Perspectives Fall 2015

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MISSION OF THE UMR-ACUHO MAGAZINE

The Communications Committee provides the UMR-ACUHO membership with an opportunity for information sharing, profes-sional dialogue, and a forum for ideas to increase the knowledge, wisdom, and excellence in our field.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSAdam Neveau Peru State College Committee Chair

Liz Hanley North Dakota State University

Josey Fog St. Olaf College

Brooks Hetle Kansas State University

Benjamin Markl University of Wisconsin-Stout

Eric Strong The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Sarah Weiler Carleton College

Phil Neuman Minnesota State University, Mankato

Dillon Pearson University of Wisconsin - Madison

Beth Steffen St. Catherine University

Susan Presto Iowa State University

Matt Diischer South Dakota State University

Kristi Preston University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point

Jon Bell Missouri State University

SUBMISSION GUIDELINESArticles should be limited to approximately 1500 words long (may be edited for length or content) and include a separate head shot of the author(s). Articles should be sent preferably through e-mail (in Microsoft Word format). If there are particular fonts or graphics that you would prefer, please include them with your submission. To receive feedback on your article, please be sure to submit 15 days prior to the deadline. Please send articles via e-mail to: [email protected].

UMR-ACUHO NON-DISCRIMINATION CLAUSE

UMR-ACUHO promotes and provides an environment of full op-portunity and service for all persons regardless of ethnicity, creed/religion, age, gender, disability, sexual/affectional orientation, or any human circumstance. The Association will not arbitrarily dis-criminate in its programs, procedures, or activities.

COVER DESIGN & MAGAZINE LAYOUT

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Adam NeveauChair, UMR-ACUHO

Communications Committee Director of Residence Life

Peru State College Email: [email protected]

Hello, UMR-ACUHO! Don’t look now, but your students are back and planning for winter break closing is right around the corner! We had a busy summer on my campus, and I imagine many of you were busy as well. Students arriving back on campus has been a welcomed relief, as it is every year, knowing that things are back to “normal.”

After the madness of summer and the hectic weeks of training and opening, the fall conference is always a welcomed break from the normal routine. This year, the conference theme is “Come to the Edge: Where Vulnerability Meets Action.” To accompany the conference, this issue of the magazine shares the same theme.

The committee has really enjoyed hearing stories from colleagues around the region in regard to this year’s theme. We all have stories about when we have taken risks in our lives; leaving a job mid-year, taking on a new position that you have never done before, implementing a brand new style of training, moving off-campus for the first time, the list is endless. I encourage you, as you read these stories, to think about how you can challenge yourself to take some risks and “come to the edge.”

As always, thank you for your continual support of UMR-ACUHO and Perspectives Magazine. If you are interested in submitting an article, you can email it to myself or any of the Communications Committee members. The next deadline is November 20th, and the theme is “Inside and Out: Mental Health and Wellness.” We hope that this theme will solicit some informative articles about some of the greatest challenges facing our field today. We hope that you consider writing an article.

See you at the conference!

Chair Note

Inside UMR 1

Inside UMRPresident’s Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

UMR Student Side Supporting Mixed Race College Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Yakkity Yak: We fought back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

“He Pushed Them and They Flew”: The Power of Professional Advising

& The MACURH Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

UMR Business SideMore Than a Dream, A Tradition of Access to Education Continues… . . . . . . . 14

One Edge of the World to the Other: From Astana to Madison . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Encouraging Best Practices in Student Staff Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Gender Inclusive Housing: Who’s Coming to the Edge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

UMR Personal SideHalf Empty or Half Full? Positivity, Negativity and Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

It’s All New…What Do I Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Budget Crisis: #LearningExperience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Pedestals, Pillars, & Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

UMR PerspectivesHaving the Grace to Follow Your Heart and Not Your “Supposed To .” . . . . . . . 34

An Open Letter to My White Colleagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Pre-ConferenceCome To The Edge UMR-ACUHO 2015: La Crosse, Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Things I Wish I Had Known When… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Walking to the Edge as a Moderator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Help at “The Edge”: Providing Beneficial Program Evaluations

at the Annual Conference… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The 2015 UMR-ACUHOExecutive Committee UMR-ACUHO

Fall 2015, Vol. 51, No. 3President Christina HurtadoCoordinator for Student DevelopmentKansas State University(785) [email protected]

Vice President/President ElectAaron MackeDirector of Residence LifeUniversity of St. Thomas(651) [email protected]

Immediate Past PresidentRian NostrumDirector of Residence LifeNorth Dakota State University(701) [email protected]

SecretaryMandie CravenAssistant Director of Residence LifeDakota State University(605) [email protected]

TreasurerTorin AkeyAssociate Director, Residential LifeMinnesota State University Mankato(507) [email protected]

Corporate Sponsorships CoordinatorBrian FaustDirector of Residential LivingUniversity of Wisconsin – Stevens Point (715) [email protected]

Inclusion and Equity CoordinatorBrian EmerickAssociate Director of Residential Life for Staffing and Student ProgramsSt. Cloud State University(320) [email protected]

State Membership CoordinatorAbby SylviaAssistant Director of Residence LifeUniversity of Wisconsin - [email protected]

State Membership CoordinatorTracy Gerth Assistant Dean of Residence Life ProgramsMarquette University(414) [email protected]

Technology and Sustainability CoordinatorGreg ThompsonAssistant Director of Residence EducationUniversity of Iowa(319) [email protected]

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By Christina Hurtado, UMR-ACUHO President, Area Coordinator for Student Development, Kansas State University

Hello, friends! I hope you are doing well! After a busy time of summer

orientation and enrollment, training, opening buildings, and welcoming students, I hope that you’ve found some time to rest and recharge, finding the necessary energy to carry you through the upcoming months.

For those of you that don’t know me, I have a confession to make. Writing the President’s Corner for each quarterly magazine is a struggle for me. Adam Neveau and the rest of the Communications Committee can attest to this, as they patiently and persistently remind me about upcoming deadlines and wait for me to submit, typically at the last minute and even, dare I say, past the deadline.

Why the difficulty in getting this task done? There are many reasons. I’m too busy with things at work or life and sometimes other things take priority. Sometimes I just don’t want to do it. The reality? It scares me! Committing my very personal feelings and experiences to paper for public consumption is not my idea of a good time. Opening myself up to others, especially those I don’t know is taking a HUGE risk, and I fear the scrutiny and the judgement of others. Every stroke of the keyboard adds to the pit in my stomach as I wonder if I am saying the “right thing” and question how I will be perceived by others. I hate to say it (you knew this was coming), but this is what we ask students in our com-munities to do every day.

Each year our students come to campus with a variety of different views and experiences, trying to navigate a new community and working hard to find themselves, as well as people they can connect with. Some students do well and are able to easily find their fit, while others need a little more help. As professionals, we sometimes get frustrated and question why it is difficult for students to be vulnerable and own their feelings or mistakes, admit they were wrong, and move on. As I reflect upon K-State’s Senior Staff training in July, the theme of wanting to do well and not making

mistakes came up quite a few times. Often we find ourselves in situations where we don’t have all the right answers but are afraid to admit it or ask for help. I believe that our own fear of being judged for not having the right answer or being afraid to admit we don’t have the knowledge or solution to any given issue holds us back. It holds us back from being our authentic selves, taking risks and being vulnerable and open to the possibility of what could be, and role modeling for our students that it’s okay to not have it all together all of the time.

Looking to October, we have the opportunity to “Come to the Edge” as we spend time together in LaCrosse for the fall conference. I challenge each of you to take some time prior to the fall conference to think and reflect on what it is you truly need to challenge yourself to take risks in your personal and work life and be vulnerable to new possibilities.

President’s Corner

Christina M. HurtadoUMR-ACUHO President,

Area Coordinator for Student Development,

Kansas State University Email: [email protected]

785.532.2233 (office) 785.313.3947 (cell)

Inside UMR 3

4 UMR Student Side

Supporting Mixed Race College Students

By Aracelis Figueroa, Assistant Complex Director, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Growing up as a person who identifies as mixed race, my parents always educated me about my different races because they ultimately wanted

me to decide how I wanted to identify. In the educational world, however, this was not the case. I experienced many challenges related to my identity. These challenges were mostly surrounding my physical attributes and not feel-ing connected to other students who shared one of my races. I have discovered that I am not alone in my feelings and that many other students identifying as mixed race experience the same challenges. This article focuses on the challenges mixed race college students face and how student affairs practitioners can combat these challenges.

� Historical ContextAccording to Kristen Renn (2011) biracial and multiracial

student are “individuals who have parents from more than one race group” (p.191). Multiracial students became more visible on college and university campuses in the 1990s due to the “emergence of a national multiracial movement to advocate for changes in how the federal government defined racial groups and collected data in the census” (Renn, 2011, p. 191). Beginning in 2000, participants were allowed to select more than one category in regards to race on the United States Census. “Of the 6.8 million people who indicated more than one racial category on the 2000 U.S. Census, 40 percent were under eighteen years old, predicting an increase in the number of multiracial students attending higher education in the coming years” (Jaschik, 2006, as cited in Shang, 2008 p. 5). With a growing number of individuals identifying as mixed race, there is a need to raise awareness of the experi-ences that this student population experiences, especially the negative experiences.

� ChallengesOne challenge mixed race students experience is the

struggle with identity development. Renn (2011) explains, “A central theme of this factor [physical appearance] is deal-ing with other people’s discomfort with, curiosity about, or attention (welcome or unwelcome) to the ways that many mixed-race people do not fit neatly into societal expectations of what it means to “look White” or “Black or Asian” (p. 196).

Sands and Schuh (2007) conducted a study where they interviewed six students to discover “how the racial identity formation of biracial students was affected by their experi-ences” (p. 198). Based on the research, Sands and Schuh (2007) found many different responses amongst the students in terms of self-identifying on applications. First, for some of the participants, choosing one race on applications was not an issue. For many of these students, their selection stemmed from limited selection choices and a result of lifelong habits (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 204). Additionally, “even though the ‘other’ selection is becoming popular on standardized forms, it appears that it is not well liked or is regarded as a completely inadequate choice” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 204). Self-identification for mixed race students becomes challenging because they are often forced to identify them-selves for society. The reality for mixed race students is that society wants to continuously place a label on individuals, which creates an issue for mixed race students who struggle to place themselves in one box.

Self-identification was not the only issue mixed race students experienced in this study. Students also experi-enced identity struggles based on the perception of their peers. Many of the students indicated they were repeatedly questioned about their racial backgrounds and were often “mistaken for a member of a racial group of which they were not a part” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 205). This is often an important aspect of identity development for mixed race stu-dents, as many mixed race students are challenged because their phenotypic qualities do not match their self-identified qualities. Both self-identification and peer perception play

into the challenge of identity development because mixed race students experience difficulty choosing a label to place on themselves while dealing with the criticism of their looks.

Another challenge this population experiences is a lack of mixed race spaces on campus, due to services primarily tailored to monoracial identities. In research conducted by King (2008), a biracial individual explains that she identified as biracial or multiracial but also felt that she did not have adequate resources, such as “language, cultural experiences, or cultural knowledge” (p. 37) in certain social settings to be considered a legitimate member of the group. For this student, based on her phenotypic qualities, she did not feel that the monoracial spaces were a perfect fit for her. I expe-rienced this challenge in college as well. My university had two monoracial student organizations: a Black Student Union and a Latino Student Union. Additionally, another student indicated that he did not appreciate automatically belonging to an organization because of one of his ethnicities (Brown, 2001 as cited in King, 2008, p. 36). This becomes a challenge for mixed race students because monoracial individuals are pressuring them to belong to their organizations, a space where mixed race students often feel uncomfortable.

� RecommendationsWhile there are multiple initiatives to support mixed race

students, I have identified a few solutions to help support this population of students. Student affairs practitioners and institutions should create support services or student organizations for mixed race students, ensure all forms are inclusive for all identities, and collaborate with monoracial organizations and identities to support or train them on how to be an ally for mixed race students.

Creating support services or student organizations for mixed race students is one initiative student affairs practitio-ners can implement at their institutions to offer support. There are a few existing organizations and support services across the nation; however, many of these groups and services are newly founded. Wong and Buckner (2008) have identified a few of these groups and services in their research. With all of the services they gathered, they found an emerging theme: “Professional staff assigned by the institution to deliver ser-vices to multiracial students and strong student leadership in the community of multiracial students” (Wong & Bucker, 2000, p. 46).

Many of the professionals and students involved identified as multiracial themselves or had some personal connection. In relation to this initiative, Sands and Schuh (2007) were able to identify a few emerging themes. “Some of the students felt that having a student organization on campus for biracial and multiracial students would be desirable” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 203). Additionally, the students commented on the involvement with the Office of Minority Student Affairs on their particular campus. “The services provided through the Office of Minority Student Affairs do not address issues specifically focusing on biracial students” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 203). From the experiences of these six students, having additional services would not only help raise aware-ness of the mixed race student population but would also offer support for mixed race students.

