Swacuho winter 2014 final

SWACUHO News Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

SWACUHO News - Winter 2014

From The President This semester has been quite a challenge though I know my campus challenges have not been any greater or dramatic than any of yours. These challenges have made me a little more thoughtful and appreciative for colleagues, friends and family. Please take time during this season to appreciate those around you. Know that I certainly appreciate all of you, the work you do on your campus, and the friendships and relationships that you offer to me and to others in our region. Take a little time for yourself and take a moment to stop and breathe- not sure it is something we all do or do enough (the stopping part- breathing I am hoping we all have that function down!)

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Norman in 2015!

Diane Brittingham SWACUHO President

In This Issue IN THIS ISSUE

From the President: Diane Brittingham.............................................................................................................................................1 2014-2015 SWACUHO Executive Board..........................................................................................................................................2 Mid-Level Opportunities....................................................................................................................................................................3 SWACUHO Coordinator Spotlight: Amber Mahler............................................................................................................................4 Creating a Strong Residential Community........................................................................................................................................6 STARS College Experience: Zach Lawrence.....................................................................................................................................8 SWACUHO Scholarship Recipient: Alycia Pruitt.............................................................................................................................11 Texas State Opens Falls and Sayers Residence Halls....................................................................................................................12 Theming Your One-on-Ones: Effective Techniques for the New Professional................................................................................14 University of Houston’s Student Housing and Residential Life Pride Points..................................................................................16 Award Nominations & Winners........................................................................................................................................................17 Happy Holiday Season: Beth Eppinger....................................................................................................................................

SWACUHO News | Winter 2014

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2014-2015 SWACUHO Executive Board Diane Brittingham

Dan Mizer

Kenny Mauk

Whitney Paschall

Joellen Tipton

Beth Eppinger

Tanya Massey

Maggie Guzman

Curtis Odle

Chad Martin

President University of Oklahoma dbrittingham@ou.edu

Historian Texas A&M University dan@housing.tamu.edu

President-Elect University of Houston kmauk@central.uh.edu

Newsletter Editor Texas Tech University whitney.paschall@ttu.edu

Past President Sam Houston State University joellen@shsu.edu Secretary Oklahoma State University Tanya.Massey@okstate.edu Treasurer Baylor University curtis_odle@baylor.edu

Arkansas State Director University of Arkansas- Fort Smith Beth.Eppinger@uafs.edu Texas State Director Texas A&M University maggie_guzman@housing.tamu.edu Oklahoma State Director Southwestern Oklahoma State University chad.martin@swosu.edu

Rikki Turner

Technology Coordinator University of Arkansas- Little Rock rdturner@ualr.edu Past Presidents

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2014-15 SWACUHO Executive Board

Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

Mid-Level Opportunities Greetings SWACUHO Mid-Levels: Our mid-year meeting with Executive Board was a success and we are happy to announce upcoming opportunities that are specifically geared towards our Mid-Level staff.

2015 Mid-Level Workshop We are planning a Mid-Level workshop for June 11 & 12, 2015 (dates subject to change).

The University of Texas – Dallas has graciously agreed to host our SWACUHO Mid-Level delegation. We will have more information at the 2015 annual conference.

2015 SWACUHO Mid-Level Breakfast As you complete your SWACUHO registrations, please make sure you register for the Mid-Level breakfast. We had 37 attendees during the 2014 conference. We hope to sustain that number.

Help us reach that goal!

Networking at Mid-Level Breakfast We are looking into securing a special guest for the Mid-Level breakfast as an opportunity for additional networking. Make sure you register for breakfast to see who joins us! We will also be asking for agenda items and topics to discuss during breakfast.

Mentoring Opportunities The Mid-Level committee will be working with the Professional Development committee to create mentoring opportunities. Please look for more information during the 2015 annual conference.

If there are other opportunities that you would like to see, please contact Katy Pelton at katypelton@shsu.edu or at (936)-294-3155. We look forward to seeing you in Norman.

Katy Pelton Assistant Director Academic Initiatives Department of Residence Life Sam Houston State University

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SWACUHO Coordinator Spotlight Amber Mahler When I joined the Living Learning Communities team at UT-Dallas last year, I considered myself a creative, organized individual. But that was before I met Amber Mahler.

attending campus-wide events; developing marketing; auditing student coursework; and managing the 1000+ freshman applications our program receives each year!

