of these events.
Sarah Burley, acting dean of
Chestnut Residence at the University
of Toronto in Ontario, notes that
residence life used programming to
keep students informed about the
election: “They used passive displays
and posters containing information
about where and how to vote to
increase awareness. They also hosted
a viewing party for the all-candidates’
debate televised prior to Election Day.
Additionally, a polling station was set
up in residence which helped to raise
awareness on the day.”
As housing departments have
made increased efforts to engage
students online, many have utilized
their social media (Facebook, Twitter)
accounts to get this information out
to students. While the goal is for
students to be engaged, knowledgeable
citizens who can make an informed
decision on voting day, these efforts
are often overlooked. The term student
apathy is all too common on college
and university campuses. Why are
students not making the choice to
vote? Is this strictly a North American
phenomenon or a global one?
The recent provincial election in
Ontario saw the lowest voter turnout
on record. Despite their many efforts,
housing professionals noted that
the primary reason students did not
vote was that they lacked knowledge
about their eligibility to vote in the
community in which they currently
reside. Students thought they could
only vote in their home electoral
district. Katie Calcaterra, residence life
MORE ONLINE
For more information on
students’ political engagement,
see the following:
Amanda M. Fairbanks, “Occupy
Colleges: Student Supporters
of Occupy Wall Street Continue
to Show Solidarity,” Huffington
Post, October 13, 2011. Retrieved
from: http://www.huffingtonpost.
com/2011/10/13/occupy-collegesoccupy-wall-street_n_1008619.
html.
Tyler Kingkade, “Occupy
Cal Berkeley Protest Draws
Thousands, as Two Years of
Occupation Come Home,”
Huffington Post, November 10,
2011. Retrieved from: http://www.
huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/
thousands-gather-for-occupy-calprotest_n_1086963.html.
Jerry Lembcke, “The Times,
They Changed,” The Chronicle
Review, April 25, 2010.
Retrieved from: <http://chronicle.
com/article/The-Times-TheyChanged/65192/.
Jennifer Reeger, “University,
Community Evolve Under Shadow
of Kent State Shootings,” TribuneReview, May 2, 2010. Retrieved
from: http://www.pittsburghlive.
com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/
pittsburgh/s_679144.html.
march + april 2012
19
REs Life
supervisor at Nipissing University in
North Bay, Ontario, comments on the
fact that “students aren’t sure if they
can vote in the riding [electoral district]
that they are attending school in or if
they have to vote in the riding where
their parents/guardians are from.
Many times, their permanent address
is their parents’/guardians’ address
and if they are sent a voters registration
card, it ends up being mailed to that
address instead. I think it is a matter
of getting the students to register and
informing them that they can vote in
the riding where they go to school.”
Vinesh Saxena, manager of
housing and hospitality services at
Glendon College-York University
in Toronto, says he is not surprised
that student voter turnout was low.
“Elections Ontario did not send
+
us any flyers or posters so that we
could inform residents about the
upcoming elections.” The same
was not true for other institutions.
Cameron Horlor, service delivery
manager of accommodation services
at the University of Auckland in New
Zealand, commends the electoral
commission for encouraging the
student vote by locating enrollment
desks throughout campus. He notes
that while “voter turnout is high by
international standards, it is trending
lower,” and he feels that one factor
for student engagement “will always
be the timing of the year end exams,
which makes the degree of attention
on campus impossible to judge.” He
concludes that the level of student
engagement in politics has more to do
with “the issues of the day and how
strongly they relate to such issues.”
Looking back to past examples
of student activism on college and
university campuses shows us that
student involvement in the political
issues of the day tend to be less
formalized and more localized.
California in particular has seen a
number of recent student movements
to protest increases in tuition and
decreases in funding. A recent article
in the Huffington Post says, “The
November 9 walkout and launch of
Occupy Cal continues two years of
protest over budget cuts and tuition
hikes” and notes that though they are
now using tactics from the present
Occupy Wall Street movement, student
Continues
ACUHO-I books
prepare your
staff for success
The ACUHO-I Online Bookstore features a number of resources
valuable during staff and student training.
Check out www.acuho-i.org for a list of titles, including these 20%
off sale titles for March and April:
ACUHO-I
BOOKSTORE
www.acuho-i.org
20
Talking Stick
Advice for
Advisers
Foundations:
Strategies for
the Future
51
Special Focus
A Pet or a Necessity?
Learning about disability law and fair housing law is one
of the best steps you can take to protect your housing
program.
Flinders University, The University
of Alberta, Clemson University.
By Kristen Lott
Flinders’ University
Hall (bottom l),
Alberta’s East Campus
Housing (top), and
Clemson’s Holmes
Hall (bottom r) are
among the many
housing programs
that routinely weigh
students’ requests for
pets.
Brittany Hamilton suffers from depression and
anxiety, a condition that requires medications
which affect her sleeping and breathing. As
a student at the University of Nebraska at
Kearney, she requested that her prescribed
emotional therapy animal live with her to help
counter the effects of her anxiety; the Miniature
Pinscher, Butch, had been trained to put his
paws on her shoulders when he sensed the
beginning of an anxiety attack.
simply a pet and not a service animal under
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
However, according to the Department of
Justice, the university should have consulted
the Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s Fair Housing Act (FHA),
which allows this type of accommodation. The
Department of Justice has therefore charged
Nebraska with refusing what it considers to be
a reasonable request for a service animal.
Despite providing medical documentation
and references, Hamilton’s three requests
were refused under the basis that Butch was
Many other college and university officials,
feeling that the FHA does not apply to their
type of housing, have also complied solely with
march + april 2012
21
Special Focus
the ADA guidelines. Title II and III of
the ADA directly state its application
to state and local government entities,
as well as any entity offering public
accommodation or education courses,
including public and nonprofit
institutions. Higher education has
worked to establish procedures to
observe the disability policies and also
adapt to changes.
In March 2011, the ADA guidelines
were changed to specifically define
service animals as “any dog that is
individually trained to do work or
perform tasks for the benefit of an
individual with a disability including
a physical, sensory, psychiatric,
intellectual, or other mental disability.”
Any other species is not considered
a service animal, regardless of its
training. These tasks must directly
relate to the person’s disability, defined
by the ADA as assisting visually
impaired individuals with navigation,
alerting hearing-impaired individuals
to the presence of people or sounds,
pulling a wheelchair, and assisting an
individual during a seizure, among
others. The FHA, on the other hand,
describes a disability as any physical or
mental impairment that substantially
limits one or more activities. This
definition is sufficiently broad to
incorporate trained therapy animals
that are sometimes viewed as “pets,”
as in Hamilton’s case.
Nebraska investigated the training
of Hamilton’s service animal to ensure
that the dog was qualified under the
ADA; however, the university went
too far in its inquiry. According to
the ADA amendments, only two
questions regarding requests for
service animals should be asked: if
the animal is required because of a
disability and what tasks it has been
trained to perform. As a result of going
too far (asking unnecessary questions
about Hamilton’s medical status),
Nebraska has also been charged with
discriminating against someone with
22
Talking Stick
Though the issue of defining what can
be categorized as a service animal is now
looming large throughout the higher
education community in the United States,
the international community remains
unaffected – for now.
a disability by asking for unnecessary
information. What does this case
signify for higher education? Will
college and university housing have
to comply with the FHA in regards to
emotional therapy animals? Where
will the line be drawn, and will
illegitimate requests bombard the
system? What additional changes will
institutions have to make in existing
policies?
Steve Waller, director of residential
life at Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge and chair of ACUHO-I’s
Public Policy Advisory Committee,
published a white paper (available
in the ACUHO-I online library)
identifying ADA and FHA regulations.
He further details the current
legislation as it applies to higher
education, indicating that the FHA
and ADA were created separately for
private and public spaces, respectively.
However, the application to college- or
university-owned student housing is
still unclear, and Nebraska is planning
to refute the lawsuit.
The first step for schools to take
regarding this issue is a simple one:
“Get to know the Fair Housing laws
and the ADA,” says Doug Hallenbeck,
executive director of housing at
Clemson University in South Carolina.
He suggests working with students
with disabilities and legal offices to
avoid missteps. Housing officials may
be hesitant to embrace the idea of
emotional therapy animals because
even students who have service
animals under the allowed mental
health section of ADA can cause
problems. Katie Boone, director of
residence life at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County, says
they have had to relocate students
who have allergies to the service
What does this case signify for higher education? Will college
and university housing have to comply with the FHA in regards to
emotional therapy animals? Where will the line be drawn, and will
illegitimate requests bombard the system?
animals. Like housing officials at most
schools, she’s waiting for the final
verdict regarding FHA’s application to
university housing: “We have written a
service animal policy that has extended
to issues of mental health but have
not gone the route of an emotional
assistance animal. I will wait to see
what the courts say in Nebraska before
moving in that direction.”
Students without disabilities
can be negatively affected by service
animals in many ways, such as noise
or allergic reactions from fur or fleas
– and sometimes it’s a simple matter
of someone being afraid of dogs.
How can colleges and universities
accommodate all students equally? “It
is the age-old question that we deal
with. Where do one student’s rights
end, and where do another’s begin?”
asks Hallenbeck.
