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Talking Stick
The Authoritative Source
for Campus Housing
ALL INCLUSIVE
Making gender-neutral
housing work
July + August 2011
Volume 28, Number 6
www.acuho-i.org
Published by the Association
of College and University Housing
Printed July 1, 2011 *Only applies to 72 Hour order programs.
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Talking Stick
JULY + AUGUST 2011
VOLUME 28, ISSUE 6
THE MAGAZINE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY HOUSING OFFICERS-INTERNATIONAL
FEATURES
28
Balancing Act
To help meet the demand for new or renovated housing, campuses may turn
to debt financing. This primer explains the ins and outs of the process.
36
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
Along with being a philosophical decision, gender-neutral housing has its
logistical issues as well. Discover how these campuses adapted to new
ideas.
COLUMNS
6
TALKING STICK
Symbol of International
Friendship
ACUHO-I’s talking stick,
or speaker’s staff, was
hand-carved of wood by
the Ohiat Band of the
British Columbia Indian
Nation. Canadian ACUHO-I
members presented it
to the association in July
1973 during our annual
conference at the University
of British Columbia. The
inscription reads: It is a sign
of authority carried when
proclamations are to be
made or a meeting of chiefs
is in session. ... A token of
common heritage both to
Canadians and Americans.
COVER:
The center of campus at
Wesleyan University in
Middletown, Connecticut is
a flood of activity.
Vision
Goal Setting
17
Res Life
Bringing Academic Resources Closer to Home
Graduate students arrive on campus with a unique
set of concerns. Here’s how campus housing can
be positioned to help meet them.
20
24
Facilities
DEPARTMENTS
Grant Writing 101
Tips and tricks for when it comes time to ask for
the money
4
Online Now
Turn the Page
8
Just In
Group reading exercises are
beneficial for students
and staff alike.
Learn how to put
one in place and
browse our short
stack of title
suggestions.
Spotlight on Bennett College PLUS a
passive house; RecycleMania report;
remembering those students who
have passed; and RA diversity by the
numbers.
13 Your ACUHO-I
15
PHOTO: Olivia Drake,
Wesleyan University
Transitions
27 Calendar
CORRECTION:
44 Conversations
The name of Western
Oregon University member
Tina Fuch was misspelled
in the Spotlight of the
March-April 2011 issue.
Talking Stick apologizes for
this error.
Let’s talk about connecting the dots
when it comes to student welfare.
47 First Takes
48 Reporting Out
This magazine is printed
on recycled stock
by PXPOHIO, which
has been awarded
Greenworks status for its
environmental practices.
54 Welcome
56 Snapshot
JULY + AUGUST 2011
3
ONLINE NOW
NOW
ONLINE
www.acuho-i.org
Conference Conversations
Whether you are able to attend an ACUHO-I
event in person or not, you can still skim
plenty of information by following the
conversation from afar via Twitter. More and
more people are using the popular social
media tool to broadcast the backchannel
conversations, insights, stories, and resources,
and anyone is welcome to follow along.
The secret code for following along is the
hashtag. This is any word or words preceded
by a #. So that means once you sign up with
a Twitter account and search for #ACUHOI you
will find all posts related to the association.
This practice, along with following the
association’s Twitter feed from @ACUHOI,
will connect you to an untold number of
other campus housing and student affairs
professionals, allowing you to expand your
professional contacts.
The hashtag is even being seen during
ACUHO-I webinars and virtual roundtable
presentations. So while information is being
broadcast to desktop computers, a parallel
conversation is happening in the Twitterverse.
Join the Twitter flock. Find more information
and catch a glimpse of the information at
www.twitter.com/acuhoi.
Talking Stick
THE MAGAZINE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY HOUSING OFFICERS-INTERNATIONAL
TALKING STICK STAFF
President
Alma Sealine
Case Western Reserve University
Editor
James A. Baumann
james@acuho-i.org
President-elect
Vennie Gore
Michigan State University
Managing Editor
Camille Perlman
camille@acuho-i.org
Research Librarian
Emily Glenn
emily@acuho-i.org
Art Director
Paige K. Connor
pkconnor34@yahoo.com
Copy Editor
Christine Freeman
freemanc@ohio.edu
Editorial Intern
Bridget Cunningham
bridget@acuho-i.org
Ad Sales
Alison Jones
alison@acuho-i.org
Talking Stick Advisory Board Chair
April Hicks Konvalinka
ahicks@astate.edu
Talking Stick Committee Chair
Curtis Erwin
cgerwin@uncg.edu
Contributing Writers
Mary C. Jordan, Thomas Germain, Megan C.
Miller, Barry Olson, C. Joseph Carter, Cynthia
P. Balogh, Stacy Oliver, Kathryn Magura
ACUHO-I Central Office
941 Chatham Lane, Suite 318
Columbus, Ohio 43221-2416
Phone: (614) 292-0099
Fax: (614) 292-3205
E-mail: office@acuho-i.org
Web: www.acuho-i.org
The Association actively encourages
participation by members of
under-represented groups based on
ethnicity, age, sex, gender identity
and expression, religious preference,
sexual orientation, and disability in all
ACUHO-I and institutional activities.
Connect with ACUHO-I Online
blog.acuho-i.org
www.flickr.com/photos/acuhoi
www.acuho-i.net
www.twitter.com/acuhoi
44
TALKING
TALKING STICK
STICK
Vice President
Patricia Martinez
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
Finance and Corporate Records Officer
Peter Galloway
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Business Practices and Enhancements Director
Bonnie Solt Prunty
Ithaca College
Facilities and Physical Environment Director
Shannon Staten
University of Louisville
Globalization Director
Rebecca Chan
City University of Hong Kong
Inclusion and Equity Director
Deb Schmidt Rogers
DePaul University
Knowledge Enhancement Director
Mary Howard-Hamilton
Indiana State University
Residence Education Director
John Buck
Webster University
Regional Affiliations Director
Rebecca Figura
Eastern Michigan University
Workforce Development Director
Allan Blattner
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
The Association of College and University Housing OfficersInternational is a nonprofit organization that provides
professional development experiences for its members
by sponsoring programs, services, publications, and
research. Association members on college and university
campuses worldwide participate in conferences, workshops,
committees, and networks. These activities provide a means
of exchanging and distributing professional information
related to the various aspects of student residence facilities
and their related operations.
The Talking Stick (ISSN 0746-455X) is published bimonthly, six times a year in January/ February,
March/April, May/ June, July/August, September/October, and November/ December
by the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International.
This publication is the sole property of ACUHO-I, and the information herein may not be transferred or
reproduced in any form whatsoever, including entering into electronic databases, without written
permission. Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of references, quotations, tables, and figures
submitted for publication. Authors further hold ACUHO-I harmless from any liability resulting from
publication of articles. Editorial mention of commercial interests is intended entirely as an information
service to readers and should not be construed as an endorsement, actual or implied, by the association.
POSTMASTER
www.facebook.com/acuhoi
ACUHO-I EXECUTIVE BOARD
Executive Director
Sallie Traxler
sallie@acuho-i.org
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
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subscriptions to:
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VISION
Goal Setting
I like goals. They are what helps us reach those life milestones and drives us to jog a little farther, work a little harder, and eat a
little healthier. Then there are big goals. Big audacious goals. What happens when you strive to reach those?
In his book Good to Great, author Jim Collins lists big audacious goals (he actually calls them big, hairy, audacious goals,
or BHAGs) as one thing that moves organizations from good to great. And, as part of our association’s strategic planning,
ACUHO-I has had a BHAG that “ACUHO-I will be the world’s foremost authority on college and university housing by
providing access to meaningful knowledge and resources.”
IT WAS A GOOD
GOAL, MADE WITH
THE NOBLEST OF
INTENTIONS. BUT
AS TIME PASSED
THE QUESTION
WAS RAISED IF WE
OVERSTATED OUR
REACH.
It was a good goal, made with the noblest of intentions. But as time passed and we learned more about
the world in which we live, the question was raised if we overstated our reach. To declare ACUHO-I “the
world’s foremost authority” was a disservice to other excellent housing associations located outside the
United States. Perhaps it was insensitive to think we could be all things to all countries and cultures without
having plenty to learn from them as well. Finally, the goal was not even feasible with our available resources.
So the executive board debated a more appropriate destination. We wanted to be the organization
professionals turn to for answers. We wanted to collect and understand data about member institutions. We
wanted to better understand how housing operates in countries like China and South Africa. We wanted to
be able to – if asked a question we didn’t have an answer for – partner with an organization that did.
So, after much discussion we created a new goal. “ACUHO-I will be the leading global network and
United States expert on college and university housing by providing access to knowledge and resources.”
This statement reflects more accurately our knowledge base and our work to connect with international
members. Now we have something to work toward.
I took another lesson from this debate. Just as ACUHO-I couldn’t be the world’s foremost authority, no one person
or organization can know everything either. The knowledge to create the perfect housing operation is scattered among the
thousands of individuals who make up our membership. What ACUHO-I can do, however, with your help, is to connect
these individuals through conference presentations, articles, blogs, networks, social media, and the other tools at our disposal.
Through the coming year, together we can strive to meet our big audacious goal and many others. I look forward to the
experience.
Alma R. Sealine
ACUHO-I President
6
TALKING STICK
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JUST IN
SPOTLIGHT
Bennett College
Greensboro, North Carolina
Name: Honors Residence Hall
Opened:"VHVTUs Cost: $6.8 million
Architects: HADP Architecture, Inc.
Composed of 44 units, the building features
two-bedroom apartments as well as four-bed
semi-private apartments for its 151 residents.
The hall includes a full kitchen and laundry
rooms on each floor, and, in an effort to
promote academic success among students, it
also features a computer lab, a meeting room
with two flat-screen televisions, and a study
room. Along with development of the new
residence hall, the team of HADP Architecture
and Hardin Construction Company also worked
together on other campus projects, such as
the Global Learning Center, which opened in
early 2011. Home to the college’s global studies
initiative and the entrepreneurship program,
this 22,000-square-foot facility is highlighted by
its versatility in design and use. The building
serves as a distinct resource for students and the
community with features such as classrooms,
a lecture hall, study rooms, faculty offices, and
banquet rooms.