Amber is the coordinator for the Living Learning Communities (LLC). From 2012-2014, Amber was the only coordinator for the program. Her responsibilities covered a magnitude of areas including: event planning, coordination and facilitation; peer advisor training selection, training and supervising LLC student workers;

I’m exhausted just writing that. Oh, and did I mention that she started graduate school to earn her master’s degree at the same time? I like to joke with her that she’s an overachiever, but the fact of the matter is, she’s an achiever that any supervisor would like to have on their team.

Amber making paper lanterns with Computer Science LLC students

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

Amber and the LLC student workers at UT-Dallas’ Trunk or Treat

Whether it’s making Halloween costumes from scratch, creating elegant centerpieces for a dean’s dinner with limited resources, or making every new staff member their very own personalized welcome banner; Amber is probably the most creative person I’ve ever met.

She is the person responsible for the creation of my own Pinterest account. She encourages originality and creativity and has the ability to make things look sophisticated on a budget. In higher education, that’s important. Her attention to detail is second to none. In addition to being the Martha Stewart of the department, she is also a great task master and always meets deadlines.

A proud Cowboy, Amber graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences. In 2011, she and her husband moved to Dallas and she joined the Living Learning Team in 2012.

Currently, she is pursuing her Master’s degree in Public Policy at UT-Dallas.

Erica Hernandez

University of Texas - Dallas

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Creating a Strong Residential Community Every Resident Assistant (RA) wants to have an active floor excited to engage in RA events and residence hall communities. By the time RAs start the job, they have gone through copious amounts of training, but they may not fully know how to build a strong community on their floor or wing. A strong residence hall community is associated with greater student leadership, teamwork, cohesiveness, sense of identity, Community Type Community Characteristics Residents feel totally safe and open to

Great

(proactive)

be themselves and grow

Residents are excited and proud of their floor community

learning, and other positive developmental outcomes (Li, Sheely, & Whalen, 2005; Arboleda et al., 2003). Therefore, it is important to understand how to build a strong community.

Based on our own experiences in residence life, we came up with a way to conceptualize what a Great, Good, Neutral, and Poor residence hall community may look like: RA Behaviors RA empowers residents to

Residents know each other

to see

together; all residents feel

build the community they want

RA is excited to do their job

and interacts energetically with residents

RA is almost always available

Good

(moderately active)

Residents feel safe and moderately open to be themselves

Residents/RA are content with their floor community

RA encourages residents to interact with each other

RA works hard to put on programs

RA is frequently available No floor pride

Neutral

(not very active)

RA neither encourages nor

Residents do not feel valued or unvalued

Disruptive behavior – noise, poor bathroom etiquette

Poor

(negatively active)

discourages floor activity between residents

RA is inactive and mildly available

well and spend a lot of time included

Most residents attend

programs and even create their own

Residents know each other

and interact in passing; most residents feel included in the floor community

Some residents attend programs

Neighbors don’t know each other/interact

RA and/or residents aren’t (positively) active; few

residents attend programs

Floor shame or negative pride

RA negatively influences

Neighbors are hostile or

Residents feel unsafe or not valued for

towards others or deliberately

(cliques)

who they are

Hall/Bathroom are unclean Excessive disruptive behavior

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Resident Behaviors

residents to act maliciously looks away when negative actions occur

RA is unavailable and not welcoming

exclusionary to each other

Unsafe behaviors - violence,

vandalism, hate notes, threats Residents are negatively

active; do not attend programs

Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

In a Great community, residents feel completely safe to be themselves and are excited to be part of that residential community. The RA’s role in facilitating this is to empower the residents to build the community they want to see. In contrast to a Great, proactive community, a Poor community is negatively active. Community characteristics in this environment are floor shame, residents feeling unsafe and unvalued for

who they are, and disruptive or illicit behaviors.

Many communities start in the Neutral zone, so it is up to the RA and the residents to put in the hard, intentional work to build them up to Good or Great. These general guidelines can fit any RA’s style and community without limiting the creative aspects of what the hall looks like!

Sam Siner & Abdulkarim Bora University of Texas at Austin

References: Li, Y., Shelley, M. C., & Whalen, D. F. (2005).

Contributors to residence hall student retention: Why do students choose to leave or stay? Journal of College and University Student Housing, 28-36.

Arboleda, A., Wang, Y., Shelley, M. C., & Whalen, D. F. (2003). Predictors of residence hall involvement. Journal of College Student Development, 44(4), 517-531.