Eric Luskin, senior vice president
of The Scion Group, a real estate
services partner for higher education,
believes in equality for the seven
federally protected classes: race,
color, religion, national origin, sex,
RUN DATES
disability, and familial status. He also
stresses that this protection should
extend to every student, not just the
disabled. No student with a service
animal deserves special privileges
for immensely disrupting the lives of
others, according to Luskin. Housing
staffs should be clear, concise, and
consistent with their residential
policies and should react the same as
if students were having a disruptive
party with drinking and loud music:
ACUHO
Salsbury Industries
Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec
Continues
50
1010 East 62nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90001-1598 • Phone: 1-800-624-5269 • Fax: 1-800-624-5299
march + april 2012
23
regroup
True Colors
How to recruit in a way that welcomes the candidate but
also reflects the organizational culture
Photo Credit: Liz Hoy
By Stacy Oliver
Here at The Placement
Exchange in 2011,
members bring their
swag and their “A”
game to hire the best
candidate.
It is a scene anyone who has attended a
placement exchange knows well. Mailboxes
overflowing with folders, notes, snacks, and
branded tchotchkes greet the candidates.
The energy, nearly palpable, seems directly
correlated to the amount of . . . stuff. And,
just as important, tucked neatly in folders
emblazoned with school logos is the residence
life mission statement.
Recruitment of professional staff at all
levels involves an intricate dance of staying true
to the departmental and institutional mission,
vision, and values while also demonstrating
how wonderful it is to work there. While not
mutually exclusive, the two impulses can
conflict; those charged with coordinating
recruitment efforts must try to market and
promote their department so that it stands
24
Talking Stick
out against the rest while at the same time
assessing a candidate’s fit with the department
and its future.
Mason Reuter, assistant director for staff
and leadership programs at the University
of North Carolina Charlotte, questions the
message portrayed to candidates with the
kind of rah-rah spirit that some institutions
project: “I’m not a fan of the ‘cheerleader
culture’ associated with housing and residence
life recruitment. I feel that it often sends a
message to candidates that an employer needs
to rely on something other than the merits
of their position and the potential experience
available. It may also be inconsistent with the
organization’s culture on campus.” Reuter
recognizes that there are some positive aspects
of the cheerleading – including making
candidates feel welcomed and
encouraged (and that school swag
is fun) – but he prefers to direct the
energy toward staff when they most
need it rather than toward candidates.
“I ask myself if my pom-pom or
door decoration or box of chocolates
really makes a difference or if I, as
our campus, community, and how
the candidate will be treated while
serving us. It is the environment they
will experience should they be hired
here. If it is not the culture of your
department to do these things, then
don’t do it. It would be far worse to roll
out the bells and whistles, hire them,
believe that many institutions have
embraced some of the stereotypes and
can be too focused on marketing to
the Millennials. There are gift bags,
a focus on apartment amenities for
live-in staff, and a focus on personal
benefits to the candidate. All of these
things are important, but I believe we
have to focus more on fit. These are
our students. This is who we are. This
is what we do. Are you a good fit for
us, and are we a good fit for you?”
Moriarty describes one of her pet
peeves as the used car salesperson
approach to staff recruitment, when
employers will say whatever is
necessary to close the deal. Instead,
Moriarty focuses on transparency in
her process and providing information
to candidates before they need to ask
for it. For this reason, she spends
the last hour of an on-campus
interview with the candidate. “I try
to give an accurate portrayal of what
it means to be at Bridgewater State
University. I start with what I believe
most candidates are looking for and
then ask them if they have questions
and if I’ve left anything out. We talk
about the relationship with other
departments and how we believe other
offices and students view us,” Moriarty
explains.
a potential employer, should save
and utilize my allotment of rahrah-sis-boom-bah during trainings,
openings, and closings when staff
are most stretched and in need of the
recognition and encouragement,”
Reuter explains.
When Texas Christian University’s
Office of Housing and Residence
Life recruits candidates, they hand
out fun items and place notes of
encouragement in candidates’
mailboxes. Rachel Siron, assistant
director, explains that doing these
things makes sense because they are
congruent with the organizational
culture: “We believe we recruit
candidates in a way that reflects
and then not show them a special
experience during their employment.”
Being treated as special people
who deserve celebration is nothing
new to the Millennial generation, and
employers have begun to emphasize
recruiting them in a way that speaks
specifically to them. The belief that
Millennials need to feel special may
translate to their wanting more
individualized attention in the search
process or wanting a school to go
above and beyond the norm in order
to recruit them. Beth Moriarty, director
of residence life at Bridgewater State
University in Massachusetts, notes
that employers sometimes pay too
much attention to the stereotypes: “I
Though candidates are provided
with the mission statement, Moriarty
isn’t looking for them to be able to
quote it in interviews. Instead, she
looks for an understanding of the
mission as it is reflected in how a
candidate asks questions of current
staff: “I believe candidates who
truly understand and embrace the
mission tend to ask more focused
and thoughtful questions. I think
they ask them in a way that makes us
demonstrate how we live our mission.
For example, community is a big
part of the mission, so it’s important
a candidate can articulate how they
build a community and how they
measure what constitutes a strong
march + april 2012
25
regroup
community. They need to tie that in
beyond just providing programs,” says
Moriarty.
of flux our institution is in due to
rapid growth, including opening three
new residence halls in two years.”
Reuter agrees that how a candidate
will live the mission is often most
evident in the questions they ask
during the interview process. He also
wants candidates to have an authentic
view of the organizational culture
and, for him, that translates to total
honesty with the candidate: “We’re
brutally honest with candidates about
the administrative expectations of
the position. They are expected to
manage administrative functions that
may have been managed for them as
graduate students or professionals at
other institutions. We’re also brutally
honest with candidates about the state
For Siron, demonstrating
organizational culture is a crucial
step in recruiting as Texas Christian
University faces the obstacle of
educating candidates about the
university’s name and how it relates to
the work of residence life staff: “Some
job seekers could see Christian in our
university name and instantly have an
opinion regarding what that means for
our work. We try to reach out to many
candidates throughout the process and
answer any questions about affiliation.
Another obstacle is our university
demographic. It is a predominantly
white institution, which can provide a
Talk about cool!
Talk about Brill.
The Brill Company
www.brillcompany.com
26
Talking Stick
challenge in garnering an acceptance
of employment from a minority
candidate.” Siron believes that the
biggest mistake employers can make
is to fail to be forthcoming with
candidates about campus culture
and the role they would play within
a department: “Our department is
dedicated to building relationships.
Our interviews are interactive in
order to create a foundation for our
relationship with candidates, yet it
also puts them at ease when they
aren’t bombarded with question after
question. We make our interviews
easy for a candidate to see our
personality, campus culture, and
interest in them as a candidate and,
Continues
52
calendar
M A r c h • A p r i l • M ay • J u n e
• J U LY
March 1-4
April 24-27
The Oshkosh Placement Exchange will
be hosted by the University of Wisconsin,
Oshkosh. www.theope.org.
Australasian Association of College and
University Housing Officers (AACUHO)
Conference, Novotel Hotel in Wollongong,
North South Wales. Preceding the conference
will be a study tour traveling to several
Australian universities, April 19-24.
www.aacuho.edu.au/
March 4-7
Southwest Association of College and
University Housing Officers (SWACUHO)
annual conference at the Hilton Hotel in
College Station, Texas. www.swacuho.org.
May 20-June 2
International Study Tour to China and Hong
Kong traveling through Hong Kong, Macau,
Guangzhou, and Beijing, China. ACUHO-I has
partnered with ACUI, ACPA, NIRSA, NASPA,
and Old Dominion University faculty to offer
members this opportunity.
www.acuho-i.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1035.
March 7-11
The Placement Exchange, presented by
ACUHO-I, NASPA, AFA, ASCA, HigherEdJobs,
NACA, and NODA, will be held in Phoenix,
Arizona. www.ThePlacementExchange.org.
April 1-4
June 6-9
The Western Association of College and
University Housing Officers (WACUHO)
Annual Conference and Exposition,
“Redefining Basics: WACUHO at the Fair,”
will be held at the Sheraton Fairplex Hotel in
Pomona, California.
www.wachuo.org/wace2012.
Northeast Association of College and
University Housing Officers (NEACUHO)
Conference, “Many Tracks. One Destination,”
will be held at Northeastern University in
Boston, Massachusetts.
www.neacuho.org.
June 12-16
The James C. Grimm National Housing
Training Institute (NHTI) at the University of
Georgia, Athens. www.acuho-i.org.
July 5-7
ACUHO-I STARS College in Anaheim, California.
www.acuho-i.org.
Olivea Oldham
July 7-10
The ACUHO-I Annual Conference and
Exposition in Anaheim, California.
www.acuho-i.org.
We hope to see you in
Anaheim.
include Your Event
We welcome your submissions. Send your event information to talkingstick@acuho-i.org.
march + april 2012
27
28
Talking Stick
Building
Retention
Studies show that students
living in residence halls
experience greater success than
do their off-campus colleagues.
But that doesn’t happen by
itself. It takes careful planning
to create the programs that turn
theory into reality.
By Erik Ziedses des Plantes
R
Iowa State University
esidence life professionals have
heard the words thousands of times
throughout their career: Students who
continue to live on campus perform
better academically, are better adjusted
socially, and are more likely to finish
their program and graduate.
It’s a claim that numerous studies have backed up
as fact. Steven Herndon’s 1984 study “Recent Findings
Concerning the Relative Importance of Housing to
Student Retention” spelled out several of the tenets of
this philosophy that are still used today: that housing in
general is a large contributor to retention, leads to higher
amounts of student-faculty contact, and contributes to
a greater sense of satisfaction among students. Michael
Waldo’s 1986 study “Academic Achievement and
Retention as Related to Students’ Personal and Social
Adjustment in University Residence Halls” expanded
on these conclusions, revealing that students satisfied
with the social adjustment and opportunities provided by
the residence halls perform better academically and are
retained at a higher rate. The results revealed in these
studies have endured, receiving affirmation in more
recent works such as Yan Li, Mack Sheely, and Donald
Whalen’s 2005 study “Contributors to Residence Hall
Student Retention: Why Do Students Choose to Leave or
Stay?”