Along with renovations to athletic facilities,
the project also included construction of the
Children’s House/Intergenerational Center,
which provides resources for seniors and an
elementary laboratory school. The overall project
was recognized as the college’s first major
construction activity in nearly three decades.
8
TALKING STICK
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BENNETT COLLEGE
Constructed as part of the college’s $18-million
capital improvements project, this new threestory, 43,000-square-foot residence hall
combines traditional Williamsburg design
features with modern amenities. Characterized
by traditional brick exterior and columned
porches, the honors residence hall features
innovative technology and resources designed to
enhance students’ living experience as well as
boost student population.
Reporting and Responding to Student Deaths
When dealing with the death of a student, college campuses endure
not only a period of mourning but also encounter the struggle of
finding the most effective ways to report and respond to the crisis.
While emphasis is placed on the need to get out accurate information
quickly, campuses can find difficulty in dealing with the press and
social media as they must often wait hours until confirmation from
the coroner’s office. As more information is made available, issues
arise with maintaining respect and privacy for the victim and his
or her family while also keeping other students informed about the
incident.
At the University of California-Berkeley, effective communication
and planning are key factors in responding to student deaths. To
promote the transfer of timely and accurate information, the dean
of students coordinates all communications regarding student death
notifications. While the dean acts as a voice from the university, the
family is also asked to select a liaison with the university to keep
contact clear and efficient between the two parties.
While serving as a helpful resource for immediate
communication, certain forms of media, particularly social media,
can present issues in regards to the relaying of precise information
regarding student deaths. To help alleviate such issues, Marty
Takimoto, director of communications and marketing, encourages
student housing staff to work closely with appropriate offices to
design response and communication plans for crisis situations prior
to such events.
“Making sure that information is accurate and timely is important
but equally important is making sure this information does not
conflict with related responses from other agencies or with on-going
processes,” he said.
Providing an abundance of resources for family and students is
an important aspect of the response system that has been designed at
Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Tonie Miyamoto, director
of communications for housing and dining services, notes that the
college campus can be a support network if needed for families,
offering them counseling services and emphasizing personal contact.
Counseling is also provided for university students to voice questions
and concerns during crises, and direct feedback is taken into account
from students living the experience.
At the University of Connecticut in Storrs, establishing and
utilizing campus relationships has been an important element
in the handling of student deaths. John Armstrong, assistant
director of operations for residential life, noted the benefits of such
collaborations during these crisis situations.
“We have found it helpful to involve both residence education and
operations staff to manage this process,” he said. “By involving both
teams, we ensure that the physical and emotional needs of the family,
students, and staff are met.”
JULY + AUGUST 2011
9
JUST IN
A House Built for Sustainability
Noted for its remarkable strength in energy efficiency, the TerraHaus residence hall
at Unity College in Maine was designed and constructed to meet the Passive House
standards, which emphasize high levels of building efficiency and performance. Set to
open this fall, the two-story cottage will house 10 students in four double rooms and
two single rooms. Aside from serving as student housing, the structure will also be a
showpiece for visitors and a living laboratory for the school’s academic courses.
In keeping with Passive House standards, TerraHaus will decrease its heating energy
consumption by 90 percent through strong insulation, air sealing, and solar orientation.
Designed to provide a comfortable environment in all types of weather, the building will
be characterized by vast two-story windows that maximize sunlight in the winter and
a roof overhang that decreases solar gain in the summer, thus preventing overheating.
Similar to other Passive House buildings, the residence hall shares a distinct quality: It
can be heated with the energy equivalent of a hair dryer.
The residence hall is the first part of a project inspired by the Passivhaus Standards
for energy efficiency and will eventually include three 10-person residential buildings in
an area known as SonnenHaus Village. Correlating with its emphasis on environmental
studies, the college is also home to Unity House, a 1,937-square-foot LEED Platinum
modular home built in 2008.
Stephen Nason, the director of residence life and assistant dean for student affairs,
believes that TerraHaus may serve as an influential model in the next generation of
residence halls that could demonstrate net zero energy use while also functioning as
strong residential communities.
For more information on the Passive House standards, visit www.passivehouse.us.
10
TALKING STICK
Be a m
Use en iser
ergy w
ise
r.
Recyclemania Competition
Once Again a Success
save y
The results of the 11th annual Recyclemania
competition have been announced, with
California State University San Marcos earning
the title of Grand Champion for the seventh
year in a row. Other first place winners
include Union College in Schenectady, New
York, for the Per Capita Classic, the largest
amount of combined recyclables per person;
North Lake College in Irving, Texas, for Waste
Minimization, the lowest amount of waste
per person; and Rutgers University in New
Jersey for the Gorilla Prize, the highest total of
combined recycling weights.
our w
orld
Tshwa
ne
of Tec Universi
ty
hnolo
gy
We empo
wer
peop
le
Marketing
Sustainability
at Tshwane University of
Technology
Intended to promote energy consciousness,
Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria,
South Africa, launched a series of marketing
materials this past May as a means to support
their sustainability initiative campaign within
the campus community. Graphics students
at the university were commissioned to aid
with the project, creating designs to publicize
the campaign. The campus community voted
on each design, selecting those that were
most appealing and effective to the student
population. As a means to generate awareness
among students as well as to promote the
green campus culture, the posters, brochures,
ceiling mobiles, and other materials are
featured throughout campus as well as in
university residences.
Categories were also designed to honor
schools dedicated to targeting certain
materials throughout the competition.
These winners were Stetson University in
DeLand, Florida, for paper; Union College
in Schenectady, New York, for corrugated
cardboard; Franklin W. Olin College of
Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, for
bottles and cans; and Brandeis University in
Waltham, Massachusetts, for food service
organics.
This year’s ten-week competition featured
630 participating colleges and universities.
As a whole, the schools helped recycle or
compost 91 million pounds of material during
this time.
For further information on the results of
the 2011 RecycleMania, visit
www.recyclemania.org.
DOES THE
TALKING STICK
REACH ENOUGH
OF YOUR STAFF?
Call (614) 292-0099 or
e-mail talkingstick@
acuho-i.org for more
information about
additional membership
subscriptions.
IN THE NEXT TALKING STICK
Coming in the September-October issue:
·
·
·
How to use logic models
Benchmarking success stories
How do you know if residence life is the career choice for you?
JULY + AUGUST 2011
11
JUST IN
5
BY THE NUMBERS
Number of factors used by the Resident
Assistant Cultural Diversity instrument to
determine RA confidence in addressing
diversity issues.
RA training is a major event for every housing division. In the
current Journal of College and University Student Housing, researchers
determined that the five-factor structure of the Resident Assistant
Cultural Diversity instrument is “useful for determining RA
confidence in addressing issues of cultural diversity in residence
halls.” The five components are (1) belief in the need for cultural
diversity training, (2) confidence working with culturally diverse
residents, (3) belief in the existence of racism in residence halls,
(4) confidence in the ability to handle racial conflict, and (5) belief
in the power of the resident assistant to bring about cultural
understanding.
Authors Young-Shin Kang, Vanessa D. Johnson, and George F.
Thompson won the 2011 Betty L. Harrah Journal Manuscript of the
Year Award for this research encapsulated in their article “Structural
Analysis of the Resident Assistant Cultural Diversity Questionnaire.”
Access Vol. 37, No. 2 of the Journal online at http://www.acuho-i.org/
Default.aspx?tabid=1007 to view it.
12
TALKING STICK
PHOTO CREDIT: AZFAR MIAN
YOUR ACUHO-I
Inaugural SHTI a Success
Last April the ACUHO-I Southern Africa Chapter
experienced another momentous step in its
continuing evolution when it was host to the first
Student Housing Training Institute (SHTI).
The Institute, held April 3-8, 2011, on the
Boland Campus of Stellenbosch University,
featured 13 faculty members who presented on
topics selected from a research study of South
Africa chief housing officers, drawn from a
competency model. The sessions, presented by
housing experts from two continents, addressed
topics such as budgets, strategic planning, facilities
management, student development theory, and
more.
Pieter Kloppers, co-director of the SHTI and
manager of student housing at Stellenbosch,
commented after the event, “I listened carefully to
the personal professional development plans of the
South African delegates and was very impressed
about their enthusiasm, the realistic and optimistic
nature of their plans, and the impact that will
ensue. The faculty was a blessing, and everyone
contributed immensely. The South African
delegates grew in confidence and community as the
SHTI progressed.”
Norb Dunkel, the other co-director and
assistant vice president and director of housing
and residential education at the University of
Florida in Gainesville, says, “Working with the
SHTI Organizing Committee and participating in
this institute will remain a highlight of my career.
My ‘ah-ha’ moment was watching the participant
presentations of their ideal living unit designs,
drawn on newsprint. The time and energy each
group placed into their designs was extraordinary.
Not a detail was to be missed in the
presentations.”
Presenter Charmaine January, manager
of student life at the University of Cape
Town, also appreciated the impact of the
event. “It was a life changing experience
for me to present at the SHTI in
Stellenbosch. I enjoyed all the aspects
of the program thoroughly. I built new
friendships and learned from the best
in the field. I wish all housing staff
this life-changing experience. There
are several highlights: the opportunity
to present with John Schuh, whom
I quote in my work often, was an
immense privilege. The United States
faculty, each in their own unique way, made a huge
impact on my understanding of the field, the way
in which one can adopt a professional approach to
one’s work, and craft a career going forward.”
Another highlight of the week came when
Stellenbosch University was recognized as the first
official home for the ACUHO-I SA central office.
The SHTI and the opening
of the central office in
Southern Africa were
the highlight of many
members’ careers.
Additional participating faculty included
Suzy Campbell (University of Colorado), Mary
Howard-Hamilton (Indiana University), Harry Le
Grande (University of California-Berkeley), Azfar
Mian (University of Florida), Laetitia Permall
(University of the Western Cape), John Schuh (Iowa
State University), Mark Seale (University of the
Western Cape), Eric Sebokedi (Tshwane University
of Technology), Benita van Zyl (University of
Stellenbosch), and Glenn von Zeil (University of
Cape Town).
