"The Pulse" April 2014

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Checking Out Transitioning to Summer Operations

President’s Corner Hello OACUHO! I hope this issue of the Pulse finds you all well!

The Board, Committees, Taskforces and Networks are very busy preparing for the Spring Conference! OACUHO has so many things on the go at the moment! I’ve never been so excited by our momentum!

We are so excited for our Spring Conference at Laurier. The board met with Laurier’s host committee 2 weeks ago and got a tour of the facilities for the conference. This is going to be one amazing OACUHO! We are excited to spread the word about our Facilities day during the conference. Although a challenging time for some Facilities folks – we hope you can escape and join us for at least one day.

Tuesday May 13th is the day! It is also the day of our Corporate Partners vendor fair. Please plan to attend.

I would like to publically thank the University of Guelph for hosting a drive-in workshop last week for Student Housing Facilities professionals. I attended the workshop myself and it was amazing! Looking forward to more opportunities across functional areas!

OACUHO has also been working hard developing a curriculum for the New Professional

Training Institute (NPTI). This is an exciting development as the host institutions have always had to establish a program AND host.

This is a challenging responsibility. Moving forward NPTI hosts will have a great deal of clarity on the curriculum, possible faculty and learning outcomes. This is an important step for our profession. I want to thank all those that contributed to the development of that curriculum – particularly the chairs of that group Brittany Gawley and Jen Gonzales.

NPTI 2014 will be hosted at Ryerson University May 25-29. If you have 3 years or less experience in Student Housing you don’t want to miss this conference. Supervisors please consider sending your new professionals from all functional areas.

That is a quick snap shot of some of the things we are working on right now. Please read over the AGM package and attend our AGM at the Spring Conference to hear more.

One note on the AGM – we encourage all Members and Associates to attend the AGM. We did clarify who can/can’t vote at the AGM through some recent constitutional changes.

However the meeting is open to all and we welcome questions and comments.

Thank you!

Chad Nuttall President, OACUHO

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#OACUHO360

This is the first Pulse CHO Corner! Chief Housing Officer is a title we throw around a lot. What does it mean? Well it certainly differs a great deal from campus to campus. There is a lot of variation on the size, the scope and the complexity of our various Student Housing operations.

Where there is no single individual who has responsibility for all facets of housing, or a CHO wishes to send a Senior member of their team to represent them at CHO breakout sessions, the meeting attendee(s) must be person(s) who is able to commit to decisions being discussed at the meeting.

Several years ago OACUHO created a CHO Committee.

Meeting at the Fall Business Meeting and the Spring Conference the CHOs would get some time together to discuss issues important to the CHOs. The agenda was largely created from CHOs and chaired by the host institution CHO. This meeting grew out of feedback from CHOs that wanted more for them from OACUHO.

This means at future CHO meetings it will be much clearer who the CHO is. This definition provide more clarity on who should and should not be invited to the meeting. In some rare cases a Senior housing professional may be sent to represent a CHO. There are several bi-furcated or “split” systems in our membership so in those cases we may expect two representatives. In all other cases we will expect only one. Although some people may be discouraged or disappointed by this change – I hope the membership appreciates the challenging task and is satisfied with the clarity.

I think this meeting has been effective in information sharing, coordinating efforts and learning from each other. For example at a recent CHO meeting many member institutions and associates agreed to participate in the 2014 EBI Spring Survey. At times there have been contentious issues on attendance. Is that person a CHO? Should they be here? I’d like to bring a colleague with me is that ok?

Sometimes this meetings is less than 20 people – other times it has been 40 plus!

Student Housing professionals are generally inclusive people and it is difficult to exclude. Our systems are also so different – there was no clarity on who was a CHO. Thankfully the membership review taskforce chaired by Jamie Fleming tackled the issues of – who is a CHO within OACUHO? The definition is as follows: Chief Housing Officers – defined as the Senior person who has overall responsibility for all facets of the housing operations as an employee of a post-secondary institution.