At UW-Whitewater, 3.24% (394 students) of total enroll-ment in fall 2014, including undergraduate and graduate students, identified as two or more races (University of Wis-consin-Whitewater, 2014). While this is not a huge popula-tion of students on campus, these students have no spaces unique to their mixed race identities. Currently two faculty/staff members and I are working to create a mixed race student organization with the hopes of offering a space for mixed race students and allies, while also raising awareness of multiracial identity. While this is a great step in the right direction, this is not the only initiative institutions can begin.

Another way to support mixed race students is to make sure institutional and departmental forms are inclusive of all identities. “If the racial categorization questions do not accurately depict their racial identity, the institution has, in a sense, already alienated them before they have arrived on campus” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 207). This is an important

Colleges and universities are responsible not only to advocate and support all students, but to also

provide an inclusive and welcoming environment.

UMR Student Side 5

6 UMR Student Side

concept, since the idea of forcing a mixed race student to choose a box they do not belong in is often traumatic.

When looking at the application UW-Whitewater uses, there are multiple ways students can identify: African Ameri-can or Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawai-ian/Pacific Islander, Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese, Other Asian, and White (University of Wisconsin, 2014). While this application is very inclusive of multiple races, one aspect that really struck me about this application is that despite the multiples races and the ability to check more than one race, there is still no other column for individuals to write in a race that does not appear on the application. If the univer-sity worked to add that line, they would be more inclusive, offering all identities the opportunity to not feel alienated before coming to campus.

Another aspect that speaks to being inclusive is making sure that your forms are taking all of a student’s identities into account. “If institutions do not have systems in place to track students by more than one race, biracial students may be alienated from preferred racial affiliations” (Sands & Schuh, 2007, p. 207). Institutions can alienate students if they allow them to identify as multiple races but not report all of the races that a student identifies. I often wonder: if a student chooses multiple races, do they fall into the two or more races categories or are each of their races taken into consideration? While counting each student’s identity into each racial category might skew data between the actual enrollment, it allows mixed race students to identify in a way that is most salient to each individual.

Finally, institutions can collaborate with monoracial orga-nizations to support/train them on how to work with mixed race students. Many mixed race students have stated that monoracial groups make them feel uncomfortable. “Scarlet, a participant in my study who is a Hawaiian and white mul-tiracial student and describes herself as “white-appearing,” felt very uncomfortable in ‘students of color spaces’ on her college campus” (King, 2008, p. 36). Additionally, King (2008)

explains, “Even when physical and social spaces for people of color are available, personal appearance and lack of cultural knowledge affect multiracial college students’ ability to be accepted by other students in those spaces” (p. 36). Renn (2011) also speaks to this in her research, “Often, however, multiracial students report that they encounter resistance from monoracial students based on physical appearance…or a perception that by claiming a multiracial identity, mixed students are somehow ‘trying to…escape their Blackness’ or other non-White identity” (p. 197). The underlying factor is that many mixed race students feel uncomfortable in monoracial spaces. By training monoracial groups how to interact and support mixed race students, this allows bira-cial students to feel welcome and want to participate in the monoracial events.

One aspect I really enjoy about UW-Whitewater is the inclusivity the campus has to offer. Many of the racially iden-tified student organizations allow for allies to attend their meetings. This allows anyone interested in supporting these students to feel welcome. Something that might help mixed-race students feel welcome is to add mixed-race identities in the constitution. The constitution of the mixed-race organiza-tion I am working to create on campus is very inclusive to all of the terms associated with mixed race students, including transracial adoptees, and allies of the population. This helps everyone feel welcome and avoids alienation.

� ConclusionThese recommendations are offered as a way for institu-

tions and student affairs professionals to become proactive within the mixed race student community. As Smith (1997) and others noted:

But diversity is finally not about the needs of one or another group competing for scarce resources. It is rather about purposeful and effective designs for supporting all students’ educational achievement. As

Creating support services or student organizations for mixed race students is one initiative student affairs practitioners can

implement at their institutions to offer support.

UMR Student Side 7

such, it is an integral component of the mission and purpose of the institution, and essential to whether our institutions are or will be positioned to educate all students for full participation in the economic, social, and civic domains of a diverse society. (as cited in Shang, 2008, p. 10)

Colleges and universities are responsible not only to advocate and support all students, but also to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment. When we think about our institutions and roles, what things are we doing to advo-cate for all underrepresented student groups, including mixed race students?

References

King, A.R. (2008). Student perspectives on multiracial identity. New Directions for Student Services, (123), 33-41. doi:10.1002/ss.284Renn, K.A. (2011). Biracial and multiracial college students. In M.J. Cuyjet, M.F. Howard-Hamilton, & D.L Cooper (Eds.), Multicultural-ism on campus: Theory, models, and practices for understanding (191-212). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.Sands, N. & Schuh, J.H. (2007). Identifying interventions to im-prove the retention of biracial students: A case study. Minority Stu-dent Retention: The Best of the Journal of College Student Reten-tion: Research, Theory, & Practice. Amityville: Baywood Publishing Company.Shang, P. (2008). An introduction to social and historical factors affecting multiracial college students. New Directions for Student Services, (123), 5-12. doi:10.1002/ss.281 Tatum, B.D. (1995). “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other conversations about race. New York: Ba-sic Books.University of Wisconsin (2014). Undergraduate Admissions Ap-plication. Retrieved from: https://apply.wisconsin.edu/Download-App.aspxUniversity of Wisconsin-Whitewater (2014). Enrollment by ethnici-ty. Retrieved from: http://www.uww.edu/Documents/ir/Facts%20and%20Figures/Enrollment%20-%20by%20Ethnicity.pdfWong, M.P.A. & Buckner, J. (2008). Multiracial student services come of age: The state of multiracial student services in higher ed-ucation in the United States. New Directions for Student Services, (123), 43-51. doi:10.1002/ss.285

Aracelis FigueroaAssistant Complex Director,

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @celly_fig

8 UMR Student Side

Yakkity Yak: We fought back.By Darcie Ellertson, Hall Director, North Dakota State University; Chelsee Rohmiller, Hall Director, North Dakota State University; Tyler Perkins, Hall Director, North Dakota State University; Shalyn Hopley, Hall Director, North Dakota State University; Michelle Sailor, Hall Director, North Dakota State University; Dani Gutierrez, Hall Director, North Dakota State University

In a digital age where anyone can find strength through anonymity, our society is still very much in its infancy regarding social media etiquette. There are countless

examples online where someone has decided to voice his or her opinion on a certain matter without really processing the lasting implications of his or her words. While it is widely known that once something is posted on the internet, it never truly goes away, there are still many people who throw cau-tion to the wind when it comes to their social media soapbox.

A recent case in point involves the content of the social media postings during the annual National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference. The content of the YikYak posting that came from the conference varied from uplifting to questionable material. As North Dakota State University (NDSU) was preparing for the 2015 National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) conference, we used the NASPA conference to guide the ways in which we utilized social media during our student-led conference. As professional residence life staff members who also advised student chairs for the NACURH conference, we talked with our students before the confer-ence about how we could use the NASPA conference as an example for our conference staff and participants.

As professionals, our conference advisors were all acutely aware of what happened at the NASPA 2015 conference with YikYak and did not want that to happen during our NACURH conference. We assumed that if professional staff members could write things like “SugarBaby (mid-level) seeking Sugar-Mentor. Primary needs: 5 star hotel, conference wardrobe, dinners & 1 purchase at NASPA silent auction. Willing to be arm candy & assist with presentations” or “What are your short

term goals? ‘I can’t wait to get out of this session’” on YikYak, then students were capable of writing the same or worse. While NASPA did release a statement about YikYak during the conference, we wanted to make sure there was no issue for NACURH or NDSU to have to publicly address. This does not mean that the NACURH conference was immune to negative messages. Delegates still wrote negative and inappropriate messages, such as the following:

Screenshots of negative yaks during NACURH 2015

UMR Student Side 9

When we first started talking about trying to “control” YikYak during the NACURH conference, our hall director staff collectively laughed. However, when we realized that our jokes about “controlling” YikYak were at least partly serious, we began to question how exactly we could attempt to exercise some control on the anonymous, highly democratic social media app during a conference such as NACURH.

Our process of working to keep the comments on YikYak appropriate and non-offensive began with our conference team and our professionals. Those who were comfortable with doing so were asked to help monitor the yaks on the app. Without the help of our staff and students, our ability to keep the anonymous posts positive would have been seri-ously hindered.

Over the course of the conference, we used many tech-niques to help curb the negativity found on YikYak such as:

�� Downvoting: YikYak works on a system based on votes where users are able to upvote posts they enjoy and downvote those which they dislike. An upvote adds one to the yak whereas a downvote subtracts one from the yak. If a yak ever receives a negative five at any time, the yak is immediately removed. This strategy was our most effective resource in combating any negativity or slander which appeared in the yaks. With our confer-ence team and professional staff regularly checking the app, we usually could quickly remove an offensive post by having five of us downvote it. In addition to our regular monitoring, we kept up group communication that allowed us to screenshot particularly disrespectful comments and ask for help from our group in down-voting the post.

�� Reporting: YikYak also has means of removing posts built into the application, namely reporting. Every post and comment can be reported. YikYak’s guidelines for reporting a post include “Offensive Content,” “This post targets someone,” “Spam,” and “Other.” When yaks were particularly aggressive or when inappropriate yaks were posted during uncommon hours for our team to be awake, reporting became another means of removing content from the feed, even if it was not as quick as downvoting.

�� Posting Conference-Related Content: Our team

regularly answered conference related questions posted through the site, posted our own reminders about conference events, and sent shout outs to particularly spirited groups through YikYak. By adding our own content, we could push negative posts further down in the feed. Ultimately, our positive posting seemed to be joined by the attendees of the conference themselves as they began using the app for similar purposes.

�� Posting Non-Conference Content: At times, some users would target NACURH-related posts to “troll” (making a deliberately offensive or provocative remark with the goal of upsetting someone or getting an angry response from them). When this began to happen, we tried posting content that had nothing to do with NACURH, which was not offensive. By adding content that was not NACURH related, we essentially provided distracting social media “noise” for trolls who wished to put a negative spin on conference content.

�� Upvoting: Ultimately, the attendees began to perpetu-ate this culture of positive posting on YikYak with many shout outs to each other and the conference team. In these cases, there was nothing more to do than smile and upvote it.

Some of these strategies were more effective than others at different points of the conference, and certainly some of them were methods we would not have thought of until actually experiencing the conference and watching the yaks that were occurring. Ultimately though, the most effective strategy to monitor and contain YikYak’s potential negative effects was communication amongst our team. By having our team buy into the value of maintaining a positive YikYak community, we were able to help start and perpetuate a community that enhanced the experience of the conference team and conference goers rather than detract with vicious anonymous social media musings.

Once negative posts began to roll in, it became clear what was worth removing and what was negative but worth passing over. Our general goal was to keep the feed as positive as pos-sible and monitor the themes of negative posts (Conference sessions? Food? No hot water?). Posts and comments on posts that were offensive, used derogatory or aggressive language, promoted breaking NACURH or NDSU policies, or that could be

10 UMR Student Side

interpreted as harassment or bullying were quickly targeted by conference staff for downvoting. Negative opinions about the conference experience were not necessarily downvoted because they gave us insight into the delegate experience. In these instances, we would comment on the original post with a positive or optimistic statement in hopes of shedding a new light on the situation. Overall, there were hundreds of YikYak posts about NACURH throughout the weekend, but a very small percentage of those posts required our attention.

In a twist of events that many of us were not initially expect-ing, delegates began censoring each other and conversing through YikYak about their experiences with a generally posi-tive tone. Attendees began allowing funny or important posts through, but downvoting those that were rude or unnecessary on their own. The first day of the conference yielded the high-est number of concerning posts, but by day four of NACURH, the content had shifted dramatically to being predominantly about conference questions, concerns, and shout-outs. Stu-dents asked for directions, voiced concerns about issues in the rooms and dining halls, and began talking about what was going well and not so well at our conference, which gave us very strong insight into what the attendees were thinking relative to the conference we were hosting. This should not have been so shocking since student leaders were utilizing the app, but considering even student affairs professionals

have struggled to use YikYak appropriately in a conference setting, it was certainly a pleasant surprise.

By and large, NACURH participants were posting positive messages on YikYak, even without our fight against nega-tivity. Though there were some posts which needed to be downvoted, we noticed that the more negative posts came from the local users rather than the NACURH visitors. Our local YikYak users questioned what our conference was about and there were subsequent posts that shed a very negative light on our conference. When this happened, the NACURH users took it upon themselves to talk about the many benefits of being involved through residence life leadership positions. Overwhelmingly, the NACURH users politely corrected the local users who sought to downplay the importance of the conference. In the end, the experience turned out to be a learning opportunity for the local YikYak users to see students, much like themselves, impassioned about taking ownership and pride in the leadership roles on their respective campuses.

