SPRING 2020
Director’s Reflection p2 Get to Know the Team p4 HR highlight Welcome New Terps p6 Pandemic Work and Accomplishments p8 Article Department Successes During COVID p12 Packages and Q/I Housing Stats p13 Baby Terps p14 Staff Highlight - COVID Reassignments p15 DEI Committee Reflection p15 Steve Petkas is Retiring p16
Res Life Roundup | Spring 2021 | Vol. 3
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Director’s Reflection
Dear Resident Life colleagues, The months are flying by, and like many of you, I’m shocked another academic year is behind us and elated to take a few breaks this summer before we fully return to campus and welcome our students in the Fall. This year has not been without challenges. The pandemic continued to wreak havoc, and public health guidance forced us to change course or ‘pivot’ quickly, often on a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We managed to get students out of their beds and tested early on Saturday mornings, managed to transition programs from limited in-person to fully virtual and reverse course again. We managed to vaccinate the majority of our professional and student staff and even have a successful Spring Break. I’m grateful for this team and the time, energy, and compassion as we navigated another challenging academic year. We’ve also made it through a tumultuous election season, insurrection, continued police brutality that continues to impact the Black and Brown communities largely, and targeted violence and hate towards our APIDA community. Exhausted is an understatement. As we prepare for a well-deserved summer, I hope you take time to recalibrate, recenter and take the time that you deserve to recharge. I am grateful for each of you beyond measure, and I couldn’t have made it through this year without your leadership, advocacy, and always centering the work that we do around the health, safety, and well-being of our students and our staff. With gratitude, Valronica
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I’m grateful for this team and the time, energy, and compassion as we navigated another challenging academic year.
Res Life Roundup | Spring 2021 | Vol. 3
Res Life Roundup | Spring 2021 | Vol. 3
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Get to Know the Team: HR!
The Human Resources unit collaborates across Resident Life and the Division of Student Affairs, and with University Human Resources on staffing, organizational, and business supports. The office directly serves 85 (or so) professional, six graduate, and over
Sylvia Thomas
Meredith Carpenter Assistant Director, Human Resources
Favorite Part of Your Job: I really enjoy supporting staff at all levels, both interpersonally and operationally. We try to remove barriers where we can and make processes as smooth as possible. I get to do a lot of problem solving and I find that very satisfying.
Program Administrative Specialist, Human Resources Favorite Part of Your Job: Working with students. Interesting Fact: Love to bake homemade desserts for family get-togethers.
Interesting Fact: Outside of UMD I spend time as President of DC’s Different Drummers, an LGBTQ+ community band, and volunteer at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
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600 undergraduate employees in the areas of staffing & personnel management, employee relations and retention, search & selection, and payroll & benefits. The HR unit also oversees payroll, timesheets, and benefits for Conferences & Visitor Services.
Brian Bock
Joelle Campbell
Assistant Coordinator, Human Resources Favorite Part of Your Job: I really enjoy the student-facing aspects of my role, especially the RA class (Groundwork), as well as finding innovative ways to tackle the various challenges we face. Interesting Fact: In my spare time, I love baking and have a great repertoire of tasty breads, cookies, and other treats! I’m always happy to share (or trade) recipes, so reach out if you want one.
Program Management Specialist, Human Resources Favorite Part of Your Job: My favorite part of the job is the people I work with, finding moments of laughter, and being able to assist my colleagues in ways that require me to make connections across the department. In my role I help both students and professional staff with a variety of things, and it’s the variety that I enjoy as well; from helping with selection processes, to parking, to payroll, to managing our library, etc. I like having a wide area of ways in which I am able to assist our department. Interesting Fact: In college I had my stage debut as an actor in a play my friend wrote. I also studied abroad in Ireland a few years ago and learned more about the dramatic arts at Trinity College, though I partly went because I love Ireland! This stems from a childhood love of Riverdance, which still brings me joy to watch to this day. =D Another cool thing is that I’m technically a great-aunt, and right before the pandemic I finally got to meet my oldest siblings as well as most of the family that I have in Trinidad & Grenada. If you want to know anything more just ask me! =)
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Welcome New Terps!
Even through COVID, we were so happy to welcome a few new staff members to our department over the past year! Let’s get to know them a little! Hopefully, you’ll see them in person soon!