This is an important development in the maturity of our organization. Thank you again to the hard work of the Membership Review Taskforce and the OACUHO board for having big discussions and making tough decisions.

The CHO Committee Meeting at the Spring Conference at Laurier will be hosted by Chris Dodd. More information will be following very soon. We also hope to establish a CHO listserv in the coming weeks.

Thank you, Chad Nuttall President, OACUHO

Trevor Corkum: Introduction to OACUHO My name is Trevor Corkum and I’m the new Researcher-Writer with OACUHO and pleased to be working with you all in this role. In my professional past I’ve worked at a number of universities across Canada, primarily in the international education and communication fields. Most recently I worked as Manager of Marketing and Communications at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax and prior to that I was Director of Research and Communications at the British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE). I currently work independently as an education and communications consultant with my own company, One World Consulting.

At the moment I’m just wrapping up my first full year in my MA in Adult Education and Comparative International Development Education at OISE. I also have an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Outside my professional life, I’ve published fiction and nonfiction widely and have been lucky to travel extensively for both work and pleasure. I’m excited to engage with the OACUHO Board and membership and to researching and writing articles that add value to the important work of OACUHO professionals. In particular, I’m hoping to make sure my work for the PULSE is engaging, accessible and useful to you in your work.

Looking forward to connecting with many of you in the coming months and feel free to be in touch with suggestions for PULSE features, research topics, or other articles. twcorkum@gmail.com - PAGE 2 -

Hello friends and colleagues, The OACUHO 2014 Spring Conference Host Committee is continuing to push forward and work hard to create what we hope will be a conference to remember. With the late winter that we’ve had, it is hard to imagine that the Spring Conference is only a few weeks away!

We want to use this opportunity to share some updates about the conference with you, and to hopefully hear back from you, the OACUHO membership. Firstly, we would like to take the time to thank you once again for your dedication to the quality and content of the proposals submitted for consideration at this year's Spring Conference. We were overwhelmed with the positive responses we received, and are happy to say that we have selected many quality proposals that touch on various topics in the field of student affairs. Again, thank you to all those who submitted proposals and for your support.

We also wanted to take opportunity to highlight one of our two available Pre-Conference Workshops that we will be hosting on May 12th. Crucial Conversations is being offered on May 12th from 9:00am-4:00pm (6 hours) for the cost of $250.00.

This includes all materials, a certificate, and lunch. A great opportunity for a certification that usually costs over $1,000 for a two-day session! Hear what one of our very own Laurier staff has to say: “I recently completed the Crucial Conversations workshop and I have to say, that I found the session to be very worthwhile. As human beings, we have all said the wrong thing, in the wrong way at the wrong time, but despite numerous trainings, I never understood what the real problem was. This workshop has developed an outline which actually makes sense and is enjoyable – all while learning. I truly believe that People influence People and Dawn Ricker definitely accomplished that through her presentation and the workshop.” – Tammy Forlippa, Service Advisor, Service Laurier The Laurier team is also excited to further promote the launch of our Twitter Challenge! We want to hear from you about your passions, motivation and purpose in your various roles. Tweet us at @laurieroacuho along with the hashtag #LeadershipAndPurpose about any of the following questions: 1. How do you find purpose in your role?

2. Where do you go to get inspired? and, 3. What inspired you to get into student affairs?

Feel free to show your peers some love and retweet or favourite any inspiring tweets or photos posted! The top three tweets (i.e. those with the most retweets) will receive cool prizes. Start tweeting OACUHO - we can't wait to hear from you!

Remember that Regular Registration rates end on Friday, April 25th. Please register for the conference before that date to take advantage of the reduced conference rate.

You can visit www.oacuho2014.com for all the information you will need regarding the Spring Conference. We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to our campus in May, and wish you all the best as this academic year comes to an end.

The OACUHO 2014 Spring Conference Host Committee

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SPOTLIGHT ON DR. GENE LUNA, KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT THE OACUHO SPRING CONFERENCE

by Trevor Corkum

renovations. The University of Kentucky sold all their campus housing to a private developer to re-make their residential experience. Assessment is huge and whether you like research and date or not, we all have to get better at it. Next on the Big Stage is predictive analytics – Big Data – and how we can use this to improved student outcomes.