Now that NACURH has passed and we have had time to reflect on our collective efforts to promote a positive atmo-sphere at our conference through monitoring YikYak, it is safe to say that the NDSU hall director team learned a very simple, but important lesson: positivity creates positivity. There were over 2000 conference attendees, and only 15 or so of us on “Team YikYak”. On paper it does not seem that we should have been able to have as much of an impact as we did; nevertheless, we were successful. With each downvote and positive yak we put out there, we set an example that was obviously seen and followed by other conference advisors and attendees. We created and exemplified the climate we hoped to achieve, which then caught on like wildfire. By the end of NACURH, Team YikYak was no longer just our small group of participating advisors and conference chairs, but rather the majority of NACURH conference attendees.

Our strategies for combating YikYak, while effective, are definitely not strategies that can be applied over a long period of time. It is not realistic to think that we will, in this fashion, be able to change the climate of YikYak in our residence halls or on our campus for the duration of the school year for many reasons: the most basic of which is that we simply don’t have the time to invest every single day into monitoring this app. However, NDSU will definitely be refining and reapplying our Team YikYak strategies to combat negativity at other short-term large group events, such as RA training, leadership training days, and future student conferences. The long-term take away

Another example of a negative yak during NACURH 2015

UMR Student Side 11

from this experience for us speaks volumes to the power of positivity, optimism, and being an example of the change you strive to see in your surroundings. We hope our experiment and lessons learned can be as useful and encouraging to you and your institutions as it was to ours.

Though there were some posts which needed to be down-voted, we noticed that the more negative posts came from the local users rather than the NACURH visitors. Our local YikYak users questioned what our conference was about and there were subsequent posts that shed a very negative light

on our conference. When this happened, the NACURH users took it upon themselves to talk about the many benefits of being involved through residence life leadership positions. Overwhelmingly, the NACURH users politely corrected the local users who sought to downplay the importance of the conference. In the end, the experience turned out to be a learning opportunity for the local YikYak users to see students, much like themselves, impassioned about taking ownership and pride in the leadership roles on their respective campuses.

Photo of the authors

Darcie EllertsonHall Director,

North Dakota State UniversityEmail: [email protected]

Chelsee RohmillerHall Director,


Twitter: @chelsrohmiller

Tyler PerkinsHall Director,


Twitter: @tylertperkins

Shalyn HopleyHall Director,


Michelle SailorHall Director,


Dani GutierrezHall Director,


Twitter: @JustDaniG

12 UMR Student Side

“He Pushed Them and They Flew”: The Power of Professional Advising & The MACURH ExperienceBy Emily Braught, Regional Director of the Midwest Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls, Undergraduate Student at the University of Iowa

The Midwest Affiliate of College and University Resi-dence Halls, or MACURH, is the student leadership organization for students living in the residence halls

at affiliated schools in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. Much like in the Midwest, Wisconsin schools have the oppor-tunity to affiliate with the Great Lakes Affiliate.

Though MACURH’s impact on students can be great, MACURH experiences quite a bit of turnover from year to year; student leaders are moving off campus, causing MACURH and their residence hall days to become only a memory. Retention-wise, there’s only so much we can do in this area, but we can reach out to those who typically stay around a little longer: advisors.

The student conference experience, regardless of region, is invaluable. A really unique opportunity to build skills that may not exist primarily on campus environments, students who get involved with MACURH typically develop strong net-working skills, enhanced communication skills in computer- mediated environments, an ability to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds, and a better understanding of broader perspectives and bigger pictures.

Advisors have the unique power to draw people to the edge and help them fly. "Come to the edge," advisors can say, "come to this conference." Con-ferences speak for themselves; you lead the students to water, and they’ll drink. Then, they’ll fly.

The conference advising experience is one that is immer-sive, with the unique opportu-nity to go above and beyond in building connections and

relationships with the students who attend. Student lead-ers are leaders because of the advisors that promote and cultivate their leadership style, empowering them to great things. Conferences are a great way to do just that.

As Regional Director, I speak from experience in saying that having an advisor that encourages involvement with MACURH is one of the greatest things for the region and is absolutely great for helping students fly. If advisors value what MACURH can do for their schools and for their student leaders, students will learn to see the value in what MACURH has to offer. On the flipside, if advisors arrive at conferences skeptical about what it can do for their school, students won’t take what they can from the conferences. "Come to the edge," advisors must say, "MACURH will help you fly."

And so, I hope that housing professionals in advising roles this coming year will:

�� Preach the value of networking, sharing experiences, and learning from other institution’s experiences

�� Encourage regional student involvement throughout the year

�� Share their own excitement and stories about their residence hall experiences as a way to reinvigorate student motivation

�� Support students as they pursue involvement region-ally and nationally

UMR Student Side 13

�� Actively Engage and Set a Strong Example with your own regional involvement through ART Sessions, Advisor Chats, and any other regional opportunity.

MACURH is in a state of transition, molding into some-thing new. I am hoping that MACURH can rely on advisors to encourage their students to get involved, excelling and engaging in their on-campus positions, but also in their regional experiences. Advisors to the region have been excep-tional in the past few years and we, as students invested in the future of this region, really hope that this trend continues. When students see advisors who care, inspire, and catalyze growth in the MACURH experience, it makes the student experience seem that much more valuable and validated. Advisors have so much power in creating a positive experi-ence for not only students at their own institutions, but in roles across the regions.

In order for the Midwest to succeed and push forward, our student leaders need to be backed by advisors and

housing professionals who value the MACURH experience and by schools who understand the services we provide. As professionals who continue to push yourself towards the edge, attracted to what’s off the cliff, please remember the responsibility you have to your students and the power you have to push your students towards the same vulnerable experiences you seek to find for yourself. MACURH will not make students fall; we strive to make them fly. Help us bring students to the edge.

Emily BraughtRegional Director of the Midwest

Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls,

University of Iowa, Email: [email protected]

14 UMR Business Side

More Than a Dream, A Tradition of Access to Education Continues…

By Heidi Anderson-Isaacson, Director of Residence Life, St. Catherine University; Sabrina Anderson, Associate Director of Residence Life, St. Catherine University; Beth Steffen, Area Director for Residence Life, St. Catherine University

Reverend John Todd, a protestant minister denounced women’s education… “As for training young ladies through a long intellectual course, as we do young

men, it can never be done. They will die in the process… She must be on the strain all the school hours, studying in the evening until her eyes ache, her brain whirls, her spine yields, and gives way, and she comes through the process of education enervated, feeble, without courage or vigor, elasticity or strength” (Ryan, 1991). The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet wouldn’t have it! They forged ahead, starting a women’s college at a time when it was socially unacceptable for women to lead and influence. At their core is the belief that providing access to education is crucial for women in the world.

Over 100 years later, we are faced with similar challenges with a whole new group of students. As a result of its mission of providing access to education, St. Catherine University has been admitting students on a conditional basis for many years. We believe that these women have the potential to excel even though their educational or personal histories indicate they may need some extra support. Upon being conditionally admitted, students are instructed to take a lighter course load and are placed in a program that provides them with additional resources. These resources include, but are not limited to, study skills courses, required writing/reading courses, assistance in math courses, and more one on one advising. Unfortunately our research indicated these students, even when supported by significant programs, were not persisting to graduation.

As a Residence Life staff, we felt that we could assist the University and really get behind the goals of the institution by providing even more intensive and intrusive support. Many of the students who were admitted in this group are first generation students and found themselves commut-ing to and from campus due, in part, to family obligations,

financial concerns, or other obstacles that prevented them from living on campus. As we all know, national research indicates that living on campus helps students be more successful academically. Our own institutional research sup-ports this data and we knew there was something that had to be done to improve the grades, persistence and gradu-ation rates of these students. After much discussion, the Emerging Scholars Living Learning Community was created with support from Academic Advising, Career Development, Multicultural & International Programs & Services, the Deans Office, the O’Neil Center (academic support center), Admis-sions and the Money Management Office on campus. This team began meeting in February of 2014 with an ambitious goal of launching the program in September of 2014.

The team was an integral part of helping this Living Learn-ing Community come to fruition, meeting every two weeks to create the program. Following Resident Advisor selection for the 2014-2015 academic year, the RAs for the floor were added to the team as well. In an effort to add more peer support to the floor, we added two Study Advocate posi-tions. These upper-class students, who had been a part of the conditionally admitted group in the past, were charged with providing more academic assistance to the students and to serve as role models to demonstrate that with hard work, anything is possible. As a group we set the following goals for the year:

�� Increased GPA’s

�� Higher retention rates

�� Increased connection to community

�� Improved four, five and six year graduation rates

We will compare them to conditionally admitted students in the past and to those conditionally admitted students in their class that did not choose to participate in the Emerging Scholars Floor. We plan to track this group through gradua-tion which could be up to the next six years.

As we added this new Living Learning Community to our program later than usual, we knew we needed to get the students excited about it. We intentionally opened the floor to all students interested in the additional support

UMR Business Side 15

Beth SteffenArea Director for

Residence Life, St. Catherine

University Email: ejsteffen@

stkate.edu, Twitter: @quadleader

Heidi Anderson- Isaacson

Director of Residence Life, St. Catherine University

Email: hjanderson@ stkate.edu,

Twitter: @HeidiAI09

but focused our intensive marketing on our conditionally admitted students with the hope that they would decide to live on the floor. Some of the marketing efforts included:

�� Postcards to the student's home address hoping par-ents may see it

�� Emails to the student explaining the program

�� Resident Advisor phone calls to each conditionally admitted student

The peer to peer calls made by the RA was by far the most successful marketing tools The RA’s excitement for the floor was contagious resulting in 34 students choosing to live in this community in its first year.

As the team met, we knew having a strong presence by each of the offices supporting this floor was key to a success-ful program. As a result, we decided it was best to create a shared office for all of these services to schedule regular office hours right in the Residence Hall. We hoped students would be more likely to use these support services if they were visible and available right in the residence hall. Another key component of the curriculum for the floor were monthly Dine & Learns. At these events we provided the students with a meal (lunch or dinner) and speakers on topics key to a successful transition to college. The subjects we covered during the 2014-2015 school year were:

�� How to Navigate Your College Experience (September)

�� Time Management (October)

�� Stress Relief (December)

�� Social Media Presence (February)

�� Financial Aid, Help & Resources (March)

�� Career Development & Major Selection (April)

�� End of Year Celebration (May)

We requested that students attend at least five of the sessions as a part of living in the community.

At the same time we started this floor, the University also implemented MAP-Works, a comprehensive retention tool which gives us early indication that a student may be

struggling or considering leaving the institution. We knew we could use this tool to have intentional conversations with each student and help them access the services they needed to be successful at the University. This also allowed us to get a sense of the climate of the floor and could program specifically to the needs of this unique community. We were also able to utilize mid-term and first semester final grades to meet with students one on one in a more intentional advising manner to help them evaluate their first semester and set goals and actions plans for success in their second semester.

At the end of our first year of this program, we couldn’t be happier as we met the goals we originally set for the floor with 100% retention from first semester to second semester and higher GPA’s than the comparison groups. The most satisfying process to watch was the development of this very strong, connected and supportive community. The students were very involved on both the floor and within the university community. They definitely found their place at St. Kate's through participation in this unique, new initiative.

As we look toward the future, we plan to keep an eye on this first group of students and anticipate that we will continue to see overall retention and GPA’s continue to increase and are eager to compare their rates of graduation. We hope to create a mentoring program to keep the group involved with the floor as they move into their second year of school. Although this is a very different time and a differ-ent challenge than our founding sisters faced over 100 years ago, we hope those strong, feisty women approve of the continued efforts we put in as a University to provide access to education to give these young women an opportunity to achieve their dreams.

References

Ryan, Rosalie. (1991). More than a Dream: Eighty-five Years at the College of St. Catherine. In C.Konchar Farr, M. M. Phillips, & N.A. Heitzeg (Eds.), The Catherine Core Reader (33-50). Acton, MA: Xan-Edu.

Sabrina AndersonAssociate Director of

Residence Life, St. Catherine University

Email: sabrinaanderson@ stkate.edu,

Twitter: @abrissabris


By Kristina Rittel, Coordinator - Student Services & Assignments, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Matt Kulju, Coordinator – Student Services & Communications, University of Wisconsin – Madison

As more students find their time to degree completion increasing, the University of Wisconsin has prioritized an increase in summer class offerings to allow students

to engage in intensive study of more challenging courses. The summer student experience is becoming more integral to the Wisconsin Experience, with the eventual goal that all UW stu-dents participate in a summer course at some point during their academic career. As participation in summer courses increases, more students are in need of housing accommodations during that period. To accommodate this influx, UW-Madison University Housing has increased available occupancy for summer ses-sions students from 98 in 2013 to 237 in 2015. Participation in this summer residential program by UW-Madison students and visiting scholars has increased 96% (Rittel, 2015).