JULY + AUGUST 2011
13
YOUR ACUHO-I
ACUHO-I Foundation Accepting
Nominations
Are you or someone you know ready to
make a lasting impact on ACUHO-I and the
campus housing profession? Nominations
are being accepted through August 5 for
ACUHO-I Foundation trustees, committee
chairs, and committee members.
Three trustee positions – chair-elect,
vice-chair for development committees, and
treasurer – are available as well as multiple
Development Committee chairs and
member spots to work on specific projects
such as the silent auction at the ACUHO-I
Annual Conference and Exposition,
corporate giving, and others.
A full list of positions and
responsibilities and details about
nominations are available online at http://
www.acuho-i.org/OurFoundation/BeInvolved/
tabid/775/Default.aspx.
Registration Open for New Certificate In
Occupancy Management
This new certificate program consists of two
online courses and a capstone project. Participants
can complete the program as a whole, or choose to just take th
the
individual online course. However, the capstone is required to receive
the certificate.
The first course is Occupancy Management Policies and Procedures
and it addresses how to identify and interpret the factors that
influence occupancy. The second course is Administer Occupancy
Management Operations. In this class, learners put knowledge into
action and discover more about processes such as developing partners,
understanding markets, creating plans, and more. For the capstone
project, participants will conduct a case study analysis of a hypothetical
campus. When complete, the project is reviewed by an occupancy
professional to verify that the learner has met the requirements.
Participants will begin to take courses in October. The online courses
will require 20 to 25 hours of work online and offline. More details
about learning outcomes and pricing options are available online at
www.acuho-i.org/credentialing.
How do
residence halls
help attract
quality staff?
Tell us what you think and see what others are saying:
www.asg-architects.com/residence-life-staff
14
TALKING STICK
TRANSITIONS
Appalachian State University
Statesboro, Georgia
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Vickie Hawkins is the new associate director of residence
life. She comes from Georgia Southern University in
Statesboro where she worked for 31 years in various
positions such as residence hall director, assistant director
for residence life, director of residence life, and director of
housing. She received her bachelor’s degree in social science
education and her master’s in counselor education from
Appalachian State.
Henry Humphreys is the new senior associate dean for
student life. Previously, he was director for residential life at
Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Humphreys
earned his Ph.D. from Boston College and concentrated his
research on how living environments affect honors students’
psychosocial development.
Some of her achievements include receiving the 2008
SEAHO Founders Award, serving on the SEAHO Regional
Entry Level Institute faculty in 2010, and receiving the 2010
ACUHO-I Talking Stick Article of the Year Award.
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Nishmin Kashyap is the new director of housing. Previously,
she was associate director of residential life for operations
and finance at Boston College. Kashyap earned her Ph.D.
from Boston College in fall 2011. Her research concentrated
on international students.
Dominican College
Orangeburg, New York
Ryan O’Gorman is the new director of residence life. His
duties include supervising 3 full-time professional staff, 3
part-time staff, and 29 resident assistants. He has a
bachelor’s from St. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula,
California, and he is currently pursuing a master’s in
organizational leadership from Nyack College in New York.
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Chicago, Illinois
The firm has added 25 new team members. This talented
group joins the architecture, interior design, and planning
practice in offices in Chicago and San Francisco, California.
Chicago: Cary Chandler, Ryan Chester, Georgeanna Farr,
Diana Gescheidler, Amy Graves, Darren Hoppa, Curtis
Jones, Alexander Koenadi, Julie Koerber, James Krygel, Kerl
LeJeune, Kenneth Locascio, Karin Lucas, Jessica Mahl,
Robert Meder, Angie Miller, Matt Moore, Eric Robinson,
Michelle Tsoumas, Michael Veltmen, Monica Willemsen,
Brad Witzman
San Francisco: Andrew Cockrell, Rebecca Friedberg, Brandon
Kelly
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina
William L. McCartney is the new associate vice chancellor of
campus living and dining services. He was previously the
director of International House at the University of Chicago
in Illinois where he had been for the past five years. Prior to
that, he was a director of housing at each of the following
institutions: the University of North Florida in Jacksonville;
University of North Carolina, Wilmington; and The
University of Mississippi in Oxford. He holds a bachelor’s
degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a
master’s degree in student personnel from Ball State
University in Muncie, Indiana.
McCartney has served as chair of the ACUHO-I
International Relations Committee and of the Exhibit and
Display Committee. He has also hosted many study tours for
ACUHO-I in the U.S. and has coordinated one tour in the
United Kingdom and one in Australia for U.S. housing
personnel to visit universities overseas. McCartney has also
served on the ACUHO-I Foundation Board.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois
Dr. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier has been promoted to assistant
provost for the university college. In addition to her
promotion, she will continue to serve as director of
university housing at Southern Illinois University
Carbondale.
In this dual role, Dr. Payne-Kirchmeier now oversees the
departments of new student programs, career services, and
learning support services. She also directs the marketing
and assessment of the newly formed university college. In
addition, Dr. Payne-Kirchmeier will continue directing the
$39 million university housing program, including
management of more than 1,200 full-time and student staff
members in six units – residence life, education and
outreach, fiscal, facilities, management, and residence hall
dining.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
15
TRANSITIONS
Prior to joining SIUC, Dr. Payne-Kirchmeier served in
various student affairs leadership roles at the University of
Southern Indiana in Evansville; Lamar University in
Beaumont, Texas; and at Texas A&M University in College
Station. During her administrative tenure, she has been
highly involved in professional associations, including
ACUHO-I, the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher
Education, the Association of Student Conduct Affairs, the
National Orientation Directors Association, and the
Southwest Association of College and University Housing
Officers. Her involvement also includes serving as the
conference host and president of the Great Lakes
Association of College and University Housing Officers. Dr.
Payne-Kirchmeier also teaches the Student Development
Theory course for the SIUC College Student Personnel
program. Dr. Payne-Kirchmeier is the recipient of the
ACUHO-I Herstory Award, and her current research
explores the job search experience of women seeking the
role of senior student affairs officer.
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida
Michelle Hopper is the new assistant director for residence
life, South Campus. She comes from Eastern Illinois
University in Charleston where she was a complex director.
Hopper earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Eastern
Illinois University and her master’s degree in college student
personnel from Western Illinois University in Macomb. An
area of expertise for Hopper is conducting workshops on
female aggression that help staff learn to identify victims and
bullies as well as to provide support for residents in such
relationships.
RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Dicta Schoenfelder, manager of contracts and
assignments, retired on June 3, 2011, after 32 years of
service to the department of housing.
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida
Kelly Best, associate director of housing for facilities and
maintenance, retired after over 35 years on the Tampa
campus. Best arrived at the University of South Florida in
1970 and served his first role as a student assistant. After
completing his bachelor’s degree, he went on to become a
food service manager, food service director, and business
manager before joining the housing and residential
education staff. During his time at USF, Best oversaw the
hardware installation of housing’s first computer,
supervised hundreds of students and staff, and
contributed his expertise to the construction or total
renovation of 10 building complexes.
Western Illinois University
Macomb, Illinois
W. Garry Johnson, vice president of student services at
Western Illinois University in Macomb, retired on June
30, 2011, after 31 years of service.
16
TALKING STICK
Johnson received his doctorate and master’s degrees
from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his
bachelor’s degree from Southern Colorado State University
in Pueblo. He has held regional, national, and international
offices in several professional associations, including
serving as president of ACUHO-I and two terms as
president of the Upper Midwest Region Association of
College and University Housing Officers. Johnson is a
member of the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher
Education and the American College Personnel
Association. On the WIU campus, Johnson is a member of
the Community-University Partnership Program, Auxiliary
Facilities Committee (chair), the Western Athletic Club,
and the Council on the Quality of Campus Life Committee
(co-chair), and he has served on numerous campus
committees throughout his tenure at Western.
Johnson received the ACUHO-I Parthenon Award
(2009) and the ACPA Diamond Honoree Award (2008),
and he was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, Blue Key Honor
Society, and the National Residence Hall Honorary. He also
received the Distinguished Service Award from the Upper
Midwest Region Association of College and University
Housing Officers, as well as the Great Lakes Association of
College and University Housing Officers.
RES LIFE
Bringing Academic Resources Closer to Home
By Mary C. Jordan,
Thomas Germain, and
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Megan C. Miller
Although community is important, graduate students say
they need more academic development opportunities and
separate study places.
Graduate students take in the opportunity to meet with faculty at the University of Florida.
A young man moves to the United States
with his partner, two young children, and an
aging parent to pursue a doctoral degree in
mechanical engineering. In his immediate
family of five, only he speaks English. The
family moves into a graduate and family
housing apartment on his new campus, and
two days later the young man starts classes,
lab hours, and a part-time job. Although his
partner also looks for work, the language
barrier proves to be a challenge.
During his first semester, he is engaged in
school or work activities for 16 or more hours
a day. He and his family are adjusting well and
enjoying their new community, with soccer
clinics for the kids, potluck dinners, and a
community garden that encourages the elder
parents to socialize, but he feels guilty when he
chooses professional development workshops
for graduate students over leisure time with his
family. He wonders if there is a better way to
balance all the different aspects of his life.
It is well understood that graduate school
can be extremely difficult. Luckily, many
JULY + AUGUST 2011
17
RES LIFE
graduate students find that the
challenges can be diminished if they
choose to live on campus. Housing
for graduate students provides
opportunities to live in close proximity
to their classrooms and laboratories,
to find support for their transition to a
new cultural environment, to develop
their sense of community and pride
in their new educational institution,
and to participate in programs and
other community development
initiatives. But as residential educators,
what more can be done for graduate
students that would add to their
academic development without
stretching their schedules even more?
and family housing population.