It’s well-trod territory to be sure, and if you boil the
profession down to its essence, it is to create campus
march + april 2012
29
Iowa State University
living options that meet these goals. But as confident
as residence life professionals can be about these
facts, there are some inherent contradictions that
must still be confronted.
As much as residence life professionals would
love for students to be inquisitive and concerned
about their academic experience and conscious
of their own social adjustment, it is unrealistic
to expect them to read the research on this
subject. Students are not thinking about academic
performance and social adjustment in the abstract,
number-driven terms that people in the residence
life profession are. Students deal with these things
in real time, and, more often than not, if a sense of
dissatisfaction permeates a student’s first year in
the residence hall, they will probably do what they
can to change their environment (read: move out).
This transition to off-campus living hurts retention
chances.
Also, for many students, college offers the
first taste of true independence, living elsewhere
besides under their parents’ roof. Residence halls
can provide this thrill, but the prospect of living off
campus in an apartment also has an allure to many.
There’s the promise of more independence, more
30
Talking Stick
privacy, and the possibility of a more
self-directed social life. A number of
institutions have recognized this desire
and have countered with apartmentstyle housing, usually for students with
sophomore standing or higher.
With these things in mind, one
sees the benefits of reaching out to
students by implementing a residence
hall program that increases student
retention. Fortunately, there are a
number of campuses that have done
so and can provide a successful
model for other campuses to follow.
What they show is that residence
life professionals followed a definite
process to put them into play and to
assess whether or not their programs
worked. Assessment is one of the
cornerstones of the profession, and
in this case it can be the determining
factor as to whether or not a residence
life retention program will, well, be
retained for another year.
be distributed to all the members.
This helps instill a deep sense of
understanding of the subjects and
issues at hand before the program is
developed.
There are a variety of ways
colleges and universities can go
about designing such a program. At
the University of North Alabama in
Florence, Director of Residence Life
Kevin Jacques was shocked to discover
that the average grade point average
of the freshman population living in
their residence halls was quite low,
contradicting what most conventional
research had demonstrated. The
need for a specialized, freshman-
oriented program, meant to encourage
academic performance while still
keeping students in the residence
halls, became even more apparent
when Jacques had to consider that
freshmen made up the majority of the
students living on campus and that
the slip in GPA was apparently limited
to the freshman population. Jacques
began meeting with his VP in order to
develop a Freshman Year Experience
program.
“Our thought was that if we can
help them [freshmen] succeed in all
aspects of college, the likelihood of
retaining them would be greater,”
says Jacques. The submission of his
Putting a Retention
Program into Place
The actual development and
construction of a residence hall
retention program can happen in a
couple of different places. More often
than not, such programs are developed
within an institution’s residence life
department, but there are times when
the program is developed from an even
higher office and then passed down
to residence life. Retention programs
can also be crafted to fit the needs of
an entire student body or to cater to
specific groups, especially freshmen.
Before a program can be put
into place, a great deal of work is
required in terms of development,
and the Center for the Study of
College Student Retention offers
tips to ease this process. First, a
committee should be formed, one
that consists of senior faculty and
upper management professionals –
and students themselves, since it’s
important to keep an ear to the ground
and obtain unfiltered feedback from
the student body. Once the committee
has been formed, a reading list should
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march + april 2012
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Iowa State University
The University of North Alabama
program proposal to the higher ups at the University
of North Alabama led to the creation of a brand new
position, the assistant director of residence life for
success initiatives. This multi-faceted position would
work in tandem with various offices around campus
in order to develop, in Jacques’ words, “programs,
events, workshops, and information to the freshman
residents in an effort to get them better connected
to the university, achieve higher grades, and feel
that the University of North Alabama is their
home away from home, their place to be.” Jacques’
program launched this year, after two school years
where the retention rate remained static at 65.8
percent, according to U.S. News and World Report
and American College Review. It was Jacques’ hope
when developing the program to drive up student
GPAs – and retention along with it.
32
An institution might also choose to modify an
existing program instead of developing an entirely
new one. Although this strategy provides an
institution with a template for performance, work
still must be done on both the development and
implementation fronts. Ginny Arthur, associate
director for residence life at Iowa State University in
Des Moines, took this route after attending a NASPA
Talking Stick
(Student Affairs Administrators in
Higher Education) conference a few
years back, where she learned about
a program called MAP (Making
Achievement Possible)-Works,
which involves high levels of faculty
collaboration with residence life and
students, to the point where faculty
members are encouraged to change
their behaviors and strategies based
on the results of a student inventory
submitted early in the year. The results
generated highlight specific needs for
each student, meaning that certain
professionals can work with students
whose responses indicate a need for
social intervention, while others can
work with students whose academic
responses raised some red flags. “We
were looking for an organized way
to help students help themselves,
help us identify and work with the
students most at risk early in the
semester, and track the interactions,”
says Arthur. “MAP-Works enables
us to identify students most at risk
of leaving the university very early
in the first semester and provides us
with information the students supply
themselves, which helps to jump-start
conversations geared toward helping
the students get back on track.”
If there is any common thread
that might be considered essential
to the development process, it is
departmental collaboration. While
both Arthur’s and Jacques’ programs
originated within their respective
residence life departments, they both
became a reality through consultations
with higher offices or connections with
other institutional organizations.
the program under close scrutiny as it
was put into place.
At Iowa State, Arthur has been
using MAP-Works for four years
now. The program is presented to
the freshman population during the
third week of their first semester;
marketing materials are disseminated
at table tents in the dining halls and
via posters and social media such as
Facebook. Arthur’s version of MAPWorks begins with a student inventory
that is distributed on each floor of each
residence hall, with prizes offered to
floors with an inventory completion
rate of 85 percent or higher. These
inventories are used to identify student
After
concerns and perceptions regarding
a variety of subjects, including
academics, social interactions,
homesickness, and communication
scales.
The results generated by these
inventories allow faculty and residence
life professionals involved in MAPWorks to offer customized content and
to decide what to focus on each year,
making it a very malleable program.
Multiple faculty members and entire
departments are tied into the program,
offering localized academic help to
students within the residence halls. It
has taken four years for the program
to reach this point. In the first year,
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Putting It into Action
Once a program is developed,
connections between departments
are made, plans for action are
agreed upon, and then it must be
brought to the student population for
implementation. For the professionals
profiled here, implementation was a
gradual process that stretched across
one entire school year, a process that
involved further reaching out to other
university departments and keeping
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33
More Information
For the residence life professional looking to
develop a residence-life based retention program,
here is a brief guide to resources cited in this
article, from the ACUHO-I online library and the
Internet.
ACT’s 2010 What Works in Student Retention
Survey (http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/
reports/retain.html).
Center for the Study of College Student Retention
(www.cscsr.or).
National Academic Advising Association-Retention/
Attrition Resources (http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/
clearinghouse/advisingissues/retain.htm).
Daniel Dougherty, “Developing a Residential
Retention Program,” The Journal of College and
University Student Housing, 17(1), 1987.
Steven Herndon, “Recent Findings Concerning
the Relative Importance of Housing to Student
Retention,” The Journal of College and University
Student Housing, 14(1), 1984.
Yan Li, Mack C. Sheely, II, and Donald F. Whalen,
“Contributors to Residence Hall Student Retention:
Why Do Students Choose to Leave or Stay?” The
Journal of College and University Student Housing,
33(2), 2005.
Kim Luckes, Gloria E. Payne, Renata Dusenbury,
and Marlyn Lewis Moore, “A Comprehensive
Approach to Establishing a Living-Learning Science
Retention Program,” Talking Stick, 22(5), 2005.
Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, “The Connection Between
Residence Life and First-Year Student Retention at
the University of Pittsburgh,” The Journal of College
and University Student Housing, 37(1), 2010.
Vincent Tinto, “The Assessment of Student Retention
Programs,” Syracuse University School of Education
(http://faculty.soe.syr.edu/vtinto/Files/Assessing%20
Student%20Retention%20Programs.pdf).
Vincent Tinto, “Research and Practice of Student
Retention: What Next?” Journal of College Student
Retention, 8(1), 2006.
Michael Waldo, “Academic Achievement and
Retention as Related to Students’ Personal and
Social Adjustment in University Residence Halls,”
The Journal of College and University Student
Housing, 16(1), 1986.
Mary Ziskin, Don Hossler, and Sooyeon Kim, “The
Study of Institutional Practices Related to Student
Persistence,” Journal of College Student Retention,
11(1), 2009.
the only departments involved
were residence life, the dean of
students’ office, and the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences and
the College of Engineering. As
assessments of student needs and
program performance were made,
the Colleges of Human Sciences,
Business, and Agriculture and
Life Sciences joined during the
second year and the College
of Design during the third.
Utilizing a training program that
allows participants in the initial
training session to train those
staff members coming to the
program at a later date, Arthur’s
retention program was able to
grow in a very organic fashion.
Participation among campus
professionals increased with each
cycle, the program becoming
rooted deeper in the university’s
culture year after year. As Arthur
puts it, “MAP-Works has become
an expected event/process. While
competition and incentives
certainly encourage students to
participate, taking MAP-Works is
becoming something you do as a
first-year student at ISU.”