This increase in students taking summer courses, paired with increased capacity in the residence halls, has positively influenced the diversity of the summer population and added value to the experience for all students. The summer session is unique in that it encompasses students from 30 states and 12 countries as well as 106 students from other institutions (Rittel, 2015). This diverse makeup gives students the chance to learn and grow from each other and to create a unique experience in the residence halls outside of the traditional

academic year experience. Residence Life staff provide pro-gramming and support to students to build community, including Wisconsin highlights such as: Babcock Dairy Store tour-a UW-Madison favorite, a trip to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game, an outing to the Cave of the Mounds, and an American Slang Forum. Staff also hold daily social and com-munity standard rounds and informational house meetings. All of these aspects create an academically engaging and culturally diverse summer session experience not found in an off-campus accommodation.

Increased capacity has allowed University Housing to welcome large groups from various partner institutions. Par-ticularly, a new relationship with Nazarbayev University (NU) in Kazakhstan has provided the opportunity for 60 students to spend eight weeks in Madison, Wisconsin. For many of these students, it is the first time leaving their home country. For example, NU student Nazerke “Nancy” Moldakyn has been dreaming of coming to the United States her whole life to “live the American dream.” Nancy was overwhelmed with the polite, warm, and welcoming demeanor of Americans and fondly remembers the warm welcome she received from her customs agent upon arrival (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal communication, June 30, 2015).

And yet, the summer experience for NU students is more than simply taking a summer course in a new country. In speak-ing with NU students, we have learned that it enhances the overall student experience. While attending UW-Madison, NU student Alex Jaguparov meets twice a week with his conversa-tion partner, an American student, to practice his English. In turn, Alex helps strengthen this student’s Russian, an official language of Kazakhstan. This has not only bettered Alex’s English proficiency, but has also played a part in him learning about American and Wisconsin culture, while allowing him to develop a relationship with another student outside of the traditional academic setting (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal communication, June 30, 2015).

Aside from academic interactions, Nancy and Alex have come to know students from a variety of different backgrounds simply from living in Merit Residence Hall, one of 19 Residence Halls at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A “foodie” herself,

One Edge of the World to the Other: From Astana to Madison


Nancy enjoys seeing her hall-mates cook foods respective to their various cultures for one another. This has enticed her to delve more into their cultures, and sparked a passion to share her own culture with other students in her hall. She has gone so far as to suggest planning an “International Culture Day” to explore the different cultures and customs of the students living around her. Nancy also took it upon herself to explore a subset of American food culture by volunteering at Mad City Vegan Fest, an annual food festival to explore and enjoy deli-cious vegan food (Mad City Vegan Fest, 2015). This experience allowed Nancy to actively discover what volunteering is like in a different setting, which she recalls is very different from volunteer experiences she has had in her home country. It was a great way to not only immerse herself in a completely new culture, but also to get involved in the greater Madison community (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal commu-nication, June 30, 2015).

While we appreciate the diversity that NU students bring to our campus during the summer, they too appreciate the diver-sity of experience they receive by studying at UW-Madison. For

example, Alex notes the differences in the academic environ-ments between UW-Madison and his home institution. He says in Kazakhstan, the government finances most students’ tuition, so some students have a tendency to “slack off” or not take their studies seriously. He appreciates the work ethic of American students financing their own education and likes to see students studying and working hard to be successful (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal communication, June 30, 2015).

Alex and Nancy have appreciated the opportunity they have had to study here at UW-Madison. Studying abroad is an incredible opportunity, but they take special note of the academic and personal growth they are gaining by their participation in this program. Nancy says it “opens [her] eyes,” and is “a learning and life lesson all in one,” to which Alex agreed (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal communica-tion, June 30, 2015). It is encouraging to see two individuals thriving in an environment that is so different from their routine back home. Their comments highlight the importance of broadening horizons and being open to new experiences, opportunities, and cultures (N. Moldakyn & A. Jaguparov, personal communication, June 30, 2015).

Alex and Nancy’s stories are just two of 208 experiences that are created during the UW-Madison summer session. We know their fellow NU students and other hall-mates are creating similar experiences through their everyday interac-tions and extracurricular involvements. It is our hope that in the future, we can continue to expand occupancy. This way, more students and programs can continue to pursue their academic interests through summer course options while participating in the culturally diverse experience that is living in the University Residence Halls.

ReferencesMad City Vegan Fest. (2015) Retrieved from http://www.veganfest.org/Rittel, K.M. (2015). [Summer session survey]. Unpublished raw data.

Matt KuljuCoordinator – Student Services &

Communications, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Email: matthew.kulju@ housing.wisc.edu

Kristina RittelCoordinator - Student Services &

Assignments, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Email: kristina.rittel@ housing.wisc.edu


By Will Harmon, Residence Hall Director, University of Wisconsin La Crosse; Joe Lasley, Assistant Director for Residence Education and Staff Recruitment, University of Southern Mississippi

S tudent staff selection. The combination of these simple words invokes memory and experience for many of us in residence life. It brings to mind our

successes and our misses. Selecting students to serve in staff positions is a large undertaking, and represents some important decisions we make in a calendar year. Ultimately, the success or failure of students in these positions determines how effective we are as professionals for our halls. Selecting students to serve in these positions is the first piece of an important puzzle. Yet, for all of the time and energy that we spend examining, tweaking, and modifying our selection processes, have we ever asked the question: Do we really know what we are doing?

A common belief that is supported in research is that if you hire “the right fit”, a person can be trained and developed to be successful. Sometimes we misuse this notion when hiring student staff because we don’t have a good way of distinguishing the true abilities and potential between Candidate 87 or Candidate 88. In reality, most of us in residence life hire 40% to 60% of our total applicant pool which, by definition, is not very selective. We also tend to over-complicate our selection processes, when what is most important to find in a potential staff candi-date, is their basic competence and affinity to develop. Instead, we often cite our own personal experiences, our successful hires and our learned lessons from our employ-ment issues. We craft in our minds a list of adjectives for what we are looking for in a candidate, or we pay heed to our gut-instinct because it was right about that one candidate, that one time.

We can intentionally create best practices for our institutions by recognizing and integrating our subjec-tive experiences with fields of expertise. We can create specific, accurate, and equitable models for student staff selection while also limiting the amount of time, energy, and mental effort spent in deciding between candidates.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

The abstract nature of the resident assistant job is a challenge to confirming our accuracy in our perceptions of candidates for resident assistant positions. Yet, justify-ing that applicants are being hired based on job-related factors is necessary (Gatewood, Field, & Barrick, 2011). We cannot assume that everyone who applies is qualified for a particular job, but to separate qualified applicants from those who are not, we need to define and clarify what knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are required of our candidates.

The term KSA is shorthand for the factual information about how to do a job [knowledge] that the individual possesses and the degree to which the individual can perform the activities of the job [skills and abilities].

Gatewood, Field, & Barrick, 2011, pgs 3-4

For example, when surveying our professional staff, “being open to others and wanting to learn about others’ experiences” was identified as a trait we wanted student staff to possess. Upon reading this, those in residence life know what this means, but to make meaning between individuals, and to clarify our intent towards this vague description, we needed to further define this as a KSA.

A robust list of specific KSAs may be difficult to produce as opposed to a more relative set of competencies. This is

Encouraging Best Practices in Student Staff Selection


due to the high need for personality factors affecting leadership, social interaction, and diversity awareness in a very dynamic working environment. We are also limited to our own knowledge base regarding personality traits. Resources from the Department of Labor can be found at www.onetonline.org to provide initial structure when developing KSAs or competencies. Significant inferential leaps may be necessary in order to connect major job functions to specific selection criteria (Gatewood, Field, & Barrick, 2011).

To continue our example, upon consulting the resources at www.onetonline.org, specifically under the heading Residential Advisors, the Social Perceptiveness heading under Skills helped us create a common language for our vague trait described earlier.

We defined Social Perceptiveness, for University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse, as:

Is aware of others’ reactions and understands why they react as they do. Ability to regulate emotions and impulses. Can monitor/assess self-performance, the performance of others, and can adjust own actions in relation to other’s actions. Ready to embrace training and other learning opportunities. Recognizes the impact of decisions on others.

By establishing this KSA, we created a common lan-guage for our professional staff to increase the clarity in our communication over abstract feelings and judge-ments we were inferring about our candidates.

A very important consideration in this process, for the office of residence life, is finding a balance between rigorous methods and limited resources (time, money, personnel, and lack of expertise). It is important that these methods are integrated carefully to avoid creating a hodge podge of ill-defined concepts (Campion, Fink, Ruggenberg, Carr, Phillips & Odman, 2011). A job analysis can be used to ensure we have well defined criteria.

The Job Analysis

A basic job analysis, in our residence life context, is simply a purposeful process for determining important work-related aspects of a job (Gatewood, Field, & Barrick, 2011). It can include basic job duties along with identify-ing selection criteria and differentiating training needs

based on characteristics needed to perform in particular roles. The primary methods we suggest for conducting a job analysis in residence life are focus groups and a professional staff survey. Focus groups are essential for ensuring support and buy-in. They also leverage the notion of creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts by working collaboratively.

It is important to start by consulting with supervisors and gain support in order to ascertain contextual informa-tion about how the findings can be practical within the department. We don’t need to start from scratch. First, utilize the hard work of current staff on committees by consulting the job descriptions, training materials and manuals they have developed for these positions. We can also reference current competencies from national professional organizations like ACUHO-I. The major job functions and competencies will form a starting block for discussions with focus groups. This information will need to be compiled along with organizational values and used to prepare a semi-structured facilitation protocol for focus groups.

There should be several different focus groups. Groups can be created for student staff in their first year of employment, staff with more experience, and supervi-sors of student staff. All of the groups need to include basic training about the concepts of job analysis, KSAs, and competencies to ensure everyone is on the same page. A major focus is qualifying what is needed at different points (selection, training, development, etc.) and how different characteristics are acquired (inherent, in training, on the job, over time, etc.). This is how we identify certain characteristics, such as knowledge of campus resources, which interfere with our ratings of candidates that will receive training in those areas.

Each group can highlight different areas based on par-ticipants’ unique perspective but all groups need to cover the following topics in some fashion: major job functions; some tasks for major job functions; KSAs; competencies; frequency and importance of job functions; timing and methods for developing KSAs/competencies. The find-ings should advise committees on how to implement the new staffing model by specifying what results relate to different functions (training vs selection) and how KSAs can be developed.

Following the focus groups, work with the current committees to create visual representations and official lists for the major job functions and a competency model.


Part of this may start in the supervisor focus group. Con-sult the Department of Labor at www.onetonline.org and the Big Five Personality Traits outlined in the Five Factor Model for examples of how to define personality constructs as KSAs. The Big Five personality dimensions can predict performance, particularly in positions working with people (Klehe, Kleinmann, Hartstein, Melchers, Konig, Heslin & Lievens, 2012). Type indicator style personality measures, such as Myers-Briggs and StrengthsQuest, should be avoided as justification for hiring decisions but can be very useful for team development. Behavior-ally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) should be written as rubrics for each KSA/competency to clarify different levels of ability when evaluated. As KSAs provide a description for what we are trying to measure, BARS complement our KSAs by providing a description of a candidate’s specific ability in relation to the KSAs.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Now that we have a) what we are looking for, and b)

how to recognize what we are looking at, we need a way to obtain relevant data about our candidates. Behavioral interview questions are necessary in order to evaluate candidates’ abilities in relation to the KSAs. Behavioral interview questions allow the interviewer to probe for a deeper impression of the candidate’s personality. For instance: “Tell us about a time when you worked with a person who thought differently from yourself” could be followed up with potential probes like “How would you characterize interactions between you and the person?” The interviewer learns about the candidate and gains an impression about their personality through this pro-cess. Successful evaluation of candidates depends on the interviewers possessing complete knowledge of the KSAs prior to the interview.

Knowing What We Are Doing

We may not be experts in organizational psychol-ogy or personality constructs. We can be intentional and create objective criteria in the form of KSAs or com-

petencies relying on our actual expertise in what is needed to be successful in residence life. Additional best practices from other fields, including the use of job analysis, behavioral inter-view questions, and BARS, can be adopted for use in residence life. We invite you to challenge our status quo, experiment, and implement ideas, creating new best practices for student staff selection.


References

Campion, M. A., Fink, A. A., Ruggeberg, B. J., Carr, L., Phillips, G. M., & Odman, R. B. (2011). Doing competencies well: Best practices in competency modeling. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 225-262. Re-trieved from doi:10.1111/j.17446570.2010.01207Gatewood, R., Field, H., & Barrick, M. (2011). Human Resource Se-lection. Mason, OH: South-West Cengage Learning

Klehe, U., Kleinmann, M., Hartstein, T., Melchers, K. G., Konig, C. J., Heslin, P. A., & Lievens, F. (2012). Responding to personality tests in a selection context: The role of the ability to identify criteria and the ideal-employee factor. Human Performance, 25(4), 273-302. Retrieved from doi:10.1080/08959285.2012.703733U.S. Department of Labor. Browse by O*NET Data. Retrieved from http://www.onetonline.org/search/

Joe LasleyAssistant Director for Residence

Education and Staff Recruitment,University of Southern Mississippi

Email: [email protected]

Will HarmonResidence Hall Director,

University of Wisconsin La CrosseEmail: [email protected]


By Joshua Lee, Assistant Director of Residence Life, St. Olaf College; Sarah Debevec, Area Director, University of Minnesota Duluth

Gender Inclusive Housing (GIH) is a “hot topic” (Branson, 2011) in the housing and residence life arena– very rarely can you attend a professional conference without

observing multiple presentations, roundtables and/or keynote speakers discussing the trends on gender inclusive housing. Thus, as the UMR-ACUHO Assessment and Information Manage-ment (AIM) committee sat down to determine what our survey project should be for the year, gender inclusive housing was at the top of the list.