The participants – the University
of Colorado at Boulder, University
of Georgia in Athens, University of
Florida in Gainesville, and Iowa State
University in Ames – have utilized the
results broadly in order to reframe the
focus of their programming for this
residential population. The results
of the assessment challenge the
assumption that graduate students do
not need an academic outreach in their
communities:
A relatively common
misconception about graduate
The top five areas that graduate
students want help with were
consistently identified as
grant writing, job search, time
management, presenting at
conferences, and publication.
the participating institutions. Don
Whalen, research and assessment
coordinator at Iowa State University,
shared results from the study with all
residents via a newsletter and directly
with the community council for each
apartment area. Iowa State apartment
community directors Susan Lammers
and Mary Beth Golemo reported
that they will use the data in various
summer projects.
Becky Benjamin, doctoral intern
and programming coordinator for
family and graduate housing at
the University of Georgia, and her
staff organized a highly successful
and well attended résumé writing
workshop in the community. On a
smaller scale, they also initiated a
A RELATIVELY COMMON MISCONCEPTION ABOUT GRADUATE STUDENTS IS THAT
THEY ARE HIGHLY SELF-SUFFICIENT AND EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THE PRESSURE
OF ACADEMIA.
students is that they are highly selfsufficient and equipped to handle the
pressure of academia. This, coupled
with the fact that a significant number
of residential graduate students are
international, has caused graduate
and family housing professionals to
focus primarily on helping residents
establish relationships and appreciate
cultural diversity. However, graduate
residents also have very specific
academic needs and must balance
roles and responsibilities that differ
from those of their undergraduate
counterparts. These factors highlight
how critical it is to bring academic
resources and programming to
graduate students in their living
environment.
During the 2010-11 academic year,
four institutions in the U.S. conducted
an assessment to better understand
the academic needs of the graduate
18
TALKING STICK
Over 70 percent of graduate and
family housing students reported
working more than 20 hours per
week on academics.
targeted advertising campaign in the
communities for on-campus events
that address the specific academic
needs identified by their residents.
More than a third of participants
reported their apartments as the
primary location for academic
study and research.
In the comment section of the
survey, participants frequently
expressed the need for a separate
study space in their living
community.
Many students reported that a safe
and secure community with an
efficient building maintenance
program was of high importance
in terms of creating a living
environment conducive to
academic success.
Housing staff at another
participating institution are also
utilizing data to program around
graduate students’ academic
needs, as well as to collaborate with
academic partners and develop
long-term strategic plans. “This
data has been helpful in making
a strong case that there are a wide
range of programmatic needs that
we in graduate and family housing
can address to support the academic
success of students,” says Alfred
Flores, assistant director of apartment
life and children’s services at the
University of Colorado at Boulder.
“This information will be used in our
master planning for new construction
to ensure we design new apartment
The data highlighted above
were used in different ways by
communities that will provide the
space in order to offer these types of
programs.”
Flores also emphasizes that
the survey results confirmed many
of those from the Educational
Benchmarking (EBI) assessment for
their communities, and the results
have helped his staff focus on the
types of programs they will offer in
graduate and family housing. He
believes that the data are also of value
to their graduate school, where there
is a movement for greater academic
support for graduate students.
At the University of Florida, staff
from the Office of Academic Initiatives
and Enhancement and from graduate
and family housing worked together to
create the Graduate Student Success
Series (GSSS), a four-installment
programmatic effort to address needs
in this area during the 2010-11 year.
Though the four workshops took
different forms, all brought experts in
the graduate students’ self-reported
areas of desired growth directly to the
villages.
Faculty members from each of the
three top-represented colleges among
graduate and family housing students
served as panelists for GSSS’s first
program, which focused on research
and publishing. The three faculty
members gave brief introductions
and presentations on their diverse
experiences and research philosophies,
entertained a question and answer
session, and then sat down to eat
with graduate residents. Students
and faculty members were then
able to have more intimate, focused
conversations related to their fields of
study. Graduate students learned about
the processes, politics, and ethics of
publication and were able to discuss
their own research endeavors with
experts in their field.
The second installment of the
GSSS explored the ins and outs of
grant writing. The research director
in the Office of Educational Research
spent about 90 minutes discussing
the benefits, challenges, and culture
of grant writing; the different phases
of creating a proposal, including
preparation, production, and wrapup; the specific components of a
grant proposal; and different sources
for grant-funding opportunities.
The presenter identified students’
backgrounds and academic fields
to make the discussion pertinent to
them and gave particular attention to
CONTINUES
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19
FACILITIES
Grant Writing 101
By Barry Olson
A short course on meeting unfunded mandates.
Higher educational institutions face serious
facilities-related concerns over the next
decade about the need for renovation and
modernization. Colleges and universities are
being asked to meet specific challenges related
to campus safety, sustainability, and new
technology. Meeting these mandates requires
financing, but the funding is not always
immediately available.
These unfunded mandates are
also extensive, ranging from calls for
improved campus security to better use of
communications technology. Following the
school shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and
an increasing concern about national security,
the issue of campus safety emerged in the
foreground, and colleges and universities
scurried to install cameras, card access systems,
alarms, and emergency notification systems
20
TALKING STICK
practically overnight. These institutions are also
being urged by state energy offices and inspired
by initiatives such as the American College &
University Presidents’ Climate Commitment to
adopt sustainability measures that will increase
efficiency in building systems and reduce an
institution’s carbon footprint. Colleges and
universities must also continually adapt to a
population that has become far more tech-savvy
than we could ever imagine, and these students
have an expectation that their technological
needs will be met. In an article titled “What
Students Want” (Campus Technology, 2/1/2010),
Dian Schaffhauser reported that “in 2009,
for example, 76 percent of students surveyed
said that it was ‘extremely important’ for their
campuses to offer wireless networks, compared
to 50 percent in 2008.” The expectations
are high for housing to be everything for
everybody; what is often missing from
the equation is the funding. Simply
put, everyone is being asked to do
more with less, and thus the housing
profession needs to seek creative ways
to find the funding for these projects.
PLANNING FOR A GRANT
PROPOSAL
Grant writing is a skill that most
professionals in higher education
are familiar with, but many are
intimidated by the process or confused
by its seeming complexities. The
process, when broken down into
its basics, is actually quite simple:
identify a need or problem, determine
an effective solution, identify
potential sources of funding, and then
determine the budget.
Simply put, grants are a source of
funding for a wide range of projects
and research. Colleges and universities
are intimately familiar with grants, as
they provide the bedrock for faculty
research. From studies on identity,
student engagement, and the effects
of medical treatment to studies on
sustainability, energy efficiency,
campus emergency preparedness,
and fire safety, grants can help to
fund work all across the collegiate
environment. However, grants will not
fund buildings. Grants are focused
on activities, programs, studies, and
treatments in communities, but they
will not resolve the need for a new
community center or residence hall.
Though it may seem that the
request for funding is one-sided,
there are many good reasons for the
funding source to support a particular
project. It may help them meet their
own needs by promoting something
of value to them. Additionally, grants
aid in the development of leadingand bleeding-edge technologies that
might not otherwise be incorporated
into campuses, and they provide an
opportunity for new ideas to enter
the marketplace. The hope is that the
grantee and the grantor can develop
a symbiotic relationship where both
sides win: The campus gets to install
and utilize new technology, and the
funding agency is seen as enhancing
the campus while meeting its own
goals and needs.
Any new grant consideration
includes a certain set of assumptions.
First and foremost, you need to be
able to articulate a need or problem
that has been identified in your
community or building. At North
Carolina State University in Raleigh,
for example, staff were concerned
about an increase in cooking fires,
which had become a nuisance not
only for the staff and students but also
for the fire department, whose fire
engines were called to action at one
campus apartment complex or another
at least monthly and sometimes more
frequently. Other campuses may
have problems related to campus
safety, new ideas to propose for
educating students about drugs and
alcohol, or better ways to strengthen
campus programming. In any case,
what is important in the initial stage
of formulating a grant proposal is
that the need or problem be clearly
identified; and, ideally, it will be as
compelling to the funding source as it
is to you.
Once the problem has been
defined, there should be a clear
understanding of how the proposed
project will provide an effective
solution. Do you want to install a
device that reduces cooking fires? Or
provide drug and alcohol assessments
for residents? Or provide alternative
programs that have direct learning
outcomes for your on-campus
population? Whatever the issue, you
must have a strong and fully informed
strategy for how you intend to solve
the problem. Finally, you or your
department must demonstrate a desire
to complete the work that needs to be
accomplished. Every project needs a
shepherd, and in the administration
of a grant that shepherd is responsible
for the completion of desired
outcomes, as well as assessment of
those outcomes.
SEEKING INFORMATION
AND SUPPORT
Once the problem and potential
solution have been identified,
researching the options for grants
begins. Grant opportunities truly run
the gamut – from local to regional
to national sources and from small
and simple to large and complex.
The Foundation Center, a helpful
online resource for any new grantseeker, provided a snapshot of grant
awards for higher education in 2008:
Over 2,000 grants were identified as
potential sources for funding, worth
over $1 billion (foundationcenter.org/
findfunders/statistics). Clearly, the
money is there – and this snapshot
records only grants of $10,000 or
more. With local community action
groups and national organizations
offering a plethora of smaller
grants, the possibilities are limitless.
State agencies can also provide
opportunities; North Carolina, for
example, has offered significant
energy-related funding year after year.
Research will lead to grant
opportunities, but there are required
steps to follow in order to establish
your eligibility. The campus office
of grants and contracts can not only
provide a wealth of knowledge and
support but can also help you avoid
pitfalls and errors that could cost
money or, ultimately, the grant itself.
The office also has information about
the expenses associated with grant
applications; in many cases, since
grants and contracts are a significant
part of any large institution’s workload,
there are associated fees, called
facilities and administrative fees, that
JULY + AUGUST 2011
21
FACILITIES
can reach 30-50 percent of your total
budget. These fees can be waived from
time to time, depending on the work
needed to apply for the grant, so it’s
important to find this out ahead of
time. The grants and contracts office
can also help establish accounts for
the money to be received through the
grant. They are not miracle workers,
though. Your eleventh-hour emergency
is not theirs, so plan ahead! Consult
them early, and consult them often.
WRITING GRANT
PROPOSALS
Grant proposals are generally pretty
easy to understand. Most, if not
all, have seven components: the
proposal summary, introduction of the
organization, statement of the problem
CERTIFICATE IN
HOUSING ASSESSMENT
AVAILABLE NOW
and of the project objectives, project
methods or design, project evaluation,
future funding, and proposal budget.