Meanwhile, Jacques’ program
deals with things on a much more
fundamental level and on a large
scale, choosing to focus mainly
on increased communication
and involvement between staff
and students as well as on future
construction projects. These
initiatives include converting
a ground-floor apartment in
one of the freshman-centered
residence halls into what Jacques
calls a student success center.
The center will function as a
partnership between residence
life, the university’s Center for
Writing Excellence, the Career
Planning and Development
Department, and the university
counselor and will offer tutoring
opportunities for students, as well
as résumé critiques and mock
job interviews. Where Jacques’
program really differs is in his
connecting residence life with the
athletic department, appealing to
the physical needs of residents
in addition to their mental and
academic desires.
Putting It in
Perspective
Assessment should not be
confined to the tail end of the
process of implementing a
residence hall retention program.
Assessment is what ties the
whole process together. It helps
identify goals from the outset
and determines which ideas and
initiatives work well after the
program has been in place for
a while, as well as which ones
need to be adjusted or removed.
In the worst case, assessment
can let professionals know when
it is time to abandon a program
and utilize resources elsewhere.
There are different types of
assessments for different times
of the program’s life. Surveys and
assessments from Educational
Benchmarking Inc. are just one
of many tools available for this
process. Jacques used EBI surveys
to gauge student perceptions and
performance before the program’s
existence in order to design the
retention program in a fashion
appropriate to the students’ needs.
As discussed earlier, Arthur’s
MAP-Works program begins with
an assessment of student concerns
and perceptions.
The University of North
Alabama’s program is still
in its first year of operation,
making actual retention statistics
impossible to obtain. However, the
practice of assessing each part of
the program throughout the year
has provided Jacques with some
encouraging results. The average
GPA of the freshmen involved
with the retention program has
already increased by .11 of a point.
His assessment strategy included
tweaks to the job description of
Continues
34
Talking Stick
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36
Talking Stick
LOCKER
ROOM
TALK
By Laurel Dreher and
Patrick Tanner
Our authors and facilitators
share how weekly conversations
strive to create a successful dialogue
model for the male residents
of Roger Williams University
and, ultimately, make
masculinity matter.
Z
oom in on Global Heritage Hall, the newest academic building on a growing
campus. Room 108 is a traditional room just inside the entrance, but instead of a
professor waiting to teach rows of students, the scene is somewhat atypical. Two
residence life professionals are pumping music through the sound system, laying
out snacks, and arranging the seats in a circle. Only men enter the room after that – casually
connecting in a way that you might expect to see in any residence hall lobby. They begin to
prepare to deconstruct local news briefs, advertising campaigns, and campus activities and
events as well as connected and disparate philosophies from a feminist perspective.
Yes, that’s correct. Here, men will address
issues of men and masculinity using viewpoints
from the fields of feminist thought, social justice
theory, sociology, anthropology – and student
development.
Thus begins almost every session of The
Locker Room (TLR) at Roger Williams University
in Bristol, Rhode Island. TLR is a weekly
discussion series where men can relax and
feel comfortable while grappling with what it
means to be a man. Drawing from the lessons
of researchers Tracy Davis and Jason Laker,
who have studied how to better connect men to
student affairs programs, TLR provides men both
challenge and support. In their 2004 article, they
concluded that “If we are to begin to effectively
engage college men and address their needs,
student affairs professionals must assess whether
or not interventions (1) are grounded in theory
and research about men, (2) recognize differences
among men and masculinities, and (3) provide
support in addition to challenge.”
march + april 2012
37
Creating TLR and serving as facilitators
meant borrowing heavily from the current
literature and research that has been produced
by the likes of Jim O’Neil, Shaun Harper, Frank
Harris, Terrell Strayhorn, Michael Kimmel,
Jackson Katz, Shira Tarrant, and many others.
Guidance was sought from Ryan Barone who
helped lead The Men’s Project at Colorado
State University in Fort Collins in the early
2000s. Additionally, the organizers of a similar
program at the University of Oregon in Eugene
were consulted. One of TLR’s facilitators also
had past experience working extensively with
men’s issues in coursework and through an
assistantship in the Greek life system, which
proved valuable.
The wealth of information to draw from
is evidence of the growing area of men’s
issues studies. Faculty members and student
affairs professionals from every point on the
gender spectrum and across the globe have
been addressing such issues for years. If
there is one quotation that best summarizes
the motivation behind this growth it comes
from the book College Men and Masculinities
by Shaun R. Harper and Frank Harris, III,
who wrote, “A man who graduates from
college without having benefitted from
a well-guided exploration of his gender
identity is likely to find himself stranded on a
destructive pathway of confusion and selfdoubt. . . . Those who work at colleges and
universities have a professional responsibility
to aid women and men alike in productively
resolving identity conflicts and transitioning
into a version of adulthood where patriarchy,
sexism, homophobia, misogyny, misandry,
sexual harassment, and all forms of abuse and
oppression ends with them.”
When making the decision to start your
own men’s discussion group, it’s important
to keep in mind that many of these programs
build off the foundation established by the
work of students, professors, administrators,
activists, and theorists who have already carved
out paths on the road to social justice and
gender equity. What follows are simply ten
humble suggestions for successfully launching
a men’s discussion group on a college or
university campus from two professionals who
have tried their hand at adding to the broader
conversation about gender, masculinity, and
college men’s development.
38
Talking Stick
Before launching a program,
research and decide on the
theoretical foundations that
will inform the group.
Conventional wisdom says to be careful when embarking on a
new venture. This is extremely poignant and true for research
about men’s issues. It’s easy for a potential facilitator and leader
to say with conviction, “I’m a man. I can talk to others about what
it means to be a man,” without critically analyzing his perspective
on collegiate men through the lens of current research. Similarly,
a woman might reasonably be heard to say, “I’ve dated men.
I’ve grown up around men. I could totally do this.” However,
not taking time to develop a knowledge base and define one’s
perspective on masculinity, heterosexism, misogyny, trans culture,
feminism, and a variety of other related and tangential topics
would be unwise, ineffective, and probably harmful to others
despite the best intentions to be developmental.
This research will take time. But it is valuable time. Put to
use the skills developed while in college or graduate school to
understand the current landscape of what it means to work with
men on college and university campuses. There is a growing body
of research that speaks specifically to the psychology of men, their
multiple social identities, and the intersections therein, as well as
effective practices (see sidebar). Connect with librarians, faculty,
staff, and administrators, and start reading. Comprehending
the nuances of gender will not come quickly, but reading the
literature and discussing findings with others who have a similarly
inquisitive nature can aid it.
Locker Room advertisements courtesy of Roger Williams Graphic Department
Carefully research
and choose a
facilitation model
that will work best
for the group.
When considering how the group
discussion will be facilitated, there
are several questions to consider. It
is important that these questions
are asked and answered before the
program begins, but, at the same time,
facilitators should be flexible enough
to change in ways that make the
discussion more beneficial.
Some of the questions to consider
may include the following: Will
facilitating this group be a solo venture
or will it employ a team approach?
Will anyone who doesn’t identify as a
man be welcome as a guest presenter
or facilitator? Will this be an affinity
group for men only? Is it going to
be only for student leaders and their
training and development? Will
the environment look more like a
classroom or a residence hall lounge?
Will it be presented as a lecture or
be discussion-based? Will the level
of funding impact these choices?
Will there be a focus on current
events, campus events, or historical
events? Will students be allowed to
have leadership roles in the group?
If so, what level of subject mastery
must they display before doing so?
Does this group exist strictly to
battle violence and specifically men’s
violence against women? Will the
group utilize a national model such as
the Male Violence Prevention (MVP)
program, or will it move forward with
what Jim O’Neil has referred to as a
“psychoeducational” approach that
will be organic in nature? Will this be
more about raising awareness than
identity development? How much
of the curriculum will be set by the
facilitators and how much will be
directed by participant suggestions? Is
this going to be academic in nature?
What do the students want?
Throughout the process, engage in
consistent self-reflection.
Facilitators of these groups will have to decide early on how much they are willing
to share about their personal life. To do this, the facilitator would do well to have
an enhanced level of self-awareness regarding his or her own social identities. For
example, facilitators should consider how the following topics relate to their life
experiences: privilege of all kinds, building relationships with students that are
founded in mutual trust and respect, the intersection of multiple identities, the
binary notion of gender, homophobia, feminism, men’s movements throughout
history and especially in the 20th century, and social justice.
It is imperative that one considers what it might mean to address gender
violence and how students might respond. Facilitators must be comfortable in
their counseling and referral skills. They must be comfortable in their own skins,
and ideally they will have had similar conversations with close colleagues, family,
or friends. These discussions are often emotionally charged; to be ill-prepared
may be disastrous for everyone involved. If theory courses have shown anything,
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it is to be humble about the fact that
just as our students have not arrived
at the point of enlightenment, neither
have group leaders. To be effective,
educators must be willing to redefine
their own ideas about gender. As
Raphael Moffett, director of campus
and community involvement at Trinity
University in San Antonio, Texas, has
said, leaders must be committed to
struggling together with the students.
For More Information
Strengthen the
program by building
partnerships with
faculty and staff.
• Shaun R. Harper and Frank Harris, III, College Men and Masculinities: Theory,
Research, and Implications for Practice (2010)
Life does not happen in a vacuum.