With most things in higher education, establishing and maintaining gender inclusive housing facilities on campuses may sound simple and rudimentary because that is what we do... we house students! However, as we learned from our survey, there are some complexities that make this task much more arduous than one might think.

To date, it is reported that 166 college and universities across the United States provide full GIH and allow students to select roommates of any gender (Beemyn, 2015). While these institutions are pioneers within higher education, federal housing, anti-discrimination, and Title IX laws increasingly support GIH (Lhamon, 2014).

To get a pulse as to where the UMR region is in relation to GIH, our committee sent out a survey to all senior hous-ing officers (SHOs) in UMR. The survey sought quantitative information, as well as qualitative responses regarding the trials, tribulations, and triumphs in the implementation of campus GIH. As you see on the infographics, 48 institutions answered our call to participate.

Of the 48 respondents, 61% (29) currently offer GIH options, 36% (17) do not offer GIH options, and 7% (4) have plans to offer GIH options in the future.

When looking at the data reported by institutions cur-rently offering GIH: the most common GIH option offered at institutions is by room, suite and/or apartment (48% of respondents), and the most common type of facilities where GIH is offered is in apartments (78%), pod/suite style facilities (52%), and traditional double rooms (30%).

As with most things in higher education, there is always a need to contemplate the legal ramifications and costs asso-ciated with making a change to current practice– GIH is no exception. Thus, when we asked respondents whose insti-tutions offer GIH to tell us what legal considerations and/or institutional policy changes were contemplated when implementing GIH, we were surprised when the overwhelm-ing answer was minimal to none. Most respondents reported that it simply took some language updating on policies and/or contracts which a legal team (or Board of Regents, etc.) had to review. In addition, when asked about costs associated with implementing GIH, the majority of respondents reported no monetary costs, just resources spent in the form of staff time devoted to developing policies, advertising/awareness, and contract changes related to GIH.

Based on the data collected from our survey respondents about nominal legal considerations and costs associated with

Gender Inclusive Housing:Who’s Coming to the Edge?

www.umr-acuho.org/documents/cms/docs/Communications_/GIH.pdf


implementing GIH, the question we found ourselves asking then was ‘Why not?’ After reviewing the collected data from the 17 institutions that reportedly did not offer and had no plans to offer GIH, it is clear that there are several contribut-ing factors.

The leading reason why GIH is not offered on these cam-puses is due to a lack of appropriate housing facilities to accommodate GIH (52.9%). Following the facility-related concerns were a university mission/values conflict exists (29.4%), lack of campus support (17.6%), currently a single-gender university (12%), a lack of student support (11.8%), and, finally, political concerns (12%).

As with most things in life which seem easy at the start, the implementation of GIH may not be as easy as it seems. However, implementing GIH is possible and has been done successfully at many of our peer campuses. The resources are out there, so have confidence that it can and does work. Some institutions publicize GIH more openly than others; one example of a very open and public process can be found on the University of Wisconsin La Crosse housing webpage: http://www.uwlax.edu/ResLife/Gender-Inclusive-Housing/. And who knows… you may find that once GIH is offered at your institution, you, like one of our respondents, might say, “We should have done this sooner.”

Be bold and come to the edge toward change!If your institution is looking at implementing GIH

and you would like some GIH implementation wisdom, advice, and/or mentorship along the way from those SHOs and/or institutions who have been there before, please email Joshua Lee ([email protected]) and/or Sarah Debevec ([email protected]) and we will happily provide you with the names of those respondents who volunteered to serve as resources!

“We should have done this sooner.” Be bold and come to the edge toward change!If your institution is looking at implementing GIH

and you would like some GIH implementation wisdom, advice, and/or mentorship along the way from those SHOs and/or institutions who have been there before, please

email Joshua Lee ([email protected]) and/or Sarah Debevec ([email protected]) and we will happily provide you with the names of those respondents who volunteered to serve as resources!

ReferencesBeemyn, G. (2015, July 2). Colleges and Universities that Provide Gender-Inclusive Housing. Retrieved July 2, 2015, from http://old.campuspride.org/tpc-gih/ Branson, K. (2011, March 4). Hot Topic: Gender-Neutral Housing. Retrieved July 1, 2015, from http://news.rutgers.edu/special-content/hot-topic-gender-neu-20110304#.VZRY-_lViko Lhamon, C. (2014, April 29). Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence. Retrieved July 2, 2015, from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/

Sarah DebevecArea Director,

University of Minnesota DuluthEmail: [email protected]

Joshua LeeAssistant Director of Residence Life,

St. Olaf College Email: [email protected]

www.umr-acuho.org/documents/cms/docs/Communications_/GIH_2.pdf

Half Empty or Half Full? Positivity, Negativity and VulnerabilityBy Chris Mueller, Residence Life Coordinator, Kansas State University

"You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life."

This phrase hangs above my office door and serves as my profile picture on Twitter. I have written it down many times in hope that I won’t forget it and so I can share it with others. Until recently however, I hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to what being a “positive person” means, and in the words of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

I wasn’t raised in an overly positive family and perhaps my drive to learn about positivity is an unconscious attempt to undo any negative groundwork laid in my youth. My family wasn’t negative, we just didn’t ooze positivity 24/7. We are a happy group of people. We are just a group of realists. Quite honestly, and it didn’t occur to me until writ-ing this sentence, I can’t recall talking about dreams very often. We spoke about things we wanted to do when we grew up and places we wanted to visit on vacation, but we didn’t expend a great deal of energy discussing ques-tions like “what would you do if money was no obstacle?” or “If you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your time?” I think this shaped a lot of my thoughts surround-ing work and how I go about planning for my life. I also want to highlight this fact because even though we didn’t usually fit the bill of being “dreamers” or “Polly Positivity,” we managed to support and love one another in a way that built a happy life.

I believe in using positive thinking strategically and selectively. I don’t espouse it at every moment of my day. I usually have a very difficult time connecting with people who do. On the other side of the coin, I also cannot stand to spend a great deal of time around people with a pro-pensity to be negative all the time. They drain my energy. In both cases I find it incredibly exhausting trying to empa-thize emotionally with people who gravitate to emotional extremes in everyday situations. I don’t want to (and often

do not have the determination) talk through all of the “beautiful mistakes” that occurred today and how “despite everything going wrong, it was still an absolutely perfect way to spend an afternoon.” That is a lot of sunshine and lollipops dripping out of your mouth and, to quote a lot of 14 year olds, “I can’t even.” On the flipside, I refuse to accept the fact that “Chipotle ran out of guacamole and that this random chance event is another in a long list of signs telling you that the world is out to get you and you’re all alone in the fight.” Both mind frames are frustrating, hard to connect with, and quite frankly, a touch annoy-ing at times. I need some time to get in the right mood and mindset before we embark down either rabbit hole.

All this to say, I think I land in the emotional middle of the road which can be pretty tough place to be. Until recently, I thought and believed that I was emotionally unstable or broken because of my inability to be positive in the face of everything. I try to put a pin point on where this pressure to be “rainbows and unicorns” all the time comes from but it is a pretty daunting task. I think some of the pressure comes from identifying negative people and recognizing that I don’t want to be like them. Some pressure comes from a push to show gratitude. Some of it stems from being told repeatedly that my life is good and that I am lucky, even if I don’t feel like it. And some of it comes from social media and our ability to unintention-ally (or intentionally) shame others for feeling sad while sheltering ourselves from negativity by editing our online identity to only display the positive. Yes this is real. Watch a video on YouTube titled “What’s on Your Mind” and see if it resonates with you.

I think if you are psychologically predisposed to view your glass as half full at all times you are incredibly lucky. Yet if the opposite is true I don’t always view it with the same high regard and I often feel sorry for these people. But how do I know that these outward emotional appear-ances are accurate? Additionally, when someone is overly positive I question their authenticity and accuse them of putting on a front. But when someone is overly negative

24 UMR Personal Side

I make an excuse grounded in the idea that “they are just a negative person.” So in a way, I turn the issue with “Posi-tive Polly” into the idea that they are not being authentic and that “Negative Nancy” is being too authentic for my taste. In the end it would benefit me to not judge these books by their covers. I need to remind myself that the glass half-empty mentality doesn’t always indicate that you are an unhappy person, just as positivity is not indica-tive of happiness.

The Student Affairs Collective recently published an article called “The Dark Side of Positivity in Student Affairs” which pairs nicely with an Article recently published on the Harvard Business Review titled “The Happiness Back-lash.” These pieces are a wonderful reminder that, like being negative all of the time, it is often more harmful than good to be positive at every turn. Without the abil-ity to accept that things might be bad at the moment, we lose our ability to troubleshoot problems effectively and empathize in a realistic way; we lose the drive to innovate, adapt, and change; and we do ourselves a disservice by refusing to focus on and solve issue and problems that are affecting performance. Instead, we opt for a more polite and positive conversation framed by a “here is what you did well” thought process. Does this thought process take the urgency out of learning and growing? If I frame my mistakes this way I am allowed to get comfortable with where I am because I believe that things are still, for the most part, going great.

On a relationship note, just as constant negativity can affect someone’s desire to spend time with me, constant positivity can serve to alienate others who can’t seem to “turn it on”. It can also serve to silence people from sharing thoughts, opinions, and feelings for fear of being labeled as a “Negative Nancy.” (Side note: If Negative Nancy and Positive Polly lived together I bet it would make a killer sitcom) Who wants to be the lone dissenting voice in a field of “feel good thinkers” even when there may be a lot of hidden dissenters succumbing to the same pressure you are? We want to be socially desirable and negativity is not.

The new Disney/Pixar film Inside Out does an incredible job of illustrating how only seeing one aspect of another person or getting stuck on a first impression can stunt growth and impede building an authentic friendship. The relationship between Joy and Sadness is a perfect example of how we feel when these two polar opposite personalities, Polly Positivity and Negative Nancy collide

in the world. Often the interaction is tense, stressful and riddled with misunderstanding. The interesting point showcased in the film is that Joy and Sadness were both actually pretty happy. Their happiness simply manifested in very different ways that took some time for the two of them to understand. If you haven’t seen Inside Out yet you need to get on that!

So if we crave authenticity but struggle with vulner-ability we will be at a standstill. You really can’t have one without the other. I will never be my authentic self without the space to practice a bit of vulnerability. It takes time to build that space. You cannot demand vulnerability from someone. It doesn’t work that way. Vulnerability and authentic displays of self happen over time, and we are impatient. Vulnerability is built on trust and mutual respect. It is a connection between people that communicates confidence in the relationship. If it is my intention to “hang out with positive people for a positive life” I will work very quickly to weed out the Nancys. I won’t give the Nancys the time they deserve to display their authentic self. So I do them a disservice and I rob myself of a potentially life-enriching relationship for the sake of quickly assigning someone a label.

It takes me mere seconds to throw around the positive or negative label based on a few comments someone makes. But for me to assess and intelligently conclude if they are happy and will help me live better takes some investment on my part to learn about them as a person. This investment in people is what drives a lot of us in the Student Affairs world and in fields that deal with people. So in the name of authenticity, in the name of provid-ing space for vulnerability, I would amend my opening phrase to something that provides a little more space for learning about people and allows some time for trust and vulnerability:

“You cannot hang out with unhappy people and expect to live a happy life.”

Chris MuellerResidence Life Coordinator,

Kansas State University Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @ReachableSauce

UMR Personal Side 25

It’s All New…What Do I Do?By Kaitlin Ferris, Residence Director, University of Nebraska Lincoln; Carrie (Casper) Fitzwater, Residence Director, University of Nebraska Lincoln

I t’s that time of year again; some of us may be starting with a new staff, building, institution, or even taking on a new direction in our student affairs career path. Starting

somewhere new feels a lot like “coming to the edge,” it’s excit-ing, nerve-racking and full of opportunities. As the “newbie,” you might get caught up in the excitement and adrenaline of your new adventure. You might envision asking a lot of questions, enacting policy change, being innovative, working towards a promotion, increasing your salary, having buildings named after you…oh wait, maybe not quite all of those! While all these sound exciting, it is easy to forget that on your path to success, you might stumble and make a few mistakes.

In thinking about our own experiences of “coming to the edge” and starting in a new role, we thought it might be helpful to reflect on what we’ve learned and share ideas to help others in their transitions. While this is not an all-inclusive list, we hope that some of the following tips will resonate with you and help you in your journey.