The proposal or project summary
is just that – a simple outline of the
project. This outline may be a few
paragraphs or it can be a separate
cover letter. The funding source
will provide a template for what is
expected, and these instructions
should be followed to the letter. Simple
failure to follow the instructions for
each structural component of the grant
proposal is enough to guarantee that
your proposal will be rejected.
In the section that introduces the
organization to the donor, explain
what your organization does. This can
reveal a connection to the funding
source that will increase your chances
of obtaining the grant. When North
CERTIFICATE IN
OCCUPANCY
MANAGEMENT
AVAILABLE NOW
Carolina State wanted to institute
more fire safety education, for
example, they connected with a FEMA
Fire Safety Training grant source
which frequently funds both safety
products and fire education programs.
Funding sources have a compelling
desire to fund an organization that
shares common goals and values, so
find the connection and establish your
credibility.
In the problem and objectives
section, identify and describe the
problem clearly and concisely, and give
it plenty of supporting information.
Use your skills as a researcher to
gather facts and hard data about
your particular issue. Do not assume
that the source knows about the
CONTINUES
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RESIDENCE LIFE
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(
IN DEVELOPMENT
Register for individual courses or complete programs online at www.acuho-i.org
22
TALKING STICK
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Choosing the right credential is easier than you think.
REGROUP
Turn the Page
By Emily Glenn
Staff and students come together over books for all seasons
and reasons.
Reading programs, long the staple of freshman
seminars, are useful development tools for a variety
of groups and ages beyond that demographic. These
programs are, after all, meant to provide insight,
through reflection and discussion, into oneself,
others, and how the world works. Housing staff
members can reap the same rewards. But where do
you start? How do you find the right materials? How
can you lead an effective discussion on topics in the
book?
Depending on your operation, the “one book
to rule them all” approach may not be appropriate.
Instead, you can tailor a reading program to fit
an audience. For example, last year at Clemson
University in South Carolina, new graduate
employees read The Hamster Revolution by Mike Song,
Vicki Halsey, and Tim Burress, as well as another
book that focused on StrengthsQuest. Together, these
two books complemented professional development
goals for the department. StrengthsQuest, a
professional development tool for college and
university employees, identifies people’s talents with
an online evaluation. Clemson housing employees
were curious to learn more about their talent themes
24
TALKING STICK
and how they could use this information to maximize
their effectiveness as a team. Meanwhile, The Hamster
Revolution was chosen by the graduate staff training
committee to help the graduate student employees
stay abreast of their duties without becoming
overwhelmed in a field where work-life balance is
particularly difficult.
Clemson’s reading programs were all centered on
events during the university year: training, opening,
and the graduate staff retreat. The professional staff
also read a book throughout the fall, which was
discussed at weekly lunches.
At Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas, the diversity action team selects the book
the housing staff reads together over the summer,
says Jennifer Post, associate director of residence
life. The discussion about the book is held during
the professional staff training in July. In addition,
residence life and student housing employees read
and discuss the university’s common reading book
for the summer. “We work with the assistant director
of training and development to make sure it ties in
with the themes that she’s working on,” says Ali
Martin Scoufield, assistant director for residential life,
From the Shelf
south area, and chair of the diversity action committee.
Staff can read as an accompaniment for goal setting,
program planning, or supervisory duties. For example, Kathy
Hobgood, director of residential life at Clemson, says she and
four colleagues are reading Neil Howe and Reena Nadler’s
Millennials in the Workplace to prepare for six new employees
arriving next year, none of whom has more than three years
of professional experience. “[It’s] just to get our brains in the
right place,” Hobgood explains.
As with Hobgood’s example, a reading program doesn’t
have to be large-scale or formal to be useful. More intimate,
spontaneous efforts can be effective. If there’s something a
person wants to read for professional development, chances
are others in the department feel the same way. “The choice [of
text] has generally been a more spontaneous one,” Hobgood
says, “so we can choose something that folks are excited about
and helps fulfill our goal of staying current.”
Another option is for each staff member to read a different
book and then report on the major themes; that way texts can
be compared and contrasted during discussion. In the reading
program at Southern Methodist, when a selected book turned
out to be too long for some staff members to complete, the
diversity action committee decided to break the discussions up
chapter by chapter, so the material wasn’t as overwhelming,
says Scoufield. Last year, committee members sent monthly
reminders about the topics raised by the book throughout the
year to help everyone remember and apply the lessons learned.
Looking at assessment results can also help in the selection
of a book. As an example, Scoufield remembers how, because a
campus assessment reported that some students had concerns
regarding socioeconomic disparities on campus, the housing
staff decided to read two books that address those issues.
Several institutions mentioned the importance of choosing
a text that is appropriately thought-provoking, but not
overwhelming. Scoufield notes that since the staff also reads
the common reading text in addition to their departmental
materials, the length of the books read by residence life and
student housing staff matters. “Page length comes into play,”
Scoufield says of selecting a book. “We look for really good
substantive books that aren’t too long.”
For inspiration, the National Resource Center for the First
Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University
of South Carolina in Columbia maintains a list of books and
resources used for student reading programs (available online
at http://sc.edu/fye/resources/fyr/srp/index.html) that can also
apply to staff reading projects. Another source for ideas is
the browsable lists of student reading texts that a number of
publishers maintain.
Books that can be combined with other materials are
especially attractive choices, since this can aid discussion and
The following selections are gleaned from a variety of reading
programs. This isn’t, of course, the definitive list, but it does show
the breadth of possibilities. Since housing departments deal with
many aspects of campus life, from facilities to mental health and
from academics to social justice, a broad range of texts can be
relevant to the profession.
For the Staff:
Millennials in the Workplace
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs
of a Boy Soldier
Neil Howe with Reena Nadler
Ishmael Beah
Discover what the Millennial
generation brings to their jobs
and how their superiors and
co-workers can best utilize
their skills.
Beah writes about his life of
massive transitions from a
refugee from Sierra Leone’s
civil war at the age of 12 to
graduating from Oberlin
College in Ohio.
The Hamster Revolution: How
to Manage Your Email Before
It Manages You
Mike Song, Vicki Halsey, and
Tim Burress
Strategies and techniques for
keeping one’s inbox under
control; writing effective,
efficient messages; and saving
a great deal of time too.
Includes a case study claiming
that adopters have saved
weeks of time by using these
email methods.
Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost
Morale and Improve Results
Stephen C. Lundin, Harry
Paul, and John Christensen
Through a tale about Mary
Jane Ramirez and her efforts
to change the corporate
culture, the authors point
out ways an individual
can change a workplace
through positive attitude and
practices.
Saints at the River
Ron Rash
In this fictional account, a girl
drowns in South Carolina’s
Tamassee River. The griefstricken parents want to
construct a dam in order to
be able to recover her body,
against the wishes of local
environmentalists.
Antigone
Sophocles
Antigone, the daughter of
Oedipus and Jocasta, wages a
hopeless but passionate battle
against the King of Thebes
after she illegally buries her
brother, a rebel against the
state. The text encourages
discussions about family
loyalty versus patriotism and
divine beliefs versus political
ones.
The Well-Dressed Ape: A
Natural History of Myself
Hannah Holmes
For Students or Staff:
Scratch Beginnings: Me,
$25, and the Search for the
American Dream
Adam Shepard
With only a sleeping bag, $25,
and the clothes he’s wearing,
Shepard (a former RA),
attempts to make a living.
Holmes embarks upon a
natural history of humans:
their diet, habitats, habits,
and other characteristics,
and by doing so introduces
readers to scientific enquiry
and disputes.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
25
REGROUP
appeal to different learning styles.
Shandee Ewert is among several
interns at Rutgers University-Newark
who polled Twitter followers on
appropriate staff reads. They ultimately
went with a StrengthsQuest title, Ewert
says, because it combined personal
and professional development, and the
related seminars and materials will
facilitate growth.
Rutgers-Newark staff had also
considered Listening Is an Act of Love
by Dave Isay, a book with transcripts
of interviews with people from around
the United States; This I Believe
by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman,
which contains personal essays
about strongly held values; and Pay
It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde,
a novel about the residual effects of
kindness. Selected interviews and
essays from Listening Is an Act of Love
and This I Believe have been broadcast
on National Public Radio programs, so
there would be an audio component
to the discussion. “All of these, we felt,
could be easily tied into activities that
would allow staff to do things, such
as beginning their own happiness
project, writing their own belief
narratives,” Ewert says. Discussions
can be expanded by information found
on an author’s website, blog, social
media resources, and television and
radio interviews, Scoufield points out.
When the staff read Greg Mortenson
and David Oliver Relin’s Three Cups of
Tea, they used some of the numerous
interviews the authors did to aid
conversation and expand their insights
about the book.
While the guides and analyses
found on the publisher’s website
and in other areas can be helpful as
a basis for discussion, the questions
usually aren’t written with a higher
education environment in mind.
However, discussion facilitators can
use these resources in combination
with issues within the department and
the profession to guide discussion and
apply the reading to the workplace.
At Clemson, staff members discuss
the book as a group and in teams,
eventually narrowing the focus to
how the topics apply to their work
and creation of plans to apply the new
knowledge.
A reading program is a relatively
low-cost and easy-to-organize way
to combine staff development and
team-building, with great benefits. “I
think it’s been really good to have this
common experience, this common
language,” Scoufield says. TS
Emily Glenn
is the corporate librarian for
ACUHO-I.
ACUHO-I books
prepare your
staff for success
The ACUHO-I Online Bookstore features a number of resources
valuable during staff and student training. Check out wwwacuho-i.org
for a list of titles, including our sale titles for July & August:
$&8+2,
%22.6725(
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26
TALKING STICK
RA Types
BASIC
Understand the
theory behind the
Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator ®
Help your RAs
build community
and develop
leadership skills
CALENDAR
+ 6 -: t " 6 ( 6 4 5 t 4 & 1 5 & . # & 3 t 0 $ 5 0 # & 3
JULY 4-8
OCTOBER 3-6
International Study Tour in New Orleans,
Louisiana. For more information, visit www.
acuho-i.org.