Programs at any level on any campus
will die a quick and certain death
without collaboration. When it comes
to work on men’s issues, campus
professionals must partner with
and walk alongside their students
and colleagues if they want to be
successful. Before beginning, it
would be wise to acknowledge the
accomplishments of those involved
with women’s suffrage, gay rights,
multiple feminist movements,
and present day practitioners and
researchers. Likewise, reach out to the
gender allies on your campus.
This will obviously assist in
recruiting participants and cofacilitators, but it is absolutely
necessary to have a firm grasp on
the history of gender on a particular
campus. Those who do not already
have a sense of any significant events
in the history of their institution
must develop one. Many will find that
gender dynamics have played a role
in staffing, physical structure, or the
philosophy behind major decisions
that have guided current and previous
administrations. A good place to
start this search would be a campus
women’s center, a GLBT student
group, a women’s studies academic
department, or anything of the like.
These relationships will also prove
valuable when pursuing the campus
administration for support.
40
Talking Stick
There are hundreds of articles, documentaries, websites, journals, and the like to assist
professionals in their understanding of the issues of men and masculinity relative to
the collegiate scene. The following list briefly touches on some accessible resources,
but there is much more material that will assist anyone who seeks to appreciate these
topics more fully. Further, it should be noted that an understanding of these issues
should be founded in a greater grasp of feminist and social justice theories.
Books
• Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman,
the Real You, or Something Else Entirely (1998)
• Jackson Katz, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men
Can Help (2006)
• Gar E. Kellom, Developing Effective Programs and Services for College Men: New
Directions for Student Services (2004)
• Christopher Kilmartin, The Masculine Self (4th Ed., 2009)
• Paul Kivel, Men’s Work: How to Stop the Violence That Tears Our Lives Apart (1998)
• Jason Laker and Tracy Davis, Masculinities in Higher Education: Theoretical and
Practical Considerations (2011)
• Shira Tarrant, Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power (2008) and Men
and Feminism (2009)
Articles
• Tracy Davis, “Voices of Gender Role Conflict: The Social Construction of College Men’s
Identity,” Journal of College Student Development, 43(4), 2002
• Tracy Davis and Jason Laker, “Connecting Men to Academic and Student Affairs
Programs and Services,” New Directions for Student Services, 107, 2004
• Mike Donaldson, “What Is Hegemonic Masculinity?” Theory and Society, 22(5), 1993
• Jason Laker and Tracy Davis, “Using the Psychology of Men and Gender Role Conflict
Theory to Promote Comprehensive Service Delivery for College Men: A Call to Action,”
Masculinities in Higher Education: Theoretical and Practical Considerations, 2011
• Josh Noem, Thomas Bruketta, and Jamie Grimm, “The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen at the University of Portland,” Engaging College Men: Discovering What
Works and Why, 2010
• James O’Neil, “Summarizing 25 Years of Research on Men’s Gender Role Conflict
Using the Gender Role Conflict Scale: New Research Paradigms and Clinical
Implications,” The Counseling Psychologist, 36(3), 2008
Websites
www.Feministing.com
www.Manvertised.com
www.whiteribbon.ca
www.walkamileinhershoes.org
www.vday.org/v-men
Documentaries
Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Tough Guise
The Bro Code
Professional
Organizations
ACPA’s Standing Committee for Men,
www2.myacpa.org
NASPA’s Men and Masculinity Knowledge
Community, www.naspa.org
find o
out.
Recruit members
from within the
campus population.
wednesdays (starting feb. 16th). 7.00-9.00 pm. GHH 106.
To encourage participation, find unique
ways to brand and market your men’s group.
In their 2004 article discussing best
practices for effectively engaging
male students, Tracy Davis and Jason
Laker cite a number of different male
discussion groups that exist on college
and university campuses, each with its
own style and focus. At the University
of Vermont in Burlington, there is
the Men Advocating Change (MAC)
student organization. At Dartmouth
College in Hanover, New Hampshire,
it is The Men’s Project. A number of
schools have Male Violence Prevention
(MVP) programs. The Assault
Survivors Advocacy Program at the
University of Northern Colorado in
Greeley recently developed the Men
Engaged Now (M.E.N.) program. And,
according to its website, the One in Four
organization has chapters established on
approximately 40 campuses.
If the purpose of the men’s
group will be focused on violence
prevention, that may be important
to reflect in the program’s name and
mission statement (so as to be clear
to new members). Conversely, if the
discussion group will be focused more
on addressing general developmental
obstacles for men during their college
experience, there may be more creative
license in deciding on a group’s
moniker.
Consideration also should be
given to assessing how playful, or
controversial, the group’s marketing
and advertising will be. Depending on
the institution’s identity and affiliations,
there may be more restrictions in the
types of images and advertisements
that can be created and displayed.
Administrators and colleagues may
be confused or troubled by choices
that reinforce the unhealthier, more
harmful aspects of unexamined
masculinity, and others may be worried
about the intentions of a male-only
space. Those groups who choose to
attract attention and draw interest
by utilizing pop culture references
should be prepared to fully articulate
the group’s purpose to prospective
members at the first meeting, so as not
to sell them a false product.
In a 2002 qualitative study conducted
by Tracy Davis investigating the lived
experiences of college men, one theme
that arose from participants’ responses
was a general sense of “challenge
without support,” in terms of the
lack of services provided specifically
for men. Recruiting students to
participate in a men’s program might
be the first time many men feel
welcomed and acknowledged as men
during their college years. When Josh
Noem, Thomas Bruketta, and Jamie
Grimm were creating their League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the
University of Portland in Oregon, they
clearly saw that genuine interactions,
one-on-one conversations, and
personal invitations remained the
most successful referral strategies
when asking students to attend a
discussion group.
Group leaders must work with
colleagues in various departments
and seek out opportunities to meet
and interact with as many students
across campus as possible. Sign up
to take part in any of the campuswide Involvement Fairs hosted by the
student activities or leadership office.
Look for chances to hold discussions
about gender during student leaders
club and organization retreats. Inform
the residence life community about
your men’s group, and encourage
resident assistants to invite residents
to attend. Create a partnership with the
athletics office and invite coaches and
captains to make recommendations
of students they feel would contribute
to the dialogues about gender and
masculinity.
march + april 2012
41
Be purposeful
when selecting
discussion topics
and guiding the
conversation.
The goal of many men’s programs
is to help students begin the process
of critically thinking about their own
gender identity, as well as teaching them
how to recognize the effects of gender in
their everyday interactions with the world
around them. Conversations during
TLR have spanned a variety of topics,
including male privilege, men’s health
issues, pornography, homophobia,
fighting and violence, intersections
of identity, religion, comic book
superheroes, dating and relationships,
hook-up culture, and family dynamics,
just to name a few. Today’s pop culture
is full of opportunities to demonstrate
the influence of the media on how
our society understands gender roles.
Utilizing clips from current television
shows, movies, comedians, and
commercials can provide accessible
examples of the various ways masculinity
and femininity are performed in the
entertainment industry.
Books such as Kate Bornstein’s
My Gender Workbook and Paul
Kivel’s Men’s Work can provide great
ideas for interactive activities that
challenge traditional views of gender,
and Shira Tarrant’s Men Speak Out
is just one collection of narratives
from men seeking to understand
and redefine their own masculinity.
The Men Against Sexual Violence
group at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign has worked to
compile an excellent resource guide
of activities addressing issues relating
to sexual violence prevention as a
part of an annual conference they
host on their campus. Additionally,
there are a number of regional and
national conferences that focus on
collegiate men. Take advantage of these
opportunities to engage colleagues
about the lessons that they’ve learned
concerning theory and practice in
similar settings.
42
Talking Stick
Regularly collect feedback
from group members.
Perhaps the most important thing that
can be done in assessing the success
and development of a men’s group is
to simply listen to the students. On
an administrative level, collecting data
about a program can be extremely
beneficial in demonstrating the
effectiveness of the endeavor, as well as
documenting the group’s growth. This
information can be very helpful when
it comes to advocating for funding, for
a space to host the group, or simply
for increased awareness about gender
issues on campus. Assessment surveys
can provide helpful information on
what identities may be present in
a group so that it is easier to be as
inclusive as possible when it comes to
discussion topics. Having participants
reflect on what they’ve learned each
term can also help them understand
where they may be in terms of their
own masculinity development and can
help shed light on future discussion
topics. Ask participants for ideas on
what they want to talk about and in
what direction they feel the group may
need to go.
Turn words into action by providing
opportunities for participants to
engage in activism.
As a men’s group evolves, it may
soon become important to allow
the members to move forward in
their growing understanding of
gender issues and to participate in
moments of activism. Fortunately,
there are a number of well-established
movements that can be supported
by bringing them to campus. For
example, V-Day is a global movement
dedicated to ending violence against
women and girls, driven by presenting
creative events that raise awareness
and funds. In conjunction with this
project, V-Men has also been created
as a platform for men to tell their own
stories of masculinity development.
Another opportunity would be
Continues
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conversations
What’s Your Policy?
Chris Summerlin
Policies: those things that give the day-to-day activities a backbone.
Here, members take a moment to share how they create policies,
revise them, and put them in place.
Participating in this conversation are Elizabeth Cox, area director at Emory University,
Clairmont Campus in Atlanta, Georgia; Shakima Clency, assistant director of residence
life at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Chris Summerlin, director of
residence life at Macon State College in Georgia; Michelle Ballew Safewright, associate
dean of students at Maryville College in Tennessee; and Michael Wadsworth, director
for residential life at Albion College in Michigan.