Personal: Define your personal space. Is your apart-ment a place for just you? Can staff come to hang out in your apartment? Will you allow staff to borrow personal items? Will you work in your apartment? Also, go home from your office when you should, there will always be tomorrow; if not, you can come back later in the evening, after you’ve had a break. Next, define who your “people” are. Who is it you can call when you’re tired or frustrated? Finally, get connected to the community you live in (find a place to work out, volunteer, go to a church, hang out at a coffee shop, etc.)

Staff: New staff? Start with a personality assessment during training (Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finder, True Colors, etc.). Having a basic understanding of how individuals on your team operate will come in quite handy. They will also have some insight into how you tend to make decisions. Also, be clear with intentions and expectations, show respect for the history of the staff and building, but also explain the importance of making new leaps of faith together. “People

don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” – John Maxwell. Say yes as much as you can, but when it’s just not possible, explain your reason and provide insight and context. Finally, be an advocate for your students and student staff: it will mean more to them than you know.

Building: Get to know your facilities and custodial staff, as these are folks you need on your team. Also, make sure to carve out time to do building walkthroughs every week, this will help you to engage with students and learn the quirks of your specific building. Be a presence in your building. Make time to check out your RA’s bulletin boards and appreciate the time they put into making their floor or wing look and feel like a home.

Campus: As soon as you set foot on your new campus, it is important to recognize that it becomes your playground for success, or potential challenges, depending on how you network in your position. It is important to branch out to other departments, as knowing campus resources will help you in working with your students. You understand what the First Year Experience office does by making a connec-tion with an individual in that office and asking how you can connect students to their resources. Networking can also serve as a benefit to your department as you might get invited to the table when Student Involvement is working on Welcome Week events and want to know how to best reach the on-campus student population. Knowing key people on campus can also help you in the future, espe-cially if you want to advance at that institution. Showing you care about the mission and value of the institution can be very valuable to your professional development.

Professional Development: Start slow, but getting involved is a key aspect. In your first year as a profes-sional (or in a department), you don’t need to conquer the world, but you should show an interest in learning. We are reminded that our professional development plan is our journey, so make it what you want! A great place to start is by reading professional articles, journals and books. Jumping on any number of Facebook or Twitter Student Affairs groups/blogs/tweets can guide you in a direction to find a list of good resources in our field. Also, seek out a mentor in the first year. A mentor is someone who you


can go to with questions, concerns and thoughts, as well as someone who will support, challenge and push you. A mentor is someone who feels comfortable taking on a different side/stance than you, and someone who knows the value of professional development and growth. Find-ing a mentor isn’t always easy, so get to know people, be vulnerable and invest your time in others. (These last two pieces of advice might be a given, but we felt like they needed to be mentioned.) You should ask for help when you need it. Many individuals have held your position or one similar and can provide you with suggestions, ideas, and solutions. Finally, understanding the political climate at your institution is a must. You may be new, but the department or institution you are working with has some history and context that you should understand before you charge forward with your initiatives to change the world.

We hope a few of those points are of value to you in your journey. Although we may not both have had the exact same experiences, we’ve learned some lessons the hard way and sometimes those lessons are the “best learned.” We decided to share two of those with you.

Carrie: Things I wish I would have known/done differ-ently: I wish I would have taken time to learn the history or culture of the department during my first year. I’m a thinker, mover, shaker, and go-getter, but that can be dif-ficult when you are transitioning to a new department. It can be seen as someone who doesn’t like the department or appreciate the value of the current system you are work-ing for. I wish I would have taken a step back, reviewed my surroundings, asked questions of my supervisor, and then proceeded forward. I can still be a go-getter, but the next time I make the transition I need to make sure I’m framing things the right way and taking the time to appreciate the beauty of a department.

Kaitlin: Things I wish I would have known/done differ-ently: I wish I would have learned the value of vulnerability and transparency earlier. A part of vulnerability can be taking ownership for a “not so great decision.” Saying “I’m sorry,” accepting responsibility and taking a step back can be difficult, BUT it builds trust and respect on a team. I struggled with this my first two years as a Graduate Hall Director and honestly, am still a work in progress. Although an idea might have made perfect sense in the beginning and sounded great in theory, when it didn’t go over so well with staff or students during implementation, I would push harder. I wish I would have known that being vulnerable is tough and can be really uncomfortable, but necessary to move forward during times of change and transition. I wish I would have taken a step back to re-evaluate and focus more on creating spaces of understanding and trans-parency. I now try to learn from plans that didn’t go quite right and keep moving forward. Be kind, be honest, be vulnerable and be happy, friends.

To help you get started on your journey of “coming to the edge,” but not falling off the cliff, we have put together a list of professional books that we’ve recently enjoyed. This list will get you started on an Amazon search for related titles that you can read for personal enjoyment or to imple-ment in staff developments. Below are the suggestions:

�� 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

�� Becoming Socialized in Student Affairs

�� Crucial Conversations

�� Daring Greatly

�� Crisis Management: Responding From The Heart

Best of luck on your journey!

Carrie (Casper) FitzwaterResidence Director,

University of Nebraska Lincoln Email: [email protected]

Kaitlin FerrisResidence Director,

University of Nebraska Lincoln Email: [email protected]


Budget Crisis: #LearningExperienceBy Jenna Fremstad, Residence Hall Director, UW-Stevens Point; Kathleen MacLeay, Residence Hall Director, UW-Stevens Point

Decreased state funding to higher education is a national trend that is becoming more and more potent here in our region. Most of us could agree

that when you hear the words, “budget cuts” you don’t get a happy feeling in the pit of your stomach. That not-so-happy feeling is exactly what we experienced here at UW-Stevens Point in February when the Governor announced a proposal for a $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System budget and a continued freeze on in-state tuition for the next two years. As news about the proposed cuts continued to roll in, the numbers we started seeing for UW-Stevens Point were dismal. On top of that, our own Residential Living Department was looking at needing to make some significant budget reductions due to our own building renovation and construction projects.

Enter into this scenario two hall directors; one starting their first year as a housing professional and the other their second year. As fairly new professionals, both were amidst the wonderful chaos of spring semester and suddenly overwhelmed with the new experience of a budget crisis. Though budget cuts may have been included in those now seemingly distant graduate school classes, we didn’t

anticipate how deeply involved we would become with one so early on in our careers. We had often heard the famous quote: “this is a learning experience.” As nerve-wracking as the budget uncertainty was, we had the opportunity to reflect and focus on three main positives of this expe-rience. We now invite you to delve a little more into our experience to learn about our situation and open thoughts and discussion about budget cuts at your own institution.

Better than the human knot: HD bonding The budget dilemma ended up impacting our hall

director team dynamic in a way that we did not quite expect. We should preface that our hall director team was already fairly social and supportive of each other. Prior to the budget announcement, we often found ourselves spending time together in both large and small groups. So, when the uncertainty of the budget chaos hit, it was natural for us to come together, especially the day our department told us that they were considering cutting our hall director staff from twelve to six. (Luckily, they did not!) The budget predicament began a whole string of gatherings (with pets and partners welcome, of course). Sometimes we sat in silence processing and other times we were vocal about our fears and concerns. Occasionally, the comedic relief of watching our dogs play with each other, coming up with the most ridiculous and irrational solutions to the budget crisis, or singing karaoke was just what we needed. Though we could just have easily allowed the stress of the situation cause mistrust, bickering, and ill-feelings amongst the hall directors, it was through our various gatherings that our team reached a new level of support and friendship. As we mentioned before, we had always had a good team bond, but, needless to say, ice-breakers and team builders were put to shame after our team bonded through the budget constraints. Disclaimer: Even though this process worked extremely well, we do not recommend this as a best practice for team bonding activities.

As nerve-wracking as the budget uncertainty was,

we had the opportunity to reflect and focus on three

main positives of this experience.


Finance and Budget 101 Even though we are entry-level professionals, the infor-

mation learned in our higher education finance classes was difficult to recall when it became a reality. When our department began discussing various strategies and real-locations, we felt like we had a mini course on “Budget Basics: Revenue and Expenses.” The main session of our “Understanding Budgets” lesson came the morning our director explained the impact of the budget on our entire division and the projected numbers for the near future. Handouts were even included for us to better understand the material! Initially, what we saw were three scenarios. The “base” scenario was the projected $300 million cut. The “better” scenario was if the cut was decreased by $500,000 and the worst case scenario included a $500,000 increase to the already projected $300 million. As new profes-sionals, we knew that as an auxiliary unit, our Residential Living department was 100% self-supported with funds primarily coming from room charge revenues. We knew that Residential Living typically holds a place of privilege on campus when it comes to money and we have an astronomically larger budget than many offices. What we didn’t know, were all of the intricate details about where our revenue is allocated and how the cuts were going to impact our department. As hall directors, we also weren’t fully aware that without Governor Walker’s budget cuts, our department was still going face some financial changes. Over the last decade, we had built one new building and completely renovated six others, with two more to be completed this summer. These construction projects, while necessary improvements, impacted the financial “security” and “depth” we had as a department prior to the budget cut announcement.

Basic knowledge about the departmental budget is important for new professionals, such as hall directors, to know as they begin working with the department. We learned that it was our Director’s goal to have us develop our budget competencies, little did he know to what extent and how quickly we would end up developing those com-petencies this year. For those of you who may not know very much about your department’s budget outside of your own expenses, we strongly suggest you take the opportunity to review the numbers with your department’s budget expert. Have them show you a detailed summary of how your department’s money is used. Additionally, take the time to compare your expenses to your depart-ment's mission, values, and goals--do they line up? Can you defend how you are spending your money?

Once we had a stronger understanding of the budget concerns for our department and the UW System, we needed to look at areas to cut. We looked at all expenses, whether large or small. As they say, “Every penny counts!” For us, it was also important to keep in mind the impact the budget cuts would have on our students and the environment we create for them on campus.

Fast Forward: Values and Prioritization and Emotion

You know that button on your remote that lets you super-fast forward through a movie? Well, it feels like that’s what we have been doing here for the past semester. We were forced to re-evaluate and make changes in a very timely fashion. The change process was a very open and fluid discussion with those at every level of our depart-ment. Our core staff could have gone down to a bunker and hashed out all the decisions, but instead they gathered

Take the time to compare your expenses to your department's mission, values, and goals -- do they line up?

Can you defend how you are spending your money?


input on reduction areas from everyone, including our very own student leaders in the halls. The student voice had a significant role in the final list of departmental budget reductions.

Ultimately, our students faced the most impact of the budget including, but not limited to: larger class sizes, loss of majors/minors, reduction of services on campus, and even student staff positions eliminated. As hall directors, we had to quickly process and understand changes so that we could help our students get through the changes in a healthy manner. At the same time, we were feeling extremely vulnerable throughout this experience and wanted to be genuine with our students. However, we had to acknowledge that they way in which we were present-ing the financial changes to our students was going to determine how our student leaders would react. We had a critical role in developing the atmosphere and educa-tion around the budget impact for our students. If we, as hall directors, had not handled this emotional situation properly, the outcome could have been quite toxic for the campus and our student body.

Final Thoughts“Limited budget” is often a dreaded phrase making it

easy to focus on the negatives when it comes to budget cuts. Not to say that this budget cut is good, but we felt we had to find some positives and shed light on those too. It was through seeing the positives that we were able

to expend our energy in the right direction: towards our students. We knew that drastic changes would have to be made, but we needed to be able to roll with the punches, be strong for our stressed out students, and be there for the members of our unit. If you ever come to the time when you have to face some major budget cuts, some things to keep in mind are:

1. It is okay to be vulnerable in this situation, but know your audience and the impact you may have on those around you.

2. No matter how much you study, you will never know it all, but it will be a chance to grow and learn.

3. Budget knowledge is important - it can be easy to bypass it when put up alongside our students of concern, conduct, and developing your student leaders, but you should take the time to familiarize yourself with it all, regardless of your level in the institution.

4. Budget cuts allow you the opportunity to evaluate what the core purpose of your department is and what is essential to accomplish that purpose.

5. It’s likely that your department will, if it hasn’t already, experience budget cuts in the future. Our recom-mendation is to start planning for it now. Start dis-cussing what you can do as housing departments

Kathleen MacLeayResidence Hall Director,

UW-Stevens Point Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KathleenMacLeay

Jenna FremstadResidence Hall Director,

UW-Stevens Point Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @JennaFremstad



Pedestals, Pillars, & ProfessionalsBy Alan Nordyke, Director of Residence and Greek Life, University of Central Missouri

We all have people in our profession that we have placed on a pedestal, or refer to as pillars of the profession. These are people we admire

and respect who have given many years of service to the profession and to our professional organizations. My goal for this article is to get each of us to look at the terms “ped-estal,” “pillar,” “professional” in a different way and how they apply to each of us, no matter where we are in our career.