MATT DICICCO Joined: June 2020 Title: Assistant Director, Housing Management Where did you move here from? Oklahoma State/Stillwater, OK What do you miss about that place? Getting from point A to point B in significantly less time than it takes here in the DMV Favorite Part of Your Job: Making the assignments process easier to understand and putting more information in our students’ hands Best Meal You Make At Home: A shredded chicken burrito/quesadilla with varying toppings Binge-Worthy Show Others Might Like: ABC’s TGIF lineup from the mid-90s is on Hulu. You’re welcome. Something you love about living in this area: Pretty much anything I could need is within 30 minutes. One of the downsides of living in a small town...
YUSEF ALI Joined: October 2020 Title: Coordinator for Business Operations Where did you move here from? I have lived here my whole life. I was an Accounting Assistant previously under Margie when I was a student. What do you miss about that place? Nothing because I’m still here. :) Favorite Part of Your Job: Working with such an amazing diverse group of people. Best Meal You Make At Home: Grilled chicken with a side of ranch. Binge-Worthy Show Others Might Like: The Confession Tapes (a crime documentary series where murderers were forced to make “confessions” of their crimes but then later backtracked) Something you love about living in this area: I love that most of my family resides in this area, so I can go visit them more frequently compared to if they lived farther away. Obviously due to COVID I have not seen them in over a year but hope to be able to soon.
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KELLI PERKINS Joined: November 2020 Title: Assistant Director for North Campus Where did you move here from? Greensboro, NC What do you miss about that place? Southern food Favorite Part of Your Job: Supervision--my supervisees are some of the dopest professionals and humans I’ve met. Best Meal You Make At Home: I mean...what can’t I make?! I’m a cooking machine, but my family and friends most request my fried chicken, mac n cheese, and greens Binge-Worthy Show Others Might Like: I’m not much of a tv binger, but I have been watching Marriage or Mortgage on Netflix Something you love about living in this area: I love the diversity of people, food, and things to do. If you can think of it, you can find it here.
NIKKI CHARLESTIN Joined: March 2021 Title: Resident Director for BCC Where did you move here from? Madison, Wisconsin What do you miss about that place? My little sister and niece! Favorite Part of Your Job: Building relationships with my residents! Best Meal You Make At Home: Shrimp Tacos Binge-Worthy Show Others Might Like: Bones! An oldie but goodie! Something you love about living in this area: There is always something to do!
CHARMAYNE WYCHE Joined: March 2021 Title: Resident Director for DAQSS Where did you move here from? Radford University (About 20 miles southwest of Blacksburg, VA) What do you miss about that place? The DE&I work Favorite Part of Your Job: Interactions with the RAs Best Meal You Make At Home: Shrimp & Basil Zucchini Pasta Binge-Worthy Show Others Might Like: The Office Something you love about living in this area: I love that there is always something to do. It just doesn’t seem like you can get bored here.
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This has been a year like no other! I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like this again in my lifetime… Easily, the most challenging thing I’ve ever faced in my professional career. These quotes all came from Resident life staff members… After the mold issues of 2018-19. Little did we know that barely more than a year later we would face a challenge far greater, larger in scope and longer lasting than even that very difficult year of mold. Over the course of the last fourteen months, Resident Life staff members have risen to the challenge of a global pandemic and performed phenomenally on behalf of our students and each other. Some of us volunteered to switch jobs. Some of us took on tasks we had no prior experience or training in. All of us had to figure out new ways to do our jobs under stressful and trying conditions. We had to learn how to use new tools and how to support each other from afar. We had to find a way to bring structure and sanity to bear on a situation that none of us had ever faced. That we did all of this while coping with the stressors of caring for and educating children, supporting parents and other family members, being away from family, friends and other loved ones, and attending to our own personal health and safety is nothing short of miraculous. Any attempt to create a list of the amazing achievements of Resident Life staff over the course of the pandemic will necessarily fall short. Consider this a partial list, a down payment of sorts on our story of the pandemic.
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mmediate transition to remote work On March 10, 2020, UMD announced plans to finish the week of classes before spring break and then transition to online learning exclusively beginning on April 10. By March 13 we had closed most of the residence halls for spring break and developed a remote work plan and by March 18, the first work day after the weekend, we implemented the plan.