ACUHO-I/APPA Housing Facilities Conference
in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at the Buena Vista
Palace. For more information, visit
www.acuho-i.org.
JULY 7-9
STARS College in New Orleans, Louisiana, at
the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention
Center. For more information, visit www.
acuho-i.org.
OCTOBER 12-15
ACUHO-I Business Operations Conference in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at the Buena Vista
Palace. For more information, visit
www.acuho-i.org.
JULY 9-12
The ACUHO-I Annual Conference in New
Orleans, Louisiana, at the New Orleans
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. For more
information, visit www.acuho-i.org.
OCTOBER 15-17
ACUHO-I Living-Learning Programs
Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at the
Buena Vista Palace. For more information, visit
www.acuho-i.org.
JULY 16-18
Association of Higher Education Facilities
Officers (APPA) Annual Conference in Atlanta,
Georgia. For more information, visit
www.appa.org.
OCTOBER 25-28
MACUHO Regional Conference at
Pennsylvania State University in Reading,
Pennsylvania. For more information, visit
www.macuhoweb.org.
SEPTEMBER 1
OLIVEA OLDHAM
ACUHO-I Webinar, 2:00-3:30 p.m. (Eastern),
Prescription, Designer, and Other “Legal”
Drugs and Their Effect on Student Health and
Campus Life. www.acuho-i.org
OCTOBER 27
ACUHO-I Webinar, 2:00-3:30 p.m. (Eastern),
ADA Primer for Student Housing Professionals.
www.acuho-i.org
STARS
delegates are
all smiles at
the annual
conference.
INCLUDE YOUR EVENT
We welcome your submissions. Send your event information to talkingstick@acuho-i.org.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
27
D
emands for more and
better student housing
facilities are heard on most
campuses across the country.
As housing officers are challenged to
satisfy those demands, an immediate
and compelling question is whether it
is financially feasible to undertake the
construction and renovation projects that
are needed. The answer to that question
usually depends upon a campus’s
financial capacity to assume and repay
long-term debt because debt is the source
of funding for most such projects.
Debt financing is not an everyday
pursuit of housing professionals.
The process requires the expertise of
attorneys, underwriters, and financial
officers to manage the complex legal,
tax, and structural aspects involved.
These won’t be covered here. What will
be discussed are basic concepts in debt
financing that will help housing officers
recognize and advance opportunities for
its use in improving the residences their
institutions can offer students.
In short, debt is a means to the end of
expanded and improved campus housing
facilities. Decisions to seek and assume
debt for that purpose are best reached
28
Balancing A
TALKING STICK
when they are preceded by thoughtful
planning – planning that identifies
the capital projects needed to achieve
the institution’s strategic objectives for
campus housing, estimates the amount
of funding required to finance these
projects, determines the amount of
debt capacity available, and establishes
priorities to guide necessary choices
in the event that the entirety of desired
improvements is not financially feasible.
Understanding the
Terms
Understanding some of the terms
commonly used in debt financing
can help a housing officer to be an
informed participant in discussions
of the financial environment on
campus generally and prospects for the
financing needed for housing projects
in particular.
Most campus housing projects
are financed by revenue bonds that
are basically IOUs issued in $1,000
units. One or more underwriters act as
intermediary between the offerer of the
bonds – the college or university – and
financial institutions such as brokerage
Act
What you need to know
about debt financing
By C. Joseph Carter and Cynthia P. Balogh
JULY + AUGUST 2011
29
Debt
Financing
Alternatives
To be sure, housing facilities can
be financed by means other than
debt. Alternative sources include
capital reserves, major gift donors,
state appropriations to public
institutions, and equity capital
committed by for-profit developers.
Unfortunately, it is uncommon
to find accumulated reserves of
sufficient magnitude for full funding
of major new construction and
renovation projects. However,
reserves can play an important
role by providing a portion of the
funds needed, thereby reducing the
amount that must be debt-financed
and the annual debt service
payments that follow. The result
can be a project that otherwise
might not be financially feasible.
As for donors, history
demonstrates that their largesse
is far more likely to be directed
to academic, administrative, or
athletic facilities than to residence
halls. State legislators seldom are
inclined to appropriate scarce
capital dollars for residence halls
and other facilities that have the
capability to be self-supporting.
While some for-profit developers
and real estate investment trusts
have made equity investments in
on-campus housing projects, these
instances remain exceptions not
broadly available. Most for-profit
development remains off campus.
30
TALKING STICK
firms, mutual funds, and banks
that buy them. The bonds may be
marketed through an open bidding
process or by a private placement.
The buying institutions may retain
the bonds or sell them to other
investors. The college or university
uses proceeds of the bond sale to
meet the capital costs of the intended
project(s).
Legally binding covenants set
forth the bondholder’s rights and the
borrower’s obligations. These include
qualifications of the borrower to issue
the bonds, the repayment schedule,
permissible uses of the funds, the
revenues that are pledged to repay
the bond holders, required reserves,
taxability of interest paid to the bond
holder, and more. Bonds typically
are long-term debt instruments
that are amortized over periods that
may extend up to 40 years, though
repayment over periods of 20 to 30
years is more common. Bonds are
usually the preferred form of debt
for financing one or more large-scale
projects.
Direct loans from a bank or other
lender provide a practical alternative
for some projects, particularly ones
that do not require many millions
of dollars. Typically, such loans are
repaid over shorter time periods
than bonds and may carry the risk
that initial interest rates can re-set to
higher levels in the future. However,
with these loans, the time and
expenses involved in issuing revenue
onds are avoided, and the terms of
bonds
orrowing may be more adaptable
borrowing
to circumstances unique to a
particular project and borrower.
Whether funds are borrowed via
bonds or a direct loan, the borrower
owes an obligation of service to the
lender – namely to repay the debt.
Hence, the term commonly used in
reference to repayment terms and
amounts is debt service.
Judgments of the
creditworthiness
of a bond issue or
loan also have an
important influence
on financing costs.
Financing Costs
Many considerations determine
whether and on what terms a college
or university can borrow funds. How
much is to be borrowed is a firstorder question. Fixing that amount
eventually will require detailed
estimates of project and financing
costs, but sound order-of-magnitude
projections suffice for planning
purposes. Funding requirements to
be recognized include project design
and management, construction,
furniture and equipment, capitalized
interest, issuance expense, and
required reserves.
The first three items listed are beyond
the scope of this article, but the last
three call for comment here. Typically,
expenditures for design, construction,
furniture, and the like start at project
inception, and funds to meet those
costs must be borrowed at that time.
Consequently, interest expense is
being incurred long before the project
is completed and begins to generate
revenue on its own. In many cases,
funds for this expense are included in
the amount borrowed and referred to
as capitalized interest.
A battery of experts – among them
attorneys, underwriters, bankers,
and trustees – conduct the process
of issuing and marketing revenue
bonds. Issuance expenses include
the fees paid to these professionals
and to bond rating agencies; costs
of bond insurance or other credit
enhancement; and expenses for
printing, mailing, and advertising.
These expenses may be paid out of an
institution’s current income or they,
too, may be paid from borrowed funds,
i.e., capitalized.
In some instances, bond covenants
require that certain reserves be
maintained. One may be a debt service
reserve. Its purpose is to assure that
debt service obligations can be met for
a reasonable period of time, usually
one year, in the event that financial
difficulties arise and time is needed to
resolve them. A repair and replacement
reserve also may be required. Its
purpose is to assure bondholders that
the project to which it is related can
be kept in good rentable condition
throughout the period of indebtedness.
Funding for this reserve is not likely
to be capitalized, but covenants may
direct that a specified amount be
transferred to it annually for all or a
portion of the amortization period.
each debt service installment and the
cumulative interest paid over the life
of the debt.
At a given time, conditions in
the credit markets will determine
base line interest rates. In addition,
circumstances unique to a particular
bond issue or loan will further
influence the rate that must be paid to
obtain needed funds. One important
distinction of most debt assumed by
colleges and universities is that it is
tax-exempt. The exemption means
that lenders
are not taxed on the interest income
paid to them. Consequently, lenders
accept lower interest rates for taxexempt debt, and borrowers realize the
attendant savings in interest costs.
Another consideration is whether
the interest rate is fixed for the full
period of amortization or may change
as economic conditions and demand
for funds in the credit markets change.
Variable rates are lower than fixed ones
but bring with them uncertainty about
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QUALITY OF
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AND YOUR INSTITUTION
TUTION
ACUHO-I/EBI Resident, Apartment
and Student Staff Assessments
“Assessment and benchmarking are invaluable
tools for today’s campus housing departments.
The ACUHO-I/EBI housing assessments are a
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the survey results provide valuable insight into
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Invest your time, effort and resources in
assessment with proven impact.
Interest Rates
The interest rate that must be paid to
obtain borrowed funds is a leading
cost factor that affects the amount of
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Glenn Skaggs | (417) 429 4530 | GSkaggs@webebi.com
Gle
JULY + AUGUST 2011
31
future interest costs. A third factor,
especially for fixed rates, may be the
amortization term. Though not always,
lower interest rates will usually apply
to debt repaid over a shorter period of
years than over a longer span.
Creditworthiness
Judgments of the creditworthiness
of a bond issue or loan also have an
important influence on financing
costs. These judgments take into
account many considerations,
prominent among them the
borrower’s provenance and
permanence, depth and breadth of the
pledged revenue stream, and bond
rating agency evaluations.
It might seem self-evident that the
college or university on whose campus
a proposed housing facility is to be
located would be the borrower. In most
cases, permanence as an institution
and success as a provider of student
housing could similarly be assumed.
However, those assumptions do not
hold in all cases. Over the past quarter
of a century, a sizeable number of
public institutions have determined
that time, money, or both could be
saved by acquiring campus housing
facilities through relationships
generally characterized as public-private
partnerships.