I want to start with the “pedestals.” The people we place on the pedestal we think of as great servants to the field, being the ultimate professionals, and we don’t think of their faults. We often look up to these people from afar and have held them up as examples for what is good about our profession. We often view these people as those whose service, dedication, passion and commitment cannot be matched or questioned. While it is great to have strong role models of and for our profession, I believe it is more important to focus on the real meaning of a pedestal. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a pedestal as “archi-tectural support or base for a column or statue, a support or foundation.” I believe we need to focus on the “support” aspect of the definition. We need to know our values, beliefs, practices, and skills of our work and personality. I suggest it is these things that are our “pedestal” of all aspects of our professional work. By doing this we will be able to clearly display our “statue,” the kind of interaction we will have with all, what drives our decisions, and why we do what we do. Each of us has our own pedestal and is ours to design and display. Our pedestal was formed prior to our first day on our first job. It is not something earned and given based on service and commitment, but is part of who we are. I believe every professional stands on a pedestal and it is our job and role to make sure everyone knows our pedestal, and not wait for someone to place us upon it.

Secondly I want to talk about the “pillars” of our profes-sion. These are the people that are often the same as those we have placed on a pedestal. They are recognized by the years of service and the commitment they have given to the profession and like a pillar are seen as a solid structure/ part of the field or organization. The American Heritage

Dictionary defines pillars as “a freestanding vertical sup-port; column, structure used for decoration.” Pillars have been constructed from different materials, sand, salt, wood, metals, etc., each depending on the use of the item or the decoration design.

I believe we are each a pillar of our profession and career. I want to focus this part of the article on three things in the definition of a pillar. First is a pillar as a “structure.” All structures are subject to wear, decay, and can lose strength. Each of us no matter how long we have been in the profes-sion is subject to wear and tear. These are the times we are tired, have had our values questioned and challenged, and have not been able to see the positive impact of our work; this is natural! The key is in identifying the agents that are causing the wear, so they can be addressed. Addressing these agents is like painting a wood pillar or tuck pointing on stone pillars, where we fix the issue to keep the pillar strong and looking good. Each of us needs to inventory our self for those things that we know make us weaker or tired and then strategize how to address these. To do this we need to take time for self-reflection, need strong col-leagues to communicate with, and need to have interest outside our work. We also need to know when we need to use the help of someone else to apply the paint to our pillar. Admitting to we have and know these wearing agents is a key step in the upkeep of our self as the pillar.

The second part of the pillar I want to address is that as a “decoration to the structure.” We all know that decorations are designed to make something look good and to show character of the designer. With my premise of each of us being a pillar, it is our job to decorate ourselves. I am not talking about the clothes we wear, the things we hang in our offices, or our personal appearance. I am talking about how our actions need to demonstrate clearly our values, beliefs and commitments to our work and students. The most important part of this decorating is done through how we communicate and interact with others. These things will not only create the image of our self, but will be the manner in which our pillar is viewed.

The third aspect of the pillar is that as a “support.” I am not going to say much here, as this is not really different from what I have already talked about with our pedestal. I want to simply reiterate the importance of knowing our


internal/personal structure and clearly demonstrating this to all through our work and actions. This will make our pillar stand out and add to the design of the total structure; our self!

The third element of this article is the “professionals.” We all call ourselves Housing/Residence Life profession-als. American Heritage Dictionary defines professional as “engaged in a specific activity as a source of livelihood, having great skill or experience in a particular field, one who has assured competence in a particular field or occupa-tion; performed by a person receiving pay.” I want to focus this part of the article on three things in the definition of a professional.

First the “one who receives pay.” I hope we all know and recognize that Housing/ Residence Life professionals do not do their work for the “pay.” The salary is necessary to support our basic needs in life (food, shelter, clothing), but simply that. Our pay comes in helping others, forming future leaders of the world, and teaching life skills to our students. The pay scale for these things is far greater than any amount of money. I believe that a “professional” never loses sight of this pay scale and money does not influence the effort and commitment given to the work.

I want all “professionals” to focus on the important part of the definition “one who has assured competence in a particular field.” Competency can be gained but it can also be lost. The needs of our students, the world in which we work, and human nature is constantly changing. We have to work hard to stay current on issues, demands, needs of our profession and our work with students, if we are to be competent in our jobs. This requires us to attend confer-ences, participate in webinars, read, and most importantly talk with others regularly. We need to assess our skills and competency level often and be open to admitting where we are weak and seek assistance to address our weakness. We need to be involved in our profession through profes-sional organizations to gain resources to assist with our competency and to push for our organizations to remain current with professional competencies. We need to be able to clearly articulate our competencies to others, both through our language and our actions. We need to be confident in our skills and not afraid to demonstrate such confidence, if our competency is to shine through. This must be an active learning process for each of us and a never ending process!

The third part of definition of “professional” I want to

focus on is “engaged in an activity and having great skill.” I believe it is not an option or an opportunity to be engaged in the field; it is an expectation of all professionals. We have all benefited from others’ knowledge, time and talent given to the field. It is our obligation to give back to the field and to those coming after us. This should not be seen as a task to accomplish, but as the method of which we are engaged in our profession. Earlier in the article I mentioned some aspects for professional involvement such as conferences, organizations, and educational events, these should not be seen as “I want to’s” they must be seen as “I need to’s.” I also believe in the skill component of the definition. Each and every one of us has great skill and talent. The key is to never doubt, ignore, or take for granted the skill and talent we have. We need to constantly measure and assure our skill level, demonstrate our talent, and share our skills and talent freely. Because of the skills of each person in the field we are truly all professionals!

I want to close this article with a personal reflection and the most important take away message to all. I have been in Housing for over 27 years and been highly involved in UMR, AUCHO-I Foundation, ACUHO-I, ACPA, AFA, our CSPA program, and many other things. I have been at my current institution for my entire professional career and been the primary recruiter for our office and CSPA program. I have many connections with colleagues and alumni around the country and many people know who I am. I think it is possible some may use the words “pillar of the profession” to describe me. Some may have even have placed me on some type of “pedestal.” I want simply to be known as a “professional.”

Being a professional is the best title, description, or rec-ognition any one can be known for. As I have mentioned in this article everyone in our field can and is a “professional”, showing their decorated pillar for all to see, and using their pedestal to support their work!

Alan NordykeDirector of Residence and Greek Life,

University of Central Missouri Email: [email protected]


By Sarah Holmes, Coordinator of Residence Life, Iowa State University; Allyson Plattner, Hall Director, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Sarah…

“I’m supposed to be doing all of these other things with my life, like that person…” “But I love where I am and what I am doing…” “My colleagues are advancing and moving to other positions and cities.” “I ‘should’ want that as well.” “What does it say about me if I am not actively pursuing the next level, the next title?” “What will others assume about me if I am ‘only a coordinator’?” “What am I supposed to do?”

My conflicted inner dialogue started full throttle after my partner and I started to have children. After years of strug-gling to conceive, and plenty of medical intervention, what I wanted and what I “should” want started to become at odds with one another. I still found, and find, great fulfillment in my career and my work with students and staff, but I also did not want to miss out on spending time with my family, something my partner and I invested a lot of time, money, and emotional energy into creating.

I had watched colleagues advance in their careers at a significant expense to family time and wanted to find a way at being successful at both career and family. But, the “shoulds” kept getting in my way. I “should” want to pursue advanced titles. I “should” want to pursue a doctorate. And, I “should” not be content with staying in one position for too long. And, the commentary I would sometimes hear from others did not help. “Oh, I assumed Sarah was at a higher level than that.” Or…“Really? She’s only a coordinator?” I took others assumptions and expectations to heart, creating an intense inner dialogue and conflict.

After much self-reflection and conversation over a

substantial period of time, I came to realize that focusing on the here and now and performing to the best of my abilities in my current role and as a parent is okay. My largest battle was allowing myself the time and space to just be. This is not to say that I will not pursue different opportunities in the future. It is also not to say that my inner diva does not peri-odically raise, and rehash, very pointed questions, concerns, and points of debate…she most certainly does.

When I am honest with myself, I can speak to what is truly important to me, and that is a balance of career and family. I have many opportunities to grow as a professional within my professional role, so as personal circumstances evolve and future opportunities occur, I am prepared and positioned to transition. And, at the same time, I am not missing out on the kisses, hugs, and time spent with my biggest, little fans.

Allyson…

“I turn 30 in a week I should be married, own prop-erty, and not have debt…” “But I feel like I’m 20, I have plenty of time, and I don’t want to mow a lawn…” “I’m only a hall director…” “But I love my job and am still learning…” “I should be farther along in my career…” “But I’m not ready yet…”

These types of questions have frequently played in my mind and I am continuously struck with this internal conversa-tion about, what I call, the ‘supposed to.’ What am I supposed to do with my life, my career, my friends, my love, my time, my money… the list is endless. My true self-reflection journey started when I made some intentional steps to get out of my comfort zone and move seven hours away from home. Somewhere deep inside, I knew that I needed to make that move. I was just called to do it. When I first moved, I knew no one. I even had to use my GPS to find the local Target. I didn’t like quiet, I didn’t like to be by myself, and the thought of spending another weekend by myself with no plans was more than I could bare. I quickly spiraled downward and

Having the Grace to Follow Your Heart and Not Your “Supposed To.”

34 UMR Perspectives

began to struggle with day-to-day activities. The stress of the changes in my life and my inability to cope with the changes, led me to the emergency room and seven months of rehabilitation on my physical body. (I’ll gladly share if you would like to hear the whole story.) However, I knew that I needed to do more for my body that included the rehabilita-tion of my mind and soul. I believe one cannot be healed without the other.

So, I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on and I started watching Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday show every Sunday morning with my coffee and journal in hand. I read Brené Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert, Paulo Coelho, Oprah Winfrey, and Mark Nepo amongst others. Then I started talking about what I was beginning to learn. The more I talked about it, the more I realized that others in my circle were struggling with the same kind of struggles: the struggles of not being enough, wondering if they made the right choices, and that awful game of comparison.

I started giving up the pieces of my ‘supposed to.’ I gave myself the grace to be who I need to be and who I am. My most authentic self. Bits of myself started to come back and

my experience started to get better. The more I released, the more light came into my life.

‘Supposed to’s are also sneakily disguised as expectations. Most of my internal monologue comes from some external expectation that I think I’m supposed to measure up. I have reached a place where I feel like I can truly ‘harness my craft’ of being a hall director. For once, I am not looking to what is next in my career. At a UMR presentation, one of the presenters made the comment “Don’t title chase.” Meaning, don’t just look to be an assistant director, or take the next step, you may miss out on another great opportunity. That one statement gave me such permission. I don’t know why I needed external validation in that moment, but there was an immediate, literal relief.

I am currently just a hall director, turning 30 in a week, still paying off student loan debt, no closer to owning property than my 6 month old nephew, and you couldn’t pry me away from my current experience.

Give yourself the grace to follow your heart, and not your ‘supposed to.’

Allyson PlattnerHall Director,

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Email: [email protected]

Sarah HolmesCoordinator of Residence Life,

Iowa State University Email: [email protected]

Supposed to’s are also sneakily disguised as expectations. Most of my internal monologue comes from some external expectation that I think I’m supposed to measure up. I have

reached a place where I feel like I can truly ‘harness my craft’ of being a hall director.

UMR Perspectives 35

By Jude Nehemiah Legiste, Hall Director, University of Wisconsin La Crosse

On Wednesday, June 17th, a terrible event occurred in our country. A white gunman, Dylan Roof, shot and killed 9 black persons in a place of worship in Charles-

ton, South Carolina. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton (45), Rev-erend Clementa Pinckney (41), Cynthia Hurd (54), Tywanza Sanders (26), Myra Thompson (59), Ethel Lance (70), Rev. Daniel L. Simmons (74), Susie Jackson (87), DePayne Doctor (49) were the victims and we should know their names.

As more information was disseminated about the event, it was clear that it was a hate crime: an act of racial hatred steeped in the ideals of white supremacy. One of the most chilling details was that months before this event, Roof would consistently make racially insensitive comments and his friends would just pass them off as “jokes.” That detail began to make me think about my campus and the greater UMR region. How many of us remain silent while our family or friends express racist views or “jokes?” How many of us remain complicit and silent on campus when our colleagues or students convey similar messages?

The burden of ending racism is not on people of color; it is on those that created the burden of racism on people of color. If you identify as white, I challenge you to reflect on your words and actions, as well as the words and actions of those around you. Are they creating an inclusive space for our students and professionals of color, or would they be similar to the words of Dylan Roof?

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Racism continues to exist because the white community wants it to exist. That’s the way power works. You do not have to burn a cross or utter the n-word to contribute to racism. All you have to do is nothing. That’s it. All you have to do is nothing. If you’ve done nothing and are silent, then you are just as responsible for the racism that persists in our country as Byron De La Beckwith or David Duke.

In order for racism to end, you must be anti-racist. You must actively fight against not only individual but also systemic racism. Do you engage in any sort of dialogue with your students and colleagues about race and current events occurring in the country or your community? Do you explore how your initiatives or programs will affect or include/exclude students of color? Do any of your onboard-ing or training processes for students AND professional staff attempt to increase competence in regards to racism and privilege in America?