Elizabeth COx
Michelle Ballew
Safewright
Shakima Clency
Elizabeth Cox: In my experience, I think
conversations around policies are always
happening. In residence life and housing, we
tend to constantly evaluate what we do and how
we do it, which I think is great. I think there
are many things that prompt an impetus for
policy change: student concern, administrative
directive, budgetary issues, etc.
I also think policy revision/creation is a
time when I really utilize my network. I often
call or email colleagues from other institutions
to get their input. I think we do a good job of
sharing in our profession, or at least that has
been my experience so far. I then evaluate
materials from other institutions to think if
it would work at mine. Sometimes it does;
sometimes it doesn’t.
Shakima Clency: I find that policy changes
Mike
Wadsworth
44
Talking Stick
are often reactive, whereas the creation of new
policies tends to be proactive. For example, at
the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
we are in the process of renovating seven
residence halls scheduled to open in Fall
of 2012. Prior to the renovations, the halls
were corridor-style with a large number of
residents sharing bathrooms located on the
hall; the renovated halls will have suite-style
rooms, and no more than four people will
share a bathroom. Residents living together in
one suite can use the bathroom to access the
bedroom of their suitemate(s). We anticipate
that this will create some roommate conflicts
and/or lead to policy violations. To be proactive
we will be creating new policies and altering
the language outlined in the current visitation
policy. I agree there is value in being proactive
as well as reactive where policies are concerned.
Chris Summerlin: I think we must be open
to learning from those around us. We are all
tackling many of the same issues, policies,
and concerns. There is much we can learn
from seeing what was and was not successful
at other institutions. This may not always tell
us exactly what will work for our institution,
but it can open us up to new ideas and ways
of doing things. I have found in my state that
the Georgia Housing Officers listserv has been
an invaluable resource for discussing topics
and ideas with my colleagues. We can all share
ideas on policies and procedures, as well as
Policy changes, revisions, and creations (or even proposals to
change policies) can originate from students, our Student Senate,
changing national trends, and changes to laws or best practices.
Regardless of where they originate, I believe it is important to
thoroughly vet all the issues.
just discussing common concerns and
obstacles.
Over the years, it seems that
most policies and procedures are
either proactive or reactive. At times
institutions are proactive when
creating policies in hopes of being able
to address certain issues later. Other
times policies are created reactively
in response to issues or concerns
which arise that may not be properly
addressed using current procedures.
It is almost impossible to have policies
and procedures in place that will
address all issues 100 percent of the
time. This is because students do not
do things the same way every year. Just
when you think you know what they
will do, they find a new way to do it.
This is why being proactive is helpful,
but being reactive is equally important.
Michelle Ballew Safewright: I
think it’s about 50/50 on being
reactive versus proactive. We also
do a review of our policies annually
by a committee so we tend to catch
some things during that process that
we know need to change because of
trends or laws that we know about.
Sometimes, though, because of
situations that happen we realize
reactively that we need to change
policies, and now that our student
handbook is online we can change
those more immediately and not have
to wait for the next print cycle.
Michael Wadsworth: Policy
changes, revisions, and creations (or
even proposals to change policies)
can originate from students, our
Student Senate, changing national
trends, and changes to laws or best
practices. Regardless of where they
originate, I believe it is important
to thoroughly vet all the issues. For
example, if the issue is not coming
from our student population, it may
be important to involve a small group
of students to gather feedback prior to
implementation.
As others have also already
mentioned, I feel this is also a time
when I really reach out to colleagues
and listservs to see what other schools
are doing. I have found that checking
with a small group of peer institutions
(rather than a mass email to a national
listserv) is a very helpful way to
quickly get to how the policy change
or creation may affect my specific
situation. Clency: In addition to the Student
Government Association, the
Hall Council and Residence Hall
Association also serve as a driving
force for new and revised policies. At
the start of each academic year, the
Hall Council, under the supervision of
the building supervisor, oversees the
voting policy for changes to the hall
visitation hours.
Oftentimes after consulting the
residence life student and professional
staff, we realize that policies outlined
in the student handbook are confusing
to the average person, contradictory to
another policy, or no longer relevant.
To help ensure that our printed
policies stay current, each summer
two professional staff members are
charged with the task of reviewing all
residence life policies and providing
recommendations for changes and
omissions and for creating new
policies for consideration. Safewright: I also find that policy
changes can come from external
sources as well: new legislation or
rules that are handed down from state
or national levels; legal matters that
we learn about from other institutions
that push us to get out in front of any
new laws that might be coming; or
just learning from our colleagues of
new trends they are seeing at their
institution.
We have two ways in which policy
change can start – from students and
from administrators. Our Student
Government Association is very active
here and has been involved with
many of the policies we have here on
campus – from policies on alcohol
and visitation to the way that room
selection is done – so many times
policy changes on our campus start
at the student level. It is a lengthy
process they must go through to
get a policy changed, and it involves
everyone on campus in the discussion
of such changes. The other way
policy change happens is that we as
march + april 2012
45
conversations
administrators feel that something
needs to be changed for a variety
of reasons – in which case we look
to our colleagues to see how other
institutions handle such policies, and
then we mold this into something
that will work here on our campus. I
agree that our profession is very good
about sharing, and I have never had to
worry about not getting a good variety
of feedback on any topic that I’m
researching.
Summerlin: One of the most valuable
resources I have on my campus is the
faculty and staff who comprise my
Residence Life Advisory Committee.
They are a great resource for
seeking outside perspectives on the
development of the housing program,
engaging additional faculty and staff
in providing educational programs,
and reviewing existing opportunities
for residents. The members of this
committee all come from various
backgrounds and serve in different
areas around campus. This helps us
to look at policies and procedures
from different angles. Our policies
and procedures are often shaped by
the feedback this committee provides.
I know many residence life and
housing programs do not use a formal
committee to engage members of the
campus community, but I have found
this to be an amazing support tool for
my campus.
and services for residents. The RSA
serves as a voice for the residents to
the Office of Residence Life. We value
their opinion on how the policies and
procedures of the office are perceived
by residents and use this feedback
in reviewing and revising them as
applicable. TS
Our Resident Student Association
also is a guiding force in letting
us know what students think of
the current policies, while being a
resource for providing new programs
Join the
Conversation
What topic would you
like to see discussed in
Conversations? Send your
suggestions to
talkingstick@acuho-i.org.
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46
Talking Stick
first takes
gs
akin
GROUNDbre
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia
Projected Opening: August 2012
University of Oklahoma
•
Cost: $26 million
The expansion of University Place will include three new
buildings, adding 451 beds in the residential community of KSU
and increasing its on-campus accommodation to 3,500 students.
The opening of the project will mark the 10th anniversary of the
housing program at KSU. HADP Architects designed each of the
112 apartments to include four bedrooms, private bathrooms,
shared kitchen, washer and dryer, and balcony. University
Housing Services and Hardin Construction developed the
project, which will provide 207,500 square feet across the three
buildings. The outdoor amphitheater will engage community
development while promoting connectivity through accessible WiFi. Sustainable and recyclable products have been implemented
in the utilities, carpeting, toiletries, appliances, water supply, and
landscape of the complex.
Norman, Oklahoma
Projected Opening: August 2013
•
Cost: $75 million
For the 2011-2012 academic year, the University of Oklahoma
enrolled the largest number of incoming first-year students the
school has ever seen: at 4,065, which was also the largest in state
history at a four-year public institution. The number of student
athletes is increasing as well, and this population will make up
approximately 49 percent of the residents living in Headington
Hall; 51 percent will be general students. Tim Headington, a
former OU tennis player, donated $10 million to the $75 million
project, which will provide a five-story residence hall housing
380 students. The 230,000-square-foot building will consist of
two- and four-person units, along with a dining facility, computer
labs, seminar rooms, a faculty-in-residence unit, retail space, and
tutoring rooms.
Berklee College of Music
University of Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Projected Opening: August 2012
•
Cost: $10 million
The new residence hall at U-Indy will be named after the
university’s first president, John Taylor Roberts. Designed by
Blackburn Architects, Roberts Hall will house 170 students, with
a potential capacity for 200. The five-story building will open
the first four floors in August 2012 to provide more upperclass
on-campus housing. The single or double occupancy rooms have
private sinks and semi-private bathrooms. The building is being
constructed with environmentally friendly autoclaved aerated
concrete. Roberts Hall, built by Wilhelm Construction, will
feature a fitness center, sunroom lounges, outdoor sitting areas,
community kitchens, lobbies, and ample recreational space.
Boston, Massachusetts
Projected Opening: August 2013 • Cost: $100 million
The first building ever built from the ground up at Berklee College
of Music will provide housing for 370 students and a 400-seat
performance center for the community. Designed by William
Rawn Associates, Architects Inc., the 16-story building will
feature a two-story dining hall and music technology center with
soundproof recording studios. The 155,000-square-foot facility
is the first step in expansion for Berklee, which plans to include
more student housing and academic and performance space in a
multi-year development project.
GIVE UP THE DETAILS
Is there a new product or service that is so fantastic you want to share it with other
members? Send a brief description to talkingstick@acuho-i.org.
march + april 2012
47
reporting out
RIT Member Receives Award
Bill St. Jean, former 2011 NEACUHO
conference host chair, was recently honored
by his peers at the Rochester Institute of
Technology in New York as the recipient of
the Staff Recognition Award for Excellence.
St. Jean is the administrative advisor for the
residence hall association at RIT and has
represented residence hall students through
student government, provided services such as
the video library and RITchies game room, and
programmed events for the RHA community.