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pring Break and Emergency Housing
As students made or updated their plans for spring break and the transition to online learning, more than 1,000 students in residence halls and 1,300 in our P3 communities signaled their need for housing during spring break and the period immediately afterward. Staff across units worked together to care for and provide services to these students, sort out when people were leaving, and respond to emergencies.
of Spring Semester Re-engineering processes
Room Selection, P3 Leasing, Staff Selection, RA Class, and a multitude of programs are just a few of the examples of processes and programs that ordinarily take place in the spring semester that had to be re-imagined and re-engineered.
with residents, Communications student staff and professional staff
There were more questions than answers last spring and every Resident Life staff member had students, parents, student staff, and others clamoring for answers. We all tried to gather information from many disparate sources and make sense of it in a coherent and consistent way to try to allay the fears and frustrations that everyone was experiencing, including ourselves.
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ntroduction of the word “pivot” into our daily lexicon Things changed fast and frequently causing the need for constant adaptation and flexibility.
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ove-out
March 27 - April 5 May 23 - June7 - We did excellent preparation and planning for move-out - twice. Our original plan to allow students to return to campus in late-March and early-April to retrieve their belongings and turn in their keys were canceled days before the activity was scheduled to start based on increasing numbers of cases statewide and concerns of public health experts.
for fall semester (Resident Life Planning activities)
In addition to managing the immediacy of the health crisis and the impact on students, we had to figure out how to plan for a fall semester that no one knew for sure would happen and if it did, what it would look like. Multiple plans and contingencies were considered and adapted as we pivoted (pivoted!) many times throughout the spring and summer.
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einventing our housing program as a mostly-singles community
In addition to transitioning to a program of mostly single occupancy rooms, our staff bent over backwards to give flexibility to students and families navigating the decision about whether to live on campus or not last fall. We changed and/or extended our cancellation deadline at least five times and extended a guarantee of Fall 2021 housing to this year’s first-year students who preferred to live at home this year.
for fall semester (UMD Planning activities)
In addition to the broad array of planning that it takes to open and manage a residence hall program, our staff were intimately involved in planning and execution for broader university activities - COVID-19 testing, Q/I Housing, Case Management, Early Contact Identification, etc.
Staff Training and Opening
Things that are our core competencies like training our staff and preparing a welcoming environment for students took on a whole new dimension. Not only did we have to figure out new modes of delivery, but we also had to cope with the stress of the unknown of how we could keep everyone safe and healthy in a congregate housing environment. Continued on p. 10
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new way to do check-in
To create the safest possible environment for fall check-in we partnered with Intercollegiate Athletics to welcome all residents for check-in at Xfinity Center. We created a new “Set-up and Go” program to expand the options for move-in. We distributed face masks, welcome kits, and Alumni Association books as part of the check-in process.
Enforcing COVID-19 Rules
The good news? An all singles housing program leads to a great reduction in roommate conflicts to manage. The less good news? A large share of the burden of enforcing health and safety protocols fell to residence hall staff. As of this writing, DRL staff have documented 639 covid-related incidents involving 1,719 students.
Quarantine and Isolation Housing
Several of our colleagues volunteered for or accepted a year-long job transfer to support Q/I Housing. From day one, business was brisk! The Q/I team created the program on the fly and learned and adapted to constantly changing conditions. More than 1,200 students have used the program since last August while an additional 750 have isolated or quarantined at home or off campus.
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ther Health Interventions
We learned and in some cases invented all new housing concepts - Enhanced Health Precautions, Sequester-in-Place, Clusters and Outbreaks, Quarantine-inPlace and others.
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cademic year breaks
Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break and Spring Break typically represent milestones that help us mark the time of the academic year. We know how to manage them and what student needs are related to them. This year all bets were off as each break had to be dissected and put back together to respond to the needs of the pandemic.
Planning for Fall 2021 and beyond
As we come full circle and prepare for another new academic year, we will face a new set of challenges, a new set of unknowns. The transition back to “normal” has already begun as more and more individuals are getting vaccinated and as businesses, governments and yes, the University of Maryland, begin to plan for a post-pandemic future. As we allow ourselves to look to a brighter future, we should stop for a moment and reflect on the incredible accomplishments that we’ve achieved together these last 14 months. There was no playbook or script; we had to figure things out together. It has always been true and will, I suspect, remain true that we are at our best when we take on even the most daunting challenge -- together.
By Michael J. Glowacki
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We adapted our housing program to a singles-only program that housed about 4,000 students this year.
Our fall check-in was centralized and conducted at Xfinity Center. It incorporated both Dining Hall bioscans and distribution of student ID cards, two activities that would have ordinarily taken place at Summer Orientation. Students got a grand Terp welcome and a dose of Maryland pride walking through the concourse at Xfinity. The video boards on the concourse included video welcome messages from President Pines and VP Perillo as well as welcomes and information from departments around campus.