Typically, these involve a longterm lease of campus property to
an affiliated foundation or other
private, non-profit corporation that
is supportive of the institution. Such
corporations are termed 501(c)(3)
organizations, referring to the section
of the Internal Revenue Code by which
they have been granted tax-exempt
status. The 501(c)(3) corporation then
secures financing and undertakes
development of a residence facility on
the leased site. In this arrangement,
the borrower – and legal owner of
the facility – is not the institution,
but the 501(c)(3) corporation. Lenders
generally consider these organizations
to have less in the way of resources,
support, and student housing
experience than established colleges
and universities commonly have.
Consequently, all else being equal,
the private entity’s borrowing costs
are likely to be higher than would be
paid by the public partner it supports.
However, all else is not always
equal. Heretofore, many privatized
financings have been able to acquire
bond insurance or a bank letter of
credit that enhanced the debt issue’s
credit rating and strengthened lenders’
confidence in being repaid.
Such credit enhancement has
substantial cost but may attract lower
interest rates which make overall
results cost effective. The solvency
crises experienced by banks and
other financial institutions in recent
years have diminished the availability
and strength of credit enhancement
instruments. Some recovery is
now being seen, but, as before,
the cost and benefit of using these
instruments must be weighed in light
of circumstances unique to each debt
issue.
One primary determinant of a debt
issue’s creditworthiness is the pledged
revenue stream that provides funds
for repayment. In the case of general
obligation bonds, bondholders can, if
need be, call upon the entirety of the
borrower’s revenues for repayment.
There are limited obligation bonds
that pledge a specified sub-set of
institutional revenues, such as those
of all campus auxiliary enterprises
or the collective campus housing
system. There are also bonds that have
Friendly Advice
Obviously, many factors
are involved in the process
of issuing and using debt
to finance campus housing
facilities. Here are some
tips to help you be an
informed and successful
participant in that process.
32
TALKING STICK
1 Demands for more, better, or different campus
housing can spur overly optimistic projections
of the revenues, expenses, and occupancy that
will result if those demands are satisfied. Be
informed about what is needed, be imaginative
about how to gain it, but also be realistic in
estimating the resources that will be available to
meet the commitments that come with assuming
new debt.
2 Be mindful that debt financing
brings with it an obligation of the
borrower to the lender that extends
over many years. The reputation
of the institution in general and its
access to borrowed capital for all
other purposes depend upon that
obligation being consistently and
fully met.
recourse only to the revenues of the
specific project they finance.
This descending order in the
breadth of pledged revenue sources is
reflected in investors’ assessment of
risk associated with a debt issue and
the interest rate that will be demanded
to assume that risk. The depth of
the pledged revenue stream is also a
primary consideration. Rating agencies
and lenders look for projections of
expected income that are based on
realistic assumptions about occupancy
of the project(s) to be financed and the
campus housing system overall. They
want similarly realistic projections of
expenditures that will exercise claims
on that income.
A bond issue’s credit rating is a
third factor with strong influence on
an investor’s reckoning of risk and
reward – and hence on borrowing
costs. Not all bond issues are rated, but
many are: some individually and others
by an underlying rating that applies to
all debt owed by an institution. One or
more agencies – the best known are
Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch
– develop the ratings based on financial
data specific to a proposed debt issue
and, more broadly, the borrowing
3 Be data-centered. Inform your
aspirations, recommendations,
and decisions with facts and
figures about your resident
population, your institution’s
enrollment management plan, your
competition, your existing facilities,
and the kinds of new or renovated
facilities that are most needed.
Revenue is the first
quantity that must
be considered
in determining
debt capacity. In
projecting revenue,
it is advisable
to distinguish
between
anomalies in the
income stream
and operating
revenues that
are recurring
and reasonably
predictable.
institution’s overall financial condition.
Ratings are meant to be an indicator
of credit quality and can range from
“extremely strong capacity to meet
4 Be prepared, proactive, and politic
in contacts with stakeholders who
play a role in determining whether
more and better campus housing
is needed and whether debt can
and should be assumed to finance
it. It is normal for their objectives,
strategies, and tactics to differ.
financial commitments” to “highly
vulnerable to nonpayment.”
Generally, bonds rated in the top
half of the rating scales are considered
investment-grade. Many institutional
investors buy only investment-grade
bonds or ones that are considered
to have equivalent creditworthiness.
Consequently, the market is more
competitive and interest rates more
favorable for bonds with investmentgrade ratings.
Debt Capacity
Attention thus far has been focused
on structural and cost aspects of
debt financing. There remains for
discussion the matter of debt capacity,
which is the amount of debt that
a borrower can assume or, more
precisely, the maximum amount that
is considered prudent for a borrower
to assume at a given time. Investors,
lenders, and rating agencies measure
debt capacity based on the sufficiency,
availability, and reliability of the
pledged revenue stream to fund the
claims that will be made upon it.
Revenue is the first quantity that
must be considered in determining
5 Expect that moving from the
conception of a project through its
authorization, design, construction,
and financing will take more time
than it should. Reasons why vary,
but that is the usual outcome.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
33
Escalation rates are key factors in projecting both revenues and
expenditures and, ultimately, debt capacity.
debt capacity. In projecting revenue,
it is advisable to distinguish between
anomalies in the income stream and
operating revenues that are recurring
and reasonably predictable. Income
from normal operations will certainly
include that generated by the proposed
project itself and, in most cases,
will also include operating income
generated by the institution’s entire
housing system.
Housing system cash flow is
often essential in order to reach the
requisite level of debt capacity and to
strengthen overall creditworthiness
of the proposed borrowing. Room
rent, of course, is the main source of
student housing income; summer
conferences, vending receipts,
fines, and forfeitures are common
supplemental sources. In projecting
rental revenue, the rate to be charged
is one of two primary considerations.
The pace at which rental rates are
escalated going forward, the number
of beds that will not generate revenue,
and the rental contract term are also
important factors.
A good understanding of the
housing market – on and off campus –
is necessary when setting rental rates
for a new or extensively renovated
residence hall. The challenge is to
balance two often conflicting needs:
one for rates that produce the requisite
level of income and the other for rates
that are competitive and acceptable to
students.
34
TALKING STICK
The expected level of occupancy
is the second primary driver of rental
revenue. However desirable new and
better housing may be for a campus,
debt financing for it will depend
upon investors and lenders having
reasonable confidence that about 98
percent of the beds will be filled on
average across the academic year.
Grounds for that confidence might
include policies that require some
or all students to live on campus,
historical and projected enrollment
growth, documentation of unmet
current demand for campus housing,
and a different style of housing that
appeals to a student population not
attracted to the present inventory.
Next, it is necessary to recognize the
expenditures that will have claims on the
expected revenues. Just as revenues are
customarily recognized in reckoning
debt capacity, so too must operating
nses, debtt service, and
d other
expenses,
fund transfers be taken into account.
nses forr personnel compensation,
Expenses
ies, supplies,
utilities,
racted
d services,
contracted
and the like are
ntial for
essential
ence
residence
halls to
ate
operate
and
rate
generate
nue.
revenue.
Mandatory fund transfers must be
made to annual debt service and, if
required by bond covenants, to a repair
and replacement reserve.
Though not mandatory in the
same sense as debt service, additional
transfers from housing income may
be required as a matter of institutional
budget policy. Administrative overhead
assessments, apportioned shares
of campus-wide expense pools, and
allocations to various institutional
reserves are some examples.
Escalation rates are key factors
in projecting both revenues and
expenditures and, ultimately, debt
capacity. These are the rates by
which estimates in present dollars
are increased year by year going
forward in time. The basic aim is to
compensate for general inflation.
However, institutional circumstances
may prompt adoption of escalation
rates that depart from inflation levels
anticipated for the overall
economy. For example,
escalation that is higher for rental
rates and lower for operating expenses
results in greater net operating
income that can provide needed debt
capacity. However, higher rental rates
can depress occupancy, and lower
allowances for operating expense can
compromise service and maintenance
quality. Consequently, escalation
rates are often more the product of
negotiation and compromise than of
inflation forecasting.
Whatever the rates applied, the
revenues and expenditures that result
are brought together in cash flow
analyses that describe for lenders the
financial performance expected of the
individual capital project(s) and the
overall housing system. Revenue and
expenditure projections extend, year
by year, across the anticipated period
of indebtedness. In each analysis,
the first step is to deduct operating
expenses from operating revenues
to reveal net operating income. Next
considered are debt service and any
other mandatory transfer obligations
that are already in place and those
that must be assumed to finance the
proposed project(s).
Given a specified repayment
term and interest rate, debt capacity,
then, is the amount of debt that
can be amortized by annual debt
service payments equal to annual net
operating income. This, however, is
a measure of maximum, rather than
practical, debt capacity because nonmandatory transfers, as previously
mentioned, often are claims on
income that an institution cannot or
will not forgo. Consequently, where
such claims exist, funds actually
available for debt service must
be reduced accordingly. Also, an
institution may voluntarily constrain
its debt capacity in order to enhance
marketability and attract lower interest
rates for its debt. A common means by
which this is done is for the borrower
to demonstrate that net operating
income will cover debt service by a
ratio comfortably greater than one to
one. Coverage ratios between 1.20 and
1.30 are typical.
Housing officers who consider
debt financing for facility expansion
and campus improvements will surely
encounter questions not addressed in
these pages. Colleagues, consultants,
financial officers, online resources,
and reference libraries are sources
of additional information that can be
TS
called upon for assistance.
C. Joseph Carter
is a principal of The Carter
Consultancy.
Cynthia P. Balogh
is a partner with MGT
of America, Inc.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
35
TALKING STICK
OHIO UNIVERSITY
36
MAKING
GENDERNEUTRAL
HOUSING
WORK
O
n the one hand it seems like only yesterday. On
the other, it seems like forever ago. Shortly after
the turn of the millennium, there were only a
small handful of colleges and universities that
offered – or were even considering – genderneutral housing assignments. At that time, each
announcement of the new option was met with a seeming mixture
of surprise and confusion. Men and women? Living in the same
room? Although the option remains far from commonplace, a
number of colleges and universities have responded to increasing
interest from students by making gender-neutral housing available.
Those institutions at the forefront of this movement have now had
time to look back and assess the benefits and challenges of providing
this housing option and have begun to establish best practices for
those hoping to follow their lead.