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STARS College Experience This past summer, University of Arkansas - Fort Smith (UAFS) Resident Assistant (RA) Zach Lawrence attended the ACUHO-I STARS College in Washington, DC, at American University.

Below is his reflection on his experience. Zach is a junior majoring in psychology at UAFS. Thank you to SWACUHO for the scholarship assistance for Zach and other student leaders from the region to attend STARS College. Any member institution from the SWACUHO region receives some scholarship reimbursement if they have a student attending STARS College.

~ Beth Eppinger, Director of Housing and Residential Life at UAFS Out of all the avenues I thought I would walk down, housing was never one I thought I would travel. When I was chosen to be a Resident Assistant (RA) at the University of Arkansas 足- Fort Smith (UAFS), I never thought the field would mean as much to me as it does. I found a home away from home at the Sebastian Commons Apartments at UAFS, a place where I was free to be me. I became interested in a career in housing about halfway through my second semester as

an RA and decided to try and find new ways to get involved. It was then that I found STARS College. It was a passing conversation that my Resident Director, Bree Gates, and I had that moved me to apply and see what it was all about. What I found was much more than a simple housing training program. STARS really opened my eyes to the world of housing and just what it means to people around the country.

UAFS RA Tony Jones and UAFS RA Zach Lawrence. Jones was a Senate intern in June, and Lawrence participated in the ACUHO-I STARS College.

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

UAFS RA Zach Lawrence and UAFS RA Tony Jones at the National Archives. Lawrence was a participant in the ACUHO-I STARS College held in Washington, DC, this summer, and Jones was there for a Senate internship.

Through STARS I met many wonderful people who really pushed me to think about a career in housing. I received information on opportunities for graduate school, information on how different schools run their housing, and made a lot of friends along the way. STARS was a big event for someone like me, someone who really wanted to go into college housing as their future. Everyone

there was extremely motivated to do what they loved! It was really a deep experience getting to be in the presence of so many people who have dedicated their lives to college and housing. My mentor, Kent Sampson, was a fantastic example.

Kent is the Director of Campus Life at Oklahoma State University and is one of the big reasons that I have decided to stick with housing. continued on page 10

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STARS College Experience cont.

2014 STARS College class. Zach is in the back row, left side, blue shirt.

As a member of Housing and Residential Life, UAFS has offered me many opportunities to grow as a leader and as an individual. STARS is one of the many ways that RA's, who are aspiring to do something more with housing, can get contacts and motivation to do so. STARS is a wonderful program that allows RAs to branch out beyond their college or university and learn more about housing. All in all, the program

really motivated me to be a better RA and to later become a good Resident Director. To any and all who would consider applying, I highly recommend it! It was definitely a life changing experience that I never would have gotten an opportunity to take part in without housing! This spring, encourage your RAs to apply to STARS College to be held this summer in Orlando, Florida.

Zach Lawrence

University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

SWACUHO Scholarship Recipient Alycia Pruitt

Vernon Howard once wrote, “Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will”. Conferences are the essence of our expansion of knowledge and personal growth. I am honored to be named a SWACUHO scholarship winner and have the opportunity to attend the ACUHO-I Living Learning Programs conference in Kansas City, MO in October. This conference brings scholars and professionals across the country to share in conversation and learning about academic initiatives, living learning programs, faculty and student engagement, and best practices in the field of Student Affairs. Not only was I grateful for the opportunity to present at this year’s conference about my work at Oklahoma State University, but I was privileged to learn from my peers and network with colleagues who are in similar roles at their respective institutions. This experience opened new doors of collaboration and the sharing of knowledge between colleagues in the field, but most of all it has strengthened my passion for the work I do and the students I serve.

Thank you SWACUHO for the scholarship money you provide young professionals in our field to attend conferences like the ACUHO-I LLP conference. Not only does this money help the individual financially, but it reinforces your commitment to our professionals, institutions, and the students we serve. I am enthusiastic about implementing the various programming initiatives and processes that I learned from my time at the conference. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally, and furthermore for encouraging me to continue my walk as a lifelong learner.

SWACUHO News | Winter 2014

Alycia Pruitt

Academic Development Coordinator Oklahoma State University

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Texas State Opens Falls and Sayers Residence Halls The new six-story complex comprised of Falls and Sayers halls are joined by a community building. This state-of-the-art facility is located on the West Campus Housing (WCH) section of campus. Upon arrival to the complex you are greeted by an eloquent 18 feet high bronze and stainless steel sculpture called, “Diamond with Nine Flowers,” housed in a ‘contemplative courtyard.’ Texas native and world renowned artist, James Surls was commissioned to create the piece.