Dr. Gene Luna has the one of the best seats in the house when it comes to observing the college and university housing profession up close. His What advice do you have for younger professionals currently enterstoried career as an innovator and leader in the field gives him unique ing the housing field and trying to plan a career trajectory? insight into new trends, glaring pitfalls, and best practice approaches for both aspiring and seasoned housing professionals.

Behave better than I have over the years! Seriously, younger professionals should consistently demonstrate their openness and flexibility, alDr. Luna will be headlining this spring’s OACUHO conference and his ways with an eye on what’s best for our students. Change is constant insights are not to be missed. Gene recently took the time to answer a and it’s useful to be driving some of the changes because one has few questions to give OACUHO members a taste of what to expect from scanned the literature and “sees” what is coming down the road. Getting this year’s keynote address. involved professionally in OACUHO and other groups while keeping up ______ your primary responsibilities as the highest level and only volunteering for what you’re committed to doing extraordinarily well. Read…read… read and do so both within our professional literature and beyond it. And You’ve had a multi-faceted, high profile career. How did you first become involved in the housing profession and what have been the when you have the time, write a book or a monograph. Lastly, getting your terminal degree will open more doors than you might expect. highlights of your career so far?

My first career was in real estate, selling homes and managing apartments, so the jump to student housing wasn’t totally foreign to me. I decided to change careers in my late 20s, entering a Master’s program in counseling purely to gain a credential. Just before starting the program, I was hired as a Graduate Assistant Hall Director for a first year men’s residence hall. I tweaked my graduate program into student development and never looked back.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to during this year’s OACUHO conference at Wilfrid Laurier University?

This is extremely exciting for me. I want to learn from you and your colleagues. I hope to make some friends for life. I hope to bring some knowledge to be enjoyed by most and really helpful to some. It looks to be shaping up as an outstanding conference and I’m excited to be part of it with you. I met a couple of Wilfrid Laurier residence life staff at an Academic Impressions conference I was chairing a few years ago and I have a Laurier hoody I’ll bring. Looking forward to seeing everyone. I’ll have my dancing shoes on! _____

My involvement in SEAHO was a major highlight of my early career. I served in every volunteer role possible except treasurer, including chairing a task force to restructure the association from a loose confederation of interested housing folks to a professional association with elected officers and a host of other structural elements. Another highlight of Dr. Gene Luna currently serves as Associate Vice-President for Student those days was volunteering to write the history of SEAHO’s first twentyAffairs and Academic Support at the University of South Carolina where five years. he also has a clinical Associate Professor appointment in the College of Education. Gene has over thirty years’ experience with college and uniIt’s been nice to get recognized for my leadership along the way. Serving versity housing and extensive consulting experiences with a variety of as SEAHO President was a biggie for me. Being sent to Harvard for a colleges and universities relative to their student residential programs higher education summer institute was special. The first couple of times I and facilities, sustainability, and academic-student affairs partnerships. was invited to serve as a consultant for other colleges and universities He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in the area of Higher were exciting. At South Carolina, I’ve been able to apply my futurist Education Administration. thinking to develop a variety of initiatives that continue today including: Preston Residential College; Capstone Scholars Program; Academic For more information on Gene Luna’s presentation at this year’s Centers for Excellence; academic coaching; Green Quad and a variety OACUHO conference, visit http://oacuho2014.com/keynote. of sustainability initiatives; Gamecock Gateway program; Healthy Carolina, and others.

Dr. GENE LUNA – Selected Career Highlights What changes or trends in the housing field stand out for you in particular over the span of your career? How has the profession adapted to these changes?