The Award for Excellence recognizes an
individual who has integrated RIT’s core
values into his or her daily work, exceptionally
collaborated with colleagues and university
constituents, improved the efficiency of an
operation, held a high standard of ethics and
respect, and exceeded regular expectations
while maintaining a commitment to student
achievement. Each recipient receives a
certificate, $1,000, and a campus plaque
inscription.
University of Virginia Determines
Leading Causes of Student Death
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville has released the
results of a study commissioned by Dr. James C. Turner, the first
study focused on determining the top causes of student mortality
in over 70 years. Data was collected from 157 schools, which were
asked to provide the numbers of student deaths and their different
causes. The results generated provide a few surprises, as alcohol
was actually found to be less responsible for student mortality
than was suicide. Vehicular accidents were the leading cause. The
suicide rate was found to have stayed steady since the late 80s,
which leads the university to conclude that institutions should pay
more attention to the development of strong student counseling
and mental health programs. On an encouraging note, it was also
found that 18-24 year olds living in campus environments have
lower mortality rates than do those living as a part of the general
population. Turner presented the findings at the American Public
Health Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on
November 2, 2011. Members can view the power point about
the results at http://apha.confex.com/apha/139am/webprogram/
Paper241696.htm.
Save the Dates
October 2012
Albuquerque, New Mexico
www.acuho-i.org
Balloon and Mountains
Kim Ashley
48
Talking Stick
ConfSerhalf-FNL2.indd 1
11/30/11 9:45:30 PM
34
Continued
BUILDING Retention
the first-year experience staff member
based on student feedback regarding
interactions with the officer so that the
position might better serve students’
needs in future semesters. “With the
GPA for our freshmen in the halls
exceeding the GPA of off-campus
freshmen, I see that as a success,”
says Jacques. “The lower amount
of vandalism and higher feeling of
community and belonging is also
a good indicator. We’re anxious to
see what our EBI data turns up this
summer.”
Arthur employs a member of her
staff to dedicate their time to working
on assessment on a constant basis.
So far, the results have been positive,
with on-campus student retention
increasing by 4.1 percent between
2007 and 2010. “We believe the
implementation of MAP-Works has
been very successful and is definitely
worth the time students and staff put
into it,” says Arthur.
Signs of Success
Both these programs have been
successful in different ways, but
both share a few key characteristics
that directly contributed to this
success. First, there’s the willingness
to collaborate. Working with other
residence life staff, institutional faculty,
and students provides a diverse array
of ideas and viewpoints. Second, both
programs insist on constant evaluation
and assessment, instead of confining it
to the beginning or end of the process.
A lot can happen in one school year,
so it is always advantageous to stay
abreast of trends within the residence
halls, to solicit student responses, and
to conduct several assessments of new
residence hall retention programs
during the first couple of years
after implementation. Finally, both
programs succeeded because they offer
specialized content. All of the good
intentions in the world mean nothing
if the content and programs do nothing
for the students living in the residence
halls. Understanding the specific
needs of the student population
and addressing as many of them as
possible is integral if a program is to
get off the ground.
Most students aren’t going to pay
attention to studies that are published
about retention or the benefits of
residence life. They’re too busy
wrangling with the stresses of school
and the minefield of social adjustment
issues that come with living in an oncampus environment. If a residence
life department wants to contribute
directly to increased retention at their
institution, it is their responsibility to
bring the declarations and findings
of these studies off the page and into
reality. Successful programs then
contribute to the research material,
making stronger cases the next time
residence life professionals grapple
with retention issues. Do these sound
like words that have been heard a
thousand times? Yes, but it’s a case that
grows stronger and stronger with each
instance of success. TS
Erik Ziedses des
is the ACUHO-I library intern.
Plantes
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49
23
Continued
SPECIAL FOCUS
“We have to try and negotiate. I can’t
see why the student with the allergy
has to always be the one to move.”
Though the issue of defining what
can be categorized as a service animal
is now looming large throughout
the higher education community in
the United States, the international
community remains unaffected – for
now. At the University of Alberta in
Edmonton, Canada, service animals
are always allowed and usually without
problems, according to Christopher
Fukushima, residence area coordinator
of Lister Centre. The university even
takes a step further by ensuring that
students with animals live in a single
unit without a shared bedroom or
common space. “Typically we take
students at their word that their
animals are service animals. If there
was any concern, like they said they
had a service boa constrictor, we would
ask for a physician’s note or that they
go to the Specialized Support and
Disability Services Office on campus to
verify the need,” he says. Hall directors
are allowed to have pets on a case-bycase basis, and students are allowed to
have fish and small birds, depending
on residential space. Fukushima says
the bigger problem is when students
who live in the various residential
homes and apartments break their
lease agreement and sneak in pets.
In Australia, few residential
officials recall a time when there was
a problem allowing a service animal.
However, there is still potentially
discrepant legislation, as in the U.S.,
regarding campus housing. Australia’s
national Disability Discrimination
Act (DDA) affects higher education
institutions and accommodation
providers, both public and private. The
act defines disability and assistance
animals much as the ADA does.
However, the South Australian Equal
Opportunity Act (EOA) refers to a
different class – therapeutic animals
– which are similar to the emotional
therapy animals referred to under the
FHA. The EOA defines a therapeutic
50
Talking Stick
animal as “an animal certified by a
medical practitioner as being required
to assist a person as a consequence of
the person’s disability.” This definition
could apply to a variety of animals
previously regarded as pets. Given
the discrepant guidelines, could a
case similar to that in Nebraska arise
in South Australia? “To refuse a
therapeutic animal, I believe, would
be well within our rights under the
DDA,” says Melissa Suckley, associate
dean of Flinders Living at Flinders
University in Bedford Park, South
Australia. “However, from discussions
with staff and colleagues I believe we
would consider it as best we could
rather than refusing it outright, and
we would require that it be properly
defined as a therapeutic animal within
the EO Act before we made any
agreements with regard to housing.”
Jane E. Jarrow, disabilities and
higher education consultant and
former AHEAD (Association on
Higher Education and Disability)
executive director, told Inside Higher
Ed that there have been more requests
for service animals recently, but
not all are grounded in real need.
For now, when reviewing requests
for any type of service animal the
best action may be to review each
on a case-by-case basis instead of
immediately dismissing requests for
emotional therapy animals. Evaluate
how significant the need is for a
specific animal versus the resulting
complications, and proceed from
there.
Colleges and universities may soon
be required to allow emotional therapy
animals within their accommodations,
but that may be just the first step.
“Fair Housing is bigger than just
the service animal issue, and that
may just be the tip of the iceberg in
terms of the government enforcing
all Fair Housing Acts in on-campus
housing. This includes all parts of
the non-discrimination policies,
which include steering,” Hallenbeck
says. Steering is the act of directing,
guiding, or encouraging people to
rent certain accommodations based
on discrimination, and it is illegal
action under the FHA. To avoid
steering, staff members should not
make discouraging statements and
should not direct anyone to a specific
type of housing that was unrequested;
Hallenbeck and Luskin recommend
showing all housing units and options.
Nebraska’s defending counsel
believes that the Department of
Housing and Urban Development has
overstepped its bounds by applying
FHA regulations to university
housing. Ada Meloy, counsel for the
American Council on Education, told
Inside Higher Ed that student housing
is not the same as an apartment, and
higher education institutions would
have to completely revamp their
established disability policies in order
to comply with both ADA and HUD
guidelines. According to Luskin,
however, the issue is simple: Fair
housing does not stop at the campus
gates. “Many schools think that HUD
does not apply to them. In my mind,
that’s a time bomb waiting to explode,”
he says.
In the future, colleges and
universities may be held to a higher
standard of nondiscrimination in
housing based on other FHA factors
like familial status, which protects
adults with children under 18. “I’m
just concerned that if we shake the
tree too hard then people are going
to be looking at other aspects of fair
housing. It’s easier for us to comply
as a profession on an equitable basis,”
Luskin says. TS
Kristen Lott
is the editorial intern for
Talking Stick.
20
Continued
RES LIFE
activists actually started “occupying”
campus buildings in 2009.
This growing worldwide Occupy
movement tells a different story
about student engagement in the
political arena than what we see
during a formal election. In a 2011
article, Amanda M. Fairbanks states
that “students will band together to
make their voices heard – with many
expressing frustration over increasing
amounts of student loan debt and the
rising cost of tuition, in addition to a
paucity of jobs for recent graduates.”
Recognizing that today’s students
reside online, the Occupy Colleges
movement turned to social media
to communicate with prospective
supporters, as Fairbanks says: “Occupy
Colleges started as a Facebook page
and Twitter handle . . . and quickly
blossomed into a burgeoning
movement bolstered by a groundswell
of student-led support.”
Though students are using the
Occupy movement to communicate
their dissatisfaction with the major
issues they face today, and political
parties have taken note to incorporate
post-secondary concerns into their
platforms, this is not enough to give
students a true voice. As Michael
T. Heaney, an assistant professor of
organizational studies and political
science at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor, notes in Fairbanks’
article, “while the 2000s were an
intense period of protest, the current
generation in college wasn’t really
exposed to the earlier period of
activism of the last decade. And for
a lot of these students, this is their
first movement.” Many of us can
recall images of on-campus student
protests from past decades, but we
have not seen that level of engagement
in politics since. With the Occupy
movement gaining momentum, it will
be interesting to see if more college
and university students from around
the world start to take part in the
protest.
At the time this was written, few
housing professionals could articulate
whether or not an Occupy movement
was taking place on their campus, or if
one was, they knew very little about it.