Falls and Sayers Halls’ dedication ceremony was held on Wednesday, August 6, 2014.

Both Falls and Sayers halls were named after two outstanding faculty who made significant contributions to Texas State. In addition, they were names of previous residence halls that were demolished.

Falls and Sayers Residence Halls at Texas State

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

The new residence halls (Falls - Female/Sayers Co-ed) offer the following amenities: • Suite style double and single bedrooms with ADA accessibility • Three courtyards, including a volleyball court with an outdoor shower • Two seminar rooms • Student art display cases in common areas for showcasing student art projects • Enclosed study rooms on every floor • Two large living rooms with state of the art kitchens • Two community laundry rooms • 24-hour visitation • Lounge with kitchenette on each floor • Guest bathroom on each floor

The Department of Housing and Residential Life (DHRL) at Texas State has broken ground this fall on another two residence halls that will house approximately 600 additional beds and open in fall 2016. Stay tuned for more exciting news and updates from Texas State.

John Lowney, MSEd, Assistant Director

Housing Administrative Services Department of Housing and Residential Life (DHRL) Texas State University SWACUHO News | Winter 2014

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Theming Your One-on-Ones:

Effective Techniques for the New Professional As entry-level residence life professionals, we conduct one-on-one conversations with our students, staff members, and advisees on a regular basis. These conversations serve to build a strong relationship between professional and student, provide updates on work, and process on-going or prevailing issues at work or in one’s personal life. The beauty of one-on-ones is that when you’ve established your office as a safe space for students, they can express themselves freely.

I have held countless one-on-ones with over 60 student staff members over the course of many years.

While meeting consistently with students helps develop them as mature individuals, reoccurring meetings can get stale. By far, providing various themes to my oneon-ones, that is, assigning various activities to do during the meetings, have gone over the best with my students. Themes give these meetings purpose, and this helps students anticipate our meetings in a positive way. Here are several ideas I have incorporated: “Fun-on-Ones.” This theme allows for the professional and the student to walk around campus. Typically, I have had students take me to “their” part of campus, show me a lecture hall in which they’ve had a class, or guide me around

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their favorite spot to study. Reveal the theme at the start of the week, and then ask the students to wear good walking shoes and prepare a route for the meeting.

Personality Inventories. We love personality assessments in our field. Whether it’s True Colors or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, these assessments are typically facilitated in large groups. Perhaps you have presented these during trainings or staff meetings. I have found that these are more meaningful when completed during one-on-one meetings.

Students then have the ability to process their “findings” individually with you. In one case, I had an RA whose True Color did not correlate with a collateral role that was assigned to her. We discussed her struggles, but more importantly, we were able to decide on a new role where she could strengthen the staff more comfortably.

Show and Tell. I think the week I do the “Showand-Tell” theme is the most exciting for both the student and myself. Students bring in a physical item that is meaningful to them and to either share a story behind how they received it or use it in a way to teach me something new. In the past, I have seen autographed footballs, learned a few notes on a violin, and tried writing with a calligraphy pen! They say a picture speaks a

Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

thousand words, and in my experience, childhood pictures lead to many deep conversations.

“Start-Stop-Continue.” Some of my students call this theme “feedback week.” What they don’t know is that I give them feedback all throughout the year, but this one-on-one meeting serves as a somewhat formal way to offer a progress report to the student. The premise is to offer ideas which students can start, behaviors that can be eliminated, and continue actions that are positive. If these students are employed under me, I do this theme approximately two to three months before their evaluation meetings. This gives them enough time to work on areas to improve before I score them on paper.

Question the Professional. Sometimes one-on-one meetings can be exclusively student-centered.

While this is the objective of one-on-one meetings, I have found it refreshing when I ask students to come in with questions for me. Now, questions about the job are often directed to you, but how often do you allow your students to ask about your favorites, pet peeves, and experiences back as a college student? For this theme, ask students to bring in five questions that they have always wondered but never thought to ask you. While the spotlight is on you as the professional, this can also serve as an appropriate time to solicit feedback from your student. Some questions to ask the student can be: • • • •

“How am I doing as your supervisor?”

“In what ways can I improve?”

“How can I help you in the success of your week?”

“What ideas I’ve used in our meetings have been your favorite?”