This will not be easy, but if you truly care about ending racism on your campus, in this region and in this country, then we must begin moving towards that goal. You must increase your compassion and empathy for the plight that people of color endure simply for the color of their skin. You must not ignore the individual and systemic racism that persists in our region and country.

This isn’t about feeling bad about being white- you must get past that. This isn’t about going to one social justice talk or posting a Facebook status. It’s about critically and consistently evaluating the racial implications of your daily interactions and decisions. It’s about actively seeking ways to make your department, your campus, and your community more inclusive towards students and professionals of color.

It is clear that we must do more because ultimately racism kills people of color and destroys lives. It makes our students and professionals of color feel unwelcome and unsafe on our campuses. I believe in us. I believe that we have the moral character and ability to make our campuses, this region, and this country a better place. But quite hon-estly, it’s been hard to find something to believe in.

An Open Letter to My White Colleagues

Jude Nehemiah LegisteHall Director,

University of Wisconsin La Crosse Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @JudeNL5

36 UMR Perspectives

UMR Perspectives 37

38 Pre-Conference

Come To The EdgeUMR-ACUHO 2015: La Crosse, WisconsinWednesday, October 21st - Friday, October 23rd, 2015

By Lisa Weston, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Co-Chair; Patrick Heise, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, Co-Chair

“Come to the edge” he said

“We are afraid” they said

“COME TO THE EDGE!” he said

They came to the edge,

He pushed them and they flew.

By Christopher Logue

This fall, come to the edge of Wisconsin, the edge of the Mississippi, the edge of our region. The “edge” also represents our potential; our potential to learn, to grow, to challenge, and to defy our own expectations. Here at the edge is the opportunity to commit or to back away; to trust in the unknown or to rely on familiarity. We want you to come to the edge. The edge can be a scary place. The edge is the borderland, the crossroads where vulnerability meets action. We are asking you to come to the edge.

Our profession lives on the edge, either willingly or not. Some of us are more comfortable living on this line, with our toes hanging off the side. Edges force creativity and ingenuity. Accommodating high enrollment, responding to students in crisis, and having life changing conversations with students. The edge is where we live.

Come to the edge to share your experiences tiptoeing that line between lost and found. We have the edge, now all we need is you.

�� Register For The Annual Conference

https://www.umr-acuho.org/annual_conference.php

�� Conference Site Hotels

https://www.umr-acuho.org/hotel_information.php

�� Radical Hospitality

We genuinely and enthusiastically want this to be a memory making week for you in La Crosse. We are thinking hard about how we can anticipate your needs and wants. If you can think of anything we can do as Host 2015 to enhance your experience, please do us the honor of telling us so we can try. Host Email: [email protected]

Patrick HeiseUniversity of

Wisconsin - La Crosse, Co-Chair

Lisa WestonUniversity of

Wisconsin - La Crosse, Co-Chair

Pre-Conference 39

By Anna Dickherber, Community Director, Webster University

As the fall approaches, and thoughts shift toward the annual conference, the UMR-ACUHO Sponsors & Exhibits committee wanted to deliver unto the

readers a few tips on engaging with sponsors and exhibitors. Enclosed in this article, you will find tips and things members wished they had known when interacting with sponsors. These items are provided by the members of the Sponsors & Exhibits committee. The membership of this group ranges from director level across the spectrum to first-time professional. It may seem easy to breeze past this article and think to yourself that it is all common sense, but trust me we have some gems of wisdom contained within these words!

I ask you dear reader, have you ever interacted with an exhibitor? What do you wish you would have known about networking with exhibitors? I present to you the 2015 Sponsors & Exhibits Committee, “Top 8 Things I Wish I Knew When…” list:

1. I wish that I knew that exhibitors are not just pres-ent to sell something. They are also in the exhibit hall to make connections and show off products.

When speaking with a sponsor or exhibitor, it can be easy to assume that these individuals are solely there to push their product. While this is not entirely wrong, it is important to know that as much as conferences can serve as a platform for student affairs professionals to network, they are also a great opportunity for exhibitors to make connections with YOU.

2. As a non purchasing officer: I wish I would have known why I should care about talking with exhibitors.

Excellent point!! Why is it important to connect with exhibitors? Let us say it is July and you find out that you need 200 mattresses quickly, and you just happened to meet a exhibitor at the UMR conference who can rapidly move merchandise. You have just utilized a connection to accomplish a huge feat!

Additionally, and perhaps more relevant for new or mid-level professionals, remember that there are incentives

for interacting with exhibitors! The Sponsors & Exhibits committee wants to encourage everyone to interact with exhibitors, so there will be opportunities to win prizes through networking with our exhibit hall merchants.

3. I wish I would have known how to make connec-tions with exhibitors. Especially when the exhibi-tors who are representing companies may not be in the same position when I am a purchasing officer for my institution.

A foot in the door will still keep the door open! Remem-ber that exhibitors are people too, and that they are spend-ing a lot of time in the exhibit hall. They want to converse with individuals and make connections on a personal level. You may or may not be a purchasing officer at the time of UMR 2015; however, knowing a company and knowing that product will provide you with context for future conversa-tions and decisions.

4. I wish I would have known that it is okay to interact with exhibitors and products. As a non-purchasing officer, I sometimes felt like I did not belong in the exhibit hall.

Remember a few very important things about the exhibit hall: there are desserts and prizes available for a reason. Every person at the conference has an opportunity and place in the exhibit hall. We WANT you to be there, and so do the exhibitors! Play with the products, chat with the exhibitors, and remember that committee members are there to assist if you need anything.

5. I wish I had known a way to start a conversation besides saying, “tell me about your product.” I think starting the conversation can feel like the hardest thing to do.

Think about asking exhibitors some of the following: What is your favorite product you offer, what inspired you to be a part of the company, or how do you see students interacting with your company’s product? Exhibitors want to talk about their products, and questions like the afore-mentioned can provide you with insight into the product(s), as well as the values of the representative and company. Additionally, these questions can open the door for further discussion!

Things I Wish I Had Known When…

40 Pre-Conference

6. I wish I knew how much exhibitors offset the cost of UMR and other conferences I attended. I had no idea how vital they were.

Sponsors and exhibitors can offset the costs of the UMR conference in a huge way. For instance, companies can sponsor the opening and closing banquets, scholarships for individuals, snack/coffee bars, and a plethora of other things! They are vital to supporting the organization’s efforts and impact on members/students. We have a cyclical rela-tionship! They support us, and in turn we support them.

7. I wish I had known to inquire about the purchas-ing process at my institution. Understanding that process helps when navigating the exhibit hall. This is true even though you may not be the Pur-chasing Officer at you institution.

This is a fantastic tip! Understanding the purchasing process for your institution can provide context for con-versations that you participate in or overhear. Additionally, it can deepen one’s appreciation for the types of products that are offered.

8. I wish I knew that some of our exhibitors are behind providing sponsorship and scholarships for attendees.

We love sponsors and exhibitors! As a group, we really only have an opportunity to interact with representatives during specific conference times; however, their presences and support impacts the entirety of the organization.

Of course, these items are not the end-all-be-all of inter-acting with exhibitors and sponsors. Yet, they are a place for us to begin and build toward. If it is your first time in the exhibit hall or your 30th time, it can be intimidating, but remember that the experience is always exciting! The Sponsors & Exhibits committee is thrilled to be working toward an amazing experience for the coming conference, and we hope that the items included in this article pump you up as well. Remember to “Come to the Edge” of your comfort zone, and immerse yourself in the exhibit hall experience at UMR 2015!

Anna DickherberCommunity Director,

Webster University Email: [email protected]

Pre-Conference 41

By Erica Eischen, Assistant Director of Residence Life, University of Northern Iowa

I clearly remember attending my first UMR conference. I was fresh out of grad school, in my first full-time position, and new to the region. I was, needless to say, a bit overwhelmed;

however never to take things slow, I signed up immediately to join a committee. I figured it was a way to network, get to know more about the region AND give back. All are true, but through the years, I’ve come to recognize the importance of teamwork in the region. There are many ways to become involved, even for those that don’t want to be front and center, and the great thing is there is typically a pattern to these opportunities. Here are some great ways to get involved:

�� Program presenter�� Join a committee�� Host the conference�� Chair a committee�� Executive board member �� AIM survey participant�� Write an article�� Donate money�� Stay on campus for others

to attend the conference�� Moderate a program

Moderating can be a great way to give back and get involved, not to mention help you professionally. There are approximately 90 programs and eight workshops at the conference. If we had one person per two programs and one per workshop, we would need 53 moderators! Plenty of opportunity for everyone to get involved! By having these programs and workshops moderated, we ensure that the presenters who have donated their time not only are introduced, but have someone to help keep track of time and receive feedback.

Moderating is also great professional development. It’s an opportunity to sit in a presentation or workshop you are interested in and make an intentional connection with another professional in the field. It’s also a good way to work on your own presentation skills in a low risk manner, by introducing another professional.

To top it all off, it’s a wonderful way to get involved. Time is a precious commodity, so being on a committee or preparing a presentation may not be an option in your wheelhouse. Moderating at a conference you were already going to attend…it’s a win all around! You not only help UMR out by giving your time, but you help yourself grow as a professional.

As you read this, I have no doubts you are ready to sign up. It’s simple to do! When you register for the conference, you sign up to moderate. That’s how easy it is! Later, you would receive an email inviting you to select what program and/or workshop you would like to moderate. It’s that easy. No need to be nervous about not knowing how to moder-ate, we’ll send you tips on how to moderate after you select the sessions you want to moderate.

So here’s hoping we see your name as a moderator, as you journey to edge.

Walking to the Edge as a Moderator

Erica EischenAssistant Director of Residence Life,

University of Northern Iowa Email: [email protected]

42 Pre-Conference

Help at “The Edge”: Providing Beneficial Program Evaluations at the Annual ConferenceBy Coree Burton, Residence Life Coordinator, University of Northern Iowa; Kirsten Andrews, Program Advisor & Summer Operations Coordinator, Minnesota State University, Mankato

The 2015 UMR-ACUHO Conference is rapidly approach-ing. Programs proposals have been submitted and selected. This means that presenters will start putting

their programs together and things related to the UMR Program Committee are completed right? Wrong! Our work is not over because there are still two important things that we need from you: 1) attend programs during the conference and, just as important, 2) evaluate the programs.

We want you to take a moment to think of a time when you’ve done a presentation and you received some valu-able feedback that, in return, helped you develop in some way. There are a broad variety of professionals that will be presenting at this year's conference. They range from Senior Housing Officials who’ve been presenting for years all of the way to first-year professionals who are presenting a program for the very first time at a conference. In order for our UMR peers to confidently “Come to the Edge,” providing constructive feedback is the essential action that’s needed.

Coming from personal experiences, we have both pre-sented programs at past conferences. It feels great when you get to share your passions with your peers and mentors within the region and they receive it positively and let you know that. It can also feel a bit fear-inducing to receive critiques that are not personally deemed as glowing or praising. It is just as important to receive those comments because the feedback received is coming out a place of care

and desire for you to be at your best. We know that, for us, all of the feedback allowed us to assess our programs and presenting skills to determine what to continue doing as well as what to do differently.

Over the last few years, to conserve the amount of paper that is used, the evaluation process has moved from paper to electronic with the use of the Guidebook app. Guidebook allows you to evaluate the attended program with the use of your electronic mobile device (i.e. smartphones and tablets). You will be given approximately 15 minutes from the scheduled end time of the program you attended to complete your program evaluation. In case you do not have a mobile device that has access to Guidebook, there will be a limited amount of paper evaluations available as well.

Program evaluations at the conference will ask about the topics listed below. If you are attending, consider reflect-ing on what you are hoping to gain from the programs presented, and if you are presenting, consider how you would rate yourself in these areas as you prepare!

�� Effective communication/presentation methods

�� Quality of the content presented

�� Organization of the presentation

�� Program description matched content

�� Overall satisfaction with the program

�� Highlights/valued “take-aways”

�� Suggestions for improvement

Answering these questions will only take a couple of min-utes of conference attendees’ time. It is important to take the time to fill out the evaluation in the given window of time

...providing feedback about the programs during the UMR Annual Conference allows both presenters and attendees to

have a meaningful conference experience.

Pre-Conference 43

while the program is still fresh in your head. Completing the evaluations within the given timeframe allows presenters to have the most accurate feedback and is essential with helping select the “Top Workshop,” “Top 5 Program,” and our “New Presenter” award recipients.

We hope that providing feedback about the programs during the UMR Annual Conference allows both presenters and attendees to have a meaningful conference experience.

Whether it spurs reflection about a future presentation idea, conversation about how to positively impact students, or praise for a job well done, we are looking forward to the opportunity that the Annual Conference presents to bring us closer to the edge. We hope that those who are able to attend will use their voices to provide feedback, positive and constructive, and to continue using what is learned beyond our gathering in La Crosse.

Kirsten AndrewsProgram Advisor & Summer

Operations Coordinator, Minnesota State University, Mankato


Coree Burton Residence Life Coordinator, University of Northern Iowa


44 Pre-Conference

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