Residence Hall Staff, including professional staff and student staff played a key role in educating students about COVID-19 precautions and holding students accountable in the residence halls for following those precautions. Our staff responded ably to several challenges along the way, including the use of Enhance Health Precautions in particular buildings in the fall and the spring and the sequester-in-place order in the spring semester.
Department Successes During COVID We distributed 4Maryland Kits and Terrapin Strong face masks to all residents in both the fall and spring.
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Our fall check-in also included a new “setup and go” option that allowed students to move the majority of their belongings into their room prior to their official arrival on campus. This allowed students and their families to have ample time to set up their rooms in a safe and physically distant way and allowed parents and other family members to be part of the process. About 63% of residence hall students chose this option.
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In conjunction with a host of partners across campus (C&VS, Residential Facilities, Dining Services, University Health Center, DSA Directors and Senior Staff, Volunteer Case Managers, and others) we have supported around 2,400 students who had need for special housing arrangements including residing in our Q/I program in Leonardtown/Greek Houses/ Caroline/Wicomico, being required to follow Enhanced Health Precautions, or Isolating/Quarantining off campus or in place.
Package stats for the year
Stats on Packages and Q/I Housing
Oakland: 22,744 La Plata: 13,668 Annapolis: 12,888 Cumberland: 12,464 Queen Anne’s: 10,552 Total number of packages logged this year: 72,316 Q/I Housing
427 981 1408
Students in Quarantine housing this year
Students in Isolation housing this year
Total number of residents in Q/I housing this year
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Baby Terps Welcome to the Res Life Family, Baby Terps! Staff Member: Erin Schlegel Baby’s Name: Cora Birthday: October 28, 2020 Favorite Thing to Do: Tummy time with her Mozart Cube Favorite Item: Banana teething toy Lesson learned as a parent: Children before chores is our new motto. Chores will always be, so savor time with the kids instead!
Staff Member: Kia Weeden Baby’s Name: Quentin (aka “Q”) Baby’s Birthday: July 9, 2020 Baby’s favorite thing to do: Q currently likes to explore and experience new things. Baby’s favorite item: A Narwhal lovey he sleeps with and our dog, Cane. Fun fact, the lovey was a gift from DPG & his family (see pic) Lesson learned as a parent: The importance of patience as well as how precious (and fleeting) time can be. Therefore, my husband and I try our best to focus on being present for Q with our time, love, and attention.
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Staff Highlight - COVID Reassignments Full-Time Reassigned Staff: Melissa McDaniel, Daunece Cox, Karlena Walker, Stephanie Olson, and former staff member Brittany Marxen all worked full-time supporting the Quarantine/Isolation Housing Operation in Leonardtown this year. Together they worked with DRF and C&VS staff to manage all the students entering and leaving temporary assignments in Leonardtown, managing desk operations, attending to any variety of logistical issues related to supporting our students while in their temporary apartments. Tiffany Harris and ElBonita Elliott have both been working to support COVID testing and compliance on campus. ElBonita primarily worked on coordinating all of the testing events on campus from the summer onwards, while Tiffany primarily focused on the student ambassador program which was essential to supporting campus efforts to pursue an ambitious testing regimen. Jordan Adams also worked in this arena full-time for a short period before being recalled to support the South Hill community team.
Part-Time Reassigned Staff: In the Fall, Aaron Hood and Lisa Alexander both spent part of their time supporting campus-based contact tracing which was vital for preventing outbreaks on campus. Leslie Krafft and Dana Calandrino, Keira Martone, Ray Nardella, and Maddie Reich all trained and functioned as needed as Case Managers for students who were quarantined or isolated due to COVID.
DEI Committee Reflection Our DEI work shifted to meet the needs of a virtual environment and a tumultuous year. The Multicultural Advocates focused on ongoing RA training, providing sessions on topics such as immigration, free speech and the RA role, and equity and equality. With the move to RA Groundwork, Common Ground recruited participants from LLPs and opened to all students during the Spring semester. Nine Peer Dialogue Leaders completed training and facilitated six groups. On the staff side, the D&I Staff Development & Training Committee pivoted from our Understanding Privilege theme to focus on trust-building. Staff also engaged in 10 article discussions related to heritage months and current issues and three supervisor training sessions on building trust in a virtual environment and the role of implicit bias.