2000-Present

Associate Vice-President for Student Affairs/ Development and University Housing, University of South Carolina

Privatized housing really gained traction during my early career. The housing profession didn’t respond well initially. Private developers weren’t welcomed at ACUHO-I. Housing directors had their heads in the sand (not all, of course) but my approach was to begin doing conference presentations on how to do privatized housing for the benefit of the University—another tool in the toolbox approach. We’ve seen on-campus housing evolve into a major force for the recruitment and retention of students. Sustainability has become central to most of our housing departments. The architectural style of our halls has become more varied and apartments have become dominant in new construction. During tight financial times, our departments have been asked to support things outside the housing department. Lastly, we’ve become significantly more assessment and data driven in all that we do. I’ll be touching on that issue somewhat in my opening speech.

1997-2000

Director of Housing and Judicial Programs, University of South Carolina

1994-Present

Clinical Faculty, Department of Education Leadership and Policies, University of South Carolina

1992-1997

Director of Housing and Residential Services, University of South Carolina

1989-1992

Assistant Director of University Housing, University of Georgia

1990-1992

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling and Human Development Service, University of Georgia

From your perspective, what are some of the current hot-button issues and challenges currently facing the profession in the United States?

1983-1989

Assistant Director of Housing, University of Florida

1979-1983

Resident Director/Resident Life Coordinator Appalachian State University

Public/Private partnerships (3P) are a must for consideration of any new construction and we’re starting to see interest in these structures for - PAGE 4 -

End of year/Summer transition: Making a List and Checking it Twice Myles Latter—Trent University Have I worked out my budget? Did I remember to finish editing that room check form? Are my summer projects planned and ready to go? Does my Director know about my 2 week holiday?

No matter what type of professional you are, April can be a very busy month. Being busy and stressed out without being prepared can affect your efficiency, budget, quality of work and not to mention your own personal wellbeing.

This will be my first end of year/summer transition in the role of Coordinator, Housing Facilities so many of the questions and worries outlined above are true for me. I am hoping that by explaining what I have done to prepare for the end of the year and summer that others will learn valuable information through my first-time experiences.

The first thing I worked on to end the year was organize my budget going into the new fiscal year. For this I basically just wrote down everything I wanted to accomplish in the next year and made a plan for it. Then I realized that my budget was not infinite, so I made the changes that were necessary. One bit of advice here and maybe this is obvious, but expect increases. Expect some things to cost more than you thought, and even then expect those to be increased even more. I found out this year that curtains are going to cost $10,000 more than they did two years ago. Back to reconfiguring my budget I go.

The next thing I worked on was getting those projects I wanted to accomplish, started. This means making up Request for Proposals, gatherings bids and bidders and getting quotes. Since I already know what I want purchased for the following year it then becomes a matter of when it can be delivered and installed. My mistake last time was thinking I could organize 120 mattresses to be installed and also fully furnish enough rooms to fit 26 students in the same week. Plan ahead and make sure you have lots of help because moving mattresses for 3 days straight is never fun.

This leads to my next end of year tip; collaborate with Physical Plant and Conferences. Get together before the summer starts and talk about major projects that everyone is working on. It is a good idea to work together especially since all parties will need the rooms for different reasons. At Trent we get together once a month to discuss our major projects and how it will affect other departments so we can work around schedules if possible. There is nothing worse than moving brand new mattresses down a freshly painted hallway.

One of the final things that I have worked on this year is our room inventory check. We have recently went from paper to an online system, which has worked out great, but with a few speed bumps along the way. The questions that I asked myself about this project were; is it efficient, effective and useful? I was finding that there were too many questions that did not really give us the answers we wanted.

Therefore, it really wasn’t that efficient, effective or useful. After the edits though I am happy where it is now. This point ties in to my previous one about collaborating with Physical Plant. Much of the information involved in these room audits are used by Physical Plant for maintenance over the summer. It is important for me to ensure that Physical Plant gets this information early enough so that they can provide a schedule and get the work done before students move back in.

The final thing I plan on doing to end this year is to enjoy myself. For everyone this is different but make sure that you take some time to reflect on what you have done well and what you can improve on. If you can, take some time off and spend it with what will make you happy; whether that is spending time with family, friends, pets or even spending alone time reading a book.