Letter to Yourself. I have seen many professionals incorporate this at the start of the year. Have students write a letter to their future self, stuff it in an envelope, and then you as the professional either share the letter with them at the end of the year or mail it to them at a later date. Although I have presented the “writing” of the letter as a large group, I have typically given the letter back to the student to read at the end of the year in a one-on-one setting. The closed office environment allows for emotions to be expressed freely!

These themes are in no way exhaustive of the ideas I have used, but my hope is that it will inspire new professionals to spice up their reoccurring meetings with students. The goal is to have students feel empowered and share more about themselves. I firmly believe adding themes can progress the quality of one-on-ones, and adding structures can potentially improve our intentionality and build closer bonds with students.

Justin T. Samuel, M.A. Hall Coordinator Division of Housing and Food Service The University of Texas at Austin

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University of Houston’s Student Housing and Residential Life Pride Points • Cougar Village 2, a first-year facility of over 1,100 students, achieved 100% completion for the Fall MAP-Works Transition survey.

• Cougar Place, an upper-class facility of over 750 students, has completed over 500 man hours with Generation One as a part of their “Cougar Place Cares” community service initiative. Generation One, Inc. is a local nonprofit that focuses on the holistic redevelopment of Houston’s impoverished Third Ward community, which is adjacent to the University of Houston (UH).

and giveaways during our “Pregame Pawty” experience. Tweets and pictures from the events can be found using the #PregamePawty hashtag, and @UHPregamePawty accounts on Instagram and twitter.

• On October 29th, the department, in collaboration with the UH men’s and women’s basketball team hosted a “House Pawty”, which was a pep rally designed to introduce our new coaches and players to our residential population.

• Over the course of the football season, the department hosted three housing-wide tailgates.

Over 700 students enjoyed free food, activities,

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers

• SHRL represented well at this year’s SWACURH conference. Our delegation of 30 student leaders, led by RLC and RHA Advisor Jackie Stelmaszczyk, took home the following awards:

o Largest Philanthropic Donation

o Most Spirited Delegation – Large School

o Top 10 Program We are super proud of the work that Jackie has done with RHA and NRHH!

Terence J. Turner

Residence Life Coordinator Student Housing & Residential Life University of Houston

Award Nominations & Winners Nominate Someone for a SWACUHO Award!

Award Winners!

Apply for Institutional Awards!

Congratulations Rosanne Proite on winning the Herstory Award.

Click here for the full write-up.

Go to www.swacuho.org to complete the online nomination and application forms.

Hurry! The deadline is early January!

SWACUHO News | Winter 2014

Congratulations Jill Eckardt on winning the Parthenon Award.

Click here for the full write-up.

We are so proud of you both!

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Happy Holiday Season!

Your fall semester is coming to a close.

Congratulations!! It’s amazing to look back at the semester and see how all the summer preparation and training was utilized throughout the semester. Your residents are better for it!

The mid-year planning meeting in October in Norman, OK, was very productive! The 2015 annual conference theme of “We’re Doing Fine at 49!” is a very true statement, and I hope you make plans now to attend the conference which is March 1 – 3. There will be so much packed into those three days, and it is worth your time. Plus, with it being at an Embassy Suites, breakfast is included. Our SWACUHO Committees are typically active all the time, but leading up to and during the annual conference is certainly crunch time. If you once upon a time signed up for a committee, consider recommitting yourself and emailing your committee chair to see how you can help out!

THANK YOU to all the Arkansas schools for renewing their SWACUHO membership! We also welcome our renewals from Missouri State and Monterrey Tech in Mexico. A SWACUHO membership enables institutions to participate in listserves, have access to all parts of our new website, attend our annual conference at a decreased rate, and vote in our annual business meeting.

My goal is to have an active Arkansas listserve by 2015. This is just one of the many great features of our new website. Stay tuned! If you are a professional in Arkansas and want to know more about how to be connected to SWACUHO, send me an email!

Beth Eppinger

Director of Housing and Residential Life University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

Correction In our last issue, Joseph Bozzo wrote an article called “Diverse Perspectives in Housing.” The picture that accompanied the article was the wrong picture and was in fact not Mr. Bozzo. Our apologies! Here is the real Joseph Bozzo!

New! Submit Articles Online If you plan on submitting an article for the next newsletter, please submit it by January 10, 2015.

You can now submit articles through the SWACUHO website. Just go to www.SWACUHO.org click on "Get Involved" then select "Submit A Newsletter Article."

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Southwest Association of College & University Housing Officers