We’ve missed having all of these staff members and appreciate their willingness to adopt new or completely different responsibilities this year in order to support our department’s and university’s continued functioning!
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Steve Petkas is Retiring As many of you know, Steve Petkas is retiring at the end of July after 37 years in the Department of Resident Life. I sat down virtually with him recently to talk about his time with the Department and what he’s looking forward to in retirement. As you can imagine, a lot has happened in the 37 years Steve has been in the Department of Resident Life. Some themes from our conversation were the importance of committing to our community development mission and thriving in the midst of challenge and chaos. These topics go hand in hand. One of Steve’s fondest memories was a moment during the first “Olympics of the Mind” conference. It was an all hands on deck affair with Pat Mielke and Deb Grandner playing the roles of trash attendants in Mickey Mouse-like gloves wielding trash sticks and garbage bag with a huge amount of light heartedness and fun. It’s these types of moments that Steve has appreciated most, “the willingness we have always demonstrated to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty doing whatever labors are required of us.”
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Thirty-seven years can go by more quickly than you would think.
Steve recalled the “work hard, play hard” nature of ’95-’01 that included sing-a-longs, line dances, and the Macarena. “These ‘let your hair down affairs’ [showed] our unity in fierce commitment to the mission, borne of the difficult experiences in the lean years of ’90-’94 during which occupancy plummeted, budgets and staff lines were slashed, and well-developed programs ditched as we labored in a survival mindset. One never looks forward to mining the upsides of difficult times, but one of them is a commitment to team that is bred by few other experiences.” As the commitment to team was forged in lean times, a different staff bond was formed in the wake of loss. “My recollections would be incomplete without recalling times in which we came together and mourned the deaths of dear friends in our ranks and families. The authenticity that arises from the pain of grief bonds us as perhaps does no other sentiment. Such memories cannot be characterized so much as fond as they are profound, and recalling them can still summon tears. Our times in shared grief have been our most intimate, uninhibited, and soul-wrenchingly honest moments together. They are the massive counterweight to our joys, and thankfully, far more the exception.”
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As we come out of the current challenges we are experiencing due to the pandemic, Steve advises that we re-commit to our community building mission and remember that community is enhanced by in-person interactions. In doing so he encourages us to take time to understand each of our struggles along with student struggles and grapple with the true nature of risk that carries no promise of assurances, and commit to promoting the value of being present and engaged. And for those who need it, he hopes we will make space to support our staff members who conclude that they need to make different professional choices in the wake of such an unprecedented year. To our newest staff members Steve says, “Engage deliberately with people in the 10-15 year cohort to learn from their experiences, history, perspectives, insights. Ask what has made them stay. Be proactive and learn what you need to know to adapt and how your ideas can be adapted to support your emerging impulse to contribute.” To our 10-15 year staff, or our “could be lifers”, when faced with choice to leave or not he asks you to reflect on the question “What keeps me here?” (Are you here by default, is the
Thanks for your 37 years of dedication and commitment to the development of UMD students and staff. You will be missed, Steve!
reason intuitive and just feels right, is it a conscious choice?) Thirty-seven years can go by more quickly than you would think. In his 37 years, Steve’s appreciation for the phrase, “The journey is the destination” has become more intricate. His grasp of the multifaceted dilemmas we confront as resident life staff is much stronger then in his earlier years. In his time at UMD, he has learned to embrace the chaos and challenge and will miss being directly involved in these things as he instead becomes an observer. The learning Steve has experienced has been profound, enlightening, challenging, but also enjoyable. As a man of action, Steve is approaching retirement with some uncertainty. What will be the next adventure? How will he feed his desire for challenge and solving the messy problems? However, he is certain that he will enjoy having more free time for working out, the challenge of the hunt and time in nature, work on his fiction writing, and catching up with friends. When Steve returns for a visit in 3, 5, 7 years, you can look forward to new stories of his adventures in retirement. By Jennifer Lindstrom
...One never looks forward to mining the upsides of difficult times, but one of them is a commitment to team that is bred by few other experiences.
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We want to hear from YOU! What do you like most about the content? What new topics should we consider for future editions? Staff are invited to share ideas, feedback, and to contribute content to make this an inviting and helpful resource for all! We hope you enjoy the first edition and look forward to hearing your feedback. Send any thoughts to tkiras@umd.edu.
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