While media coverage of the movement
continues to focus on the major cities
around the world, we are starting to see
some of the impact of Occupy on our
campuses. If the movement continues
to gain momentum, surely we will have
a better understanding of the level of
student engagement on each of our
campuses. TS
Kate McGartland- is the residence life coordinator
Kinsella
for Frost Residence at Fleming
College in Peterborough, Ontario,
Canada. Email: kakinsel@
flemingc.on.ca, @KateMcGK on
Twitter.
march + april 2012
51
42
Continued
LOCKER ROOM TALK
the International White Ribbon
Campaign that provides a simple
way for a group to raise awareness
and invite other students to make a
pledge to help end violence against
women. The Walk a Mile in Her Shoes
campaign is yet another educational
movement that lets male students play
with the boundaries of gender while
also raising money for local domestic
violence shelters and advocacy
organizations.
Don’t forget
to continue to
look towards the
future.
As a campus men’s group gains
momentum, it is important to look for
other creative opportunities to expand
conversations about gender. Exploring
the potential for courses focused on
men’s issues and masculinity is one
way of strengthening partnerships
within the academic community and
can also be a great way to engage
faculty members on topics of gender
awareness. Leaders should explore
any opportunities for campus minigrants for initiatives relating to
diversity or multiculturalism, as
well as possibilities of working with
the campus’s women’s center and
LGBTQ organizations to put together
26
a proposal for a Gender Resource
Center. While there are many schools
moving in this direction, there are
also those that offer male affinity
group spaces in the form of a Men’s
Center. The University of Oregon is
just one example of a fully envisioned
Men’s Center, complete with various
programs and curricula, as well
as a thorough mission statement
and vision. In terms of long-term
sustainability and consistency, men’s
group leaders may also want to
focus on the recruitment of future
facilitators throughout the course of
their program’s development.
Of course, this list of suggestions
is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive;
rather, the co-facilitators of TLR simply
wanted to share the lessons they have
learned from both the successes (and
mistakes) they have encountered in
their adventure of creating a men’s
group at Roger Williams University.
Depending on the campus climate
of an institution, beginning such
an endeavor will undoubtedly mean
taking on different challenges, as
well as thinking creatively about how
to meet the needs of various student
populations.
to be navigated, and the amount
of time needed to deepen one’s
understanding of collegiate men.
However, the rewards of such work
are equally compelling. Consider
the student who graduated after
only one year of attending TLR and
reflected that it may have been the
most impactful of all of his collegiate
experiences. The continuing research
on the complexities of college men’s
development shows that our male
students need safe spaces to explore
their multiple social identities in
relation to masculinity; therefore,
it is our responsibility as educators
to challenge ourselves to view
this demographic through a more
intentional lens focused on finding
new ways to encourage male students
to play active and positive roles in their
campus community. TS
Embarking on an endeavor like
creating a men’s group on campus
can seem daunting because of
the complexities that need to be
considered, the political roadblocks
Laurel Dreher
is the coordinator of residence
education for Maple Hall at
Roger Williams University in
Bristol, Rhode Island. Email:
ldreher@rwu.edu.
Patrick Tanner
is the director of student
enrollment services at Penn
State York. Email:
ptanner@psu.edu.
The Journal of College and University Student
Housing Volume 39, Issue 1 is a special theme
issue of the Journal focusing on men’s issues. Look
for it in your mailbox and online in April 2012.
Continued
REGROUP
more importantly, as an individual.”
Reuter agrees that relationships
can be key to demonstrating mission
and values, particularly by involving
stakeholders from across campus
in the interview process. “We make
it a point to include many people
outside of our residence life staff
in the campus interview process so
candidates are exposed to those who
assist in bringing our mission to life.”
52
While the bells and whistles of
Talking Stick
gifts and notes in mailboxes and
welcome signs on interview room
doors may continue to be used as
gestures of congeniality, residence life
officials also continue to find ways to
align their recruitment processes with
the nuts and bolts of their mission
and values. In this way, they can
provide a recruitment experience that
is enjoyable but also illuminating, in
terms of portraying the organizational
culture. Such forthright introductions
of the office to the candidate and the
candidate to the office are important,
for at the end of the process the
candidate sitting in the chair across
from you could one day be the coworker sitting in the office next to
you. TS
.
Stacy Oliver
is the associate director of
student success at Lake Forest
College in Illinois. Email:
oliver@mx.lakeforest.edu.
march + april 2012
53
WelCome
University of East London
New Member Highlight
Primary contact: Phillip Andrews
University of East London is a two-campus,
28,000-student institution with its main
housing function served at its Docklands
Campus. This campus is located adjacent
to the ExCeL Centre, a major venue for the
Olympic Games and London City Airport.
The student housing is made up of en
suite clusters, with approximately five
students sharing a kitchen, social space,
and studios. The campus will host various
Olympic partners including Team USA this
summer. The university also has catering and
conference space available on both campuses
with UEL hosting significant amounts of
summer activity.
ACUHO-I welcomes members who joined between December 2, 2011, and February 2, 2012.
Institutions
Carlow University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Central Methodist
University
Fayette, Missouri
Dalton State College
Dalton, Georgia
Edinburgh Napier
University
Edinburgh, Scotland
New Jersey City University
Jersey City, New Jersey
Salve Regina University
Newport, Rhode Island
University of East London
London, England
54
Talking Stick
University of the South
Sewanee, Tennessee
Students
Associate Affiliates
Mario Brown
Christian Brothers
University
Memphis, Tennessee
Tresea Buckhaults
University of Louisiana at
Monroe
Monroe, Louisiana
Arnstein & Lehr LLP
West Palm Beach, Florida
Tadd Jawor
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia
Phillip Campbell
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois
Campus Crest
Communities
Charlotte, North Carolina
John Rudenko
Canisius College
Buffalo, New York
Korcett Holdings Inc.
Austin, Texas
Nathan Winters
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
Sustaining Affiliates
4240 Architecture
Chicago, Illinois
The Russell Partnership
(UK) LTD
London, England
Uniweb, Inc.
Corona, California
Hanan Mohamed
United Arab Emirates
University
Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates
Faculty
Lakesha Roney
Virginia State University
Petersburg, Virginia
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Snapshot
Yolanda Norman
What’s the biggest issue you see facing the profession right now?
Balancing mental health issues in the residence halls. An increase in roommate
concerns, private room requests, and parent worries involving mental health
issues must encourage us to stay on top of educating ourselves on this topic.
And of course the most important part of that education is not forgetting to
include our professional and student staff in those conversations and scenarios
in hopes of building a more informed campus team.
What makes your campus unique?
As a religious institution, faith is an important part of our identity, and you
see it in all that we do to build community on our campus. Whether it’s the
creation of the new Interfaith Student Group on campus or the openness of
being able to share your faith journey with others in the halls, it’s a proud and
significant piece of what makes us a community of learning and acceptance.
New social technology and media like texting and Twitter: How has
it helped your communication with staff and students? Is there a
downside to this type of communication?
Another self-reflection here: I am a little addicted to Twitter. It’s a daily part
of my work tasks to make sure I update our followers (@ustreslife) on what’s
happening in the halls and asking how we can make their time better in
the community. It has been an amazing response from our community and
again provides us another connection to our residents. Downside? Sure, you
sometimes miss those meaningful face-to-face interactions, but balancing this
medium helps you hold it all together.
What’s your biggest challenge on campus?
Yolanda Norman is the
director of residence life and
conference housing at the
University of St. Thomas,
Houston, Texas.
Have you received any
unusual housing or amenity
requests?
Yes, funny you should ask. I just
approved a pet request today for
a sugar glider (a small gliding
possum). I had never heard of
these little creatures but was
enlightened today by the resident
that put in the request, along with
a YouTube presentation of how it
glides. This is the first request of
its kind for this specific pet, so my
residents are excited to welcome
her to our halls. We all tried to
convince the resident to name her
“Suga” the Sugar Glider. Tweet
me and see if we succeeded.
56
Talking Stick
Marketing! Students on our campus get bombarded with announcements about
weekly events and programs on campus, and they start to become desensitized
to flyers and banners. So we have to think of creative ways to announce
upcoming events and happenings, and we pride ourselves on getting ideas from
our students. You get buy-in from them, they see their idea come to life, and
they tell others about it. Instant advertisement!
Best book you’ve been impressed by?
I am currently reading First in the Family by Kathleen Cushman (Lumina
Foundation publication), and I am extremely motivated by it. The motivation
comes from the fact that the book is full of student voices, and here at UST we
were afforded the opportunity to purchase the book for our First-Generation
College Student group. It is so wonderful to see our students identify with the
students in the book and connect their college journeys. Also, I am a firstgeneration college student graduate, and I have a strong passion for educating
others about access to higher education.
Favorite campus traditions?
It’s a new tradition that we started here at UST called Celts in the Courtyard.
It’s a really low key event that our entire residence life staff puts on each year
with the purpose of inviting faculty, staff, and commuters into the hall to build
community with our entire resident population. Residents are given special
invitations that they are asked to individually present to faculty and staff on
campus, inviting them into their homes. Participants engage in a hearty meal
and conversation, with a little Bingo kicking off the night.
ACUHO-I
Annual Conference & Exposition
July 7-10, 2012
is where you belong
RegistRation
open
P l a n n o w to j o i n u s i n a n a h e i m
Photos courtesy of: Knott’s Berry Farm
Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau
©Disney
AOCVCB/Seaworld
©Disney
www.acuho-i.org
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