Since I am such a new face to the Housing profession I thought it would be great to hear from other members as to what they do to finish out the year. Here are their tips: Jean Acharya from Lakehead University Orillia said “Take time to capture the memories from the past year with your professional or para professional staff teams. With such high turnover in both roles, it is important to take the time each year to provide closure and appreciation. Host a memory keeper night (scrapbooking and storytelling); create a year in review slideshow; take a team photo; have a year-end banquet; or anything else that brings your team together.”

Laura Storey from Trent University said “Since it can be a challenging time of year you may be feeling burnt out, wishing for less stress or wanting more “me time”. To reenergize yourself go outside and enjoy the sun. Even if it is just a brisk 10 minute walk around campus, get out and enjoy the sun that you may not get to see throughout the winter. I also add liquid drops of vitamin D to my morning coffee or tea since I know that I am inside most of the day and do not always get to see a lot of sunlight. Another thing I have done recently is WMSI (pronounced whimsy) which stands for Weekly Minor Self Improvements. I plan about a month ahead to do something that is simple that you can do weekly and will also improve well-being. For example I have been putting aside putting up pictures in my home and office. Therefore my WMSI for this month is to put up a new picture each week.”

Chad Nuttall from Ryerson University said “It is everyone’s job to Review and Assess everything in your operation. Encourage all staff to keep notes during busy periods (Shut-down, Training, Transition, etc.) In a staff meeting after completing a major function, review what went well and what didn’t go well.

Keep those notes and use them to improve next time/next year. At Ryerson we hold Semesterly Reviews each term. During this meeting we compile any notes and make a list of action items, or assign a staff member to review/improve a process. Next year we have a great list for planning. Make sure to schedule all review meetings well in advance to ensure it happens.”

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Assessing Assessment at the Assessment Drive-in Submitted by: Matthew Harris and Tammy Douglas On Friday 28 February, 2014, York University Residence Life in conjunction with the Professional Development Committee hosted a one day conference on assessment. With attendees divided into new professionals and mid to senior level professionals the day was created to afford attendees the most information possible and ensure that the learning was applicable to the experiences and work that is done by the attendees.

The day started with a keynote by Dr. Martha Rogers, Associate Professor at York University, entitled “Assessment: Lessons from the Trenches” and examined Dr. Rogers’ experience using assessment to create and facilitate student success programs.

Following Dr. Rogers’ keynote new professionals went on to hear Melinda Scott of the University of Toronto give a primer into assessment. The mid/ senior level professionals participated in a presentation by Mike Porritt from Huron College on examining norms that can be found through assessment.

After a short intermission, new professionals attended a presentation by Lisa Endersby of Seneca College that looked at the journey that happens through assessment. The mid/ senior level professionals were listening to Brendan Schulz and Clara Wong of York University’s Division of Students share their knowledge of aligning strategic priorities with a balanced scorecard in mind.

New professionals then went onto hear of York’s experience in using assessment to determine and drive First Year Experience programs by Dimple Savla, Mitch Burnie and Matthew Harris. Mid/ Senior level attendees participated in a discussion based session with York University’s Don Hunt entitled “Taking Advantage of Assessment to Improve Internal Operations” Finally each group came together for a session entitled “Designing Assessment Plans with the Story in Mind” and a panel discussion that brought together presenters to respond to questions regarding assessment.

The experience would not have been concluded without a follow-up assessment that looked to gain information as to the conference experience. The Planning Committee is happy to report that respondents have positive feedback in all aspects of the day and appreciates the efforts that attendees put into the day. Moreover the Planning Committee would like to thank the Residence Life Leadership team at York University, Student Community and Leadership and Development, The York Bookstore, Parking Services and University Information Technology at York, along with Aramark Catering and OACUHO and our amazing student volunteers for their support and assistance in making the day a success.

A graphic recording of Dr. Rogers’ keynote done by Ashley Grenville, Coordinator, Residence Life at York University.

Swag bag offered

Nametags offered to attendees

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