YOUR CAMPUS HAS
COMMITTED TO
GENDER-NEUTRAL
HOUSING. NOW
WHAT?
by Stacy Oliver and Kathryn Magura
Each institution considering the option is faced with a myriad
of decisions: how campus stakeholders will be involved, what kind
of targeted programming may be needed, what kind of learning
JULY + AUGUST 2011
37
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
One Student’s Voice
For many colleges and universities considering gender-neutral housing
options, students play an essential role in moving the project forward
and providing an alternate perspective for the administrators involved.
Keegan Tarbell, a senior studying secondary science education at Western
Washington University, was involved on the ground level with launching
the gender-inclusive housing program on the Bellingham campus, which
will officially open later in 2011.
“I had gotten the question from residents about whether they could live
with their opposite gender friends. At the time, the answer was no, but I
decided to see what I could do to change that answer. My first assumption
was that it would be fairly easy for residence life to make an exception and
allow people to live with whomever they chose. The more I spoke with
residents, the more interest I perceived in the community,” says Tarbell.
He wrote a short proposal for administrators to review, requesting
specifically that residents of Buchanan Towers, a suite-style community,
be allowed to choose with whom they would live. “When I sat down with
several administrators, including the Buchanan Towers resident director
and the heads of residence life and housing assignments, to discuss the
proposal, they were not opposed to the idea, but they felt that a great deal
more work needed to be done. A little more than a year later, the proposal
was put before the Residential Advisory Committee, and a Gender-Inclusive
Housing Task Force was appointed to further research the proposal,”
Tarbell explains. He has served on the task force since then. Among other
projects, he was tasked with writing a survey that was distributed to other
students at the university. The results of the survey were included in the
final proposal. “The proposal received a great deal of positive feedback
and was met with enthusiasm. In September 2010, the decision was made
to move ahead with a pilot program that would start in fall 2011.”
Tarbell will be returning to the university for a fifth year as he
completes coursework and will have the opportunity to watch the launch
of the gender-inclusive housing program. He reflected on what he learned
through the development of the initiative: “Through this experience, I
have learned that although money, power, and connections may make
change a little easier, a little initiative and heart go a long way as well.” He
encourages other students who want to make a significant change on their
own campuses to look for connections and commonalities because there is
more that unites people than divides them: “There is one thing that stands
out above the rest of my accomplishments, and that is knowing I did the
right thing. I believe there was a great need to be met and I helped meet
it, not because it helped me or because I expected to get anything out of it,
but because it was the right thing to do.”
38
TALKING STICK
outcomes should be built into the
programming, what kind of changes
must be made to the room selection
process and staff training programs,
and how best practices can be shared
with other institutions.
Sharing Information
and Best Practices
Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Connecticut, and the University of
California, Riverside are two schools
that have offered gender-neutral
housing for more than five years, and
both continue to view the program as a
successful one. Wesleyan typically has
4 students, out of an incoming class
of 745, who request gender-neutral
housing each year; though many
other students could benefit from the
option, they often opt for single rooms.
The numbers are a little higher at
UC Riverside, where usually between
18 and 20 students select the new
housing option, though the number is
typically pared down later by students
who decide to opt out. The important
thing is that the option is there. As
Fran Koerting, director of residential
life at Wesleyan, explains, “It fits our
student culture well, and we believe
that even if a student doesn’t need
gender-neutral housing, by offering it
we underscore that we acknowledge
that gender is not a binary. We feel
it is important we meet the needs of
each of our students and that they
are comfortable in their housing
assignment.”
One key to the continued
expansion of this program is the
willingness to share information and
best practices with other institutions
and with campus stakeholders.
Simply learning how peer institutions
have made gender-neutral housing
programs successful on their
campuses can be the impetus needed
to garner buy-in from campus
stakeholders and to encourage other
colleges and universities to expand
their housing options. “We get many
requests for how our program works,
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
Wesleyan University typically has four students, out of an incoming
class of 745, who request gender-neutral housing each year; though
many other students could benefit from the option, they often opt for
single rooms.
and we are happy to share and help
others who may be struggling with
trying to provide this option at their
campus,” says James C. Smith, UC
Riverside’s associate director for
residence life-administration. Though
some institutions fear resistance from
stakeholders, Smith says this has
not been a problem for them: “The
basic argument is that we see genderneutral housing as providing an
accommodation for our students. We
often get questions about this housing
option, but those who live there
choose so at their own volition. It only
really impacts those who live in the
community, which they are choosing
to do.”
Involving stakeholders throughout
the planning and implementation
phases of the project was one key
to the success of programs at Ohio
University in Athens and Western
Washington University in Bellingham.
Both institutions are now finalizing
their implementation of genderneutral housing programs, which
will house their first residents this
fall. “Most responses have been very
positive as both students and nonstudents see this as an opportunity
to make our campus more inclusive.
The concerns raised were often based
on misperceptions, such as having all
housing gender neutral or that genderneutral housing was encouraging
dating couples to live together,” says
Christine Sheets, executive director of
residential housing at Ohio University.
Western Washington faced similar
concerns about seeming to create a
“shack up” community, according to
Karen Walker, assistant director of
university residences and chair of the
Gender Inclusive Housing Committee:
“We were very purposeful in creating
student learning outcomes and faculty
involvement to give the cluster an
overarching educational backdrop.
This seems to have helped create an
incoming population who are excited
about learning to create an inclusive
community and being allies and
support to each other.”
25 Electronic Items per student’s room
on ONE 15 amp circuit?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Cell phone
Laptop computer
Refrigerator
Microwave
Roommate’s cell phone
Roommate’s laptop
Printer (possibly shared)
?@
A
hour lectures)
9. Roommate’s voice recorder
10. Kindle/Electronic book reader/Nook
11. Television
12. Stereo
19. Hair dryer
13. Alarm clock (phone one isn’t
20. Roommate’s hair dryer
reliable)
21. Power strip
14. Roommate’s alarm clock
22. Roommate’s power strip
15. iPod
16. Roommate’s iPod or mp3 player 23. DVD Player
24. Reading Lamp
17. @%
U
25. Fan
iPod)
18. (U
Top 4 Items
16.4-20 Running AMPS
1. Cell phone
2. Laptop computer
3. Refrigerator
4. Microwave
MicroFridge® All-in-One
10.5 Running Amps
1. Refrigerator/ zero
degree freezer
2. Microwave
3. (HIJ
4. (HIO
Experience the Difference
www.microfridge.com/ts611
(800) 637-7567
JULY + AUGUST 2011
39
OHIO UNIVERSITY
“The basic argument is that we see
gender-neutral housing as providing an
accommodation for our students. . . .
It only really impacts those who live in
the community, which they are choosing
to do.”
40
TALKING STICK
James C. Smith, UC
Riverside’s associate
director for residence
life-administration.
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
One common thread that runs
through both new and established
programs is the need to reinforce
a connection to students; on many
campuses, they have been the ones
who identified the need for genderneutral housing and brought the
idea forward. In response, at Ohio
University, information and opinions
were solicited from multiple sources:
housing staff and administration,
university administrators, and the
students themselves. “A committee
was formed within residential housing
to explore the possibility through
benchmarking other programs and
reviewing research. The committee
was asked to make a recommendation
to our department, which would then
be reviewed by the vice president
for student affairs and university
administration,” says Sheets.
“The committee was comprised of
professional staff, resident assistants,
and students. In the midst of our
exploration, Student Senate also
initiated a review of the concept
that included a survey completed
by more than 1,700 students. We
joined together to finalize our
recommendations.”
and staff accessibility. Then we
formed a subcommittee that traveled
to the areas of campus that were
identified as good possibilities. They
came back to the larger committee
with recommendations, which the
committee then delivered to the
assignments staff, who made the final
selection,” says Walker.
Ohio University offered genderneutral housing in two facilities of
different configurations, one suitestyle and one with a traditional floor
layout. “For the upcoming pilot year,
the number of interested students will
fill the suites only, so we did not have
a need to use the traditional floor,”
says Sheets. Suite-style facilities are
a popular option for gender-neutral
housing because of the private or
semi-private bathrooms, as well as
the ability to keep residents in close
proximity to one another. Nikki Cole,
housing assignment specialist at the
University of Connecticut in Storrs,
reserves five six-person suites for
gender-neutral housing each year:
“Using suites gives us the flexibility
of expanding gender free into other
suites in the same location pretty easily
without having to make any changes
within the physical structure of the
7DONDERXWGXUDEOH
7DONDERXW%ULOO
Choosing the
Housing
Making the decision to offer genderneutral housing involves one obvious
consideration: the housing itself.
Residence halls designed and built
more than 20 or 30 years ago may
not have the most desired amenities
for this special housing option,
which requires a blend of privacy and
sensitivity while also encouraging
the development of community and
personal connections. Choosing
the location for gender-neutral
assignments can be even more
challenging for institutions having
residence halls that are already over
capacity or in need of renovation. “We
used input from the assignments
staff regarding ADA-accessible areas,
flexibility, bathroom configurations,
current demand, community space,
7KH%ULOO&RPSDQ\
LOO &
ZZZEULOOFRPSDQ\FRP
JULY + AUGUST 2011
41
population who are excited about learning to create
an inclusive community and being allies and support
to each other.”
42
TALKING STICK
Karen Walker, Ohio
University’s assistant
director of university
residences and chair
of the Gender Inclusive
Housing Committee.
OHIO UNIVERSITY
“This seems to have helped create an incoming
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
building. This makes it easy for us to
add more spaces in this area if interest
grows from one year to the next.”
Making Appropriate
Changes
For new gender-neutral or genderinclusive programs, the room
selection or assignment processes
may need to be amended. “Since our
continuing students are able to select
roommates regardless of gender, it
is only necessary for our first-year
students, who are assigned roommates
based on legal sex. On the housing
Applying for
gender-inclusive
housing at
the University
of California,
Santa Barbara
involves a
process separate
from other room
assignment
and selection
processes.
preference form, there is a box they
can check to indicate they would like
an exception to this process,” Koerting
explains. New programs, such as the
one at Western Washington, may
implement a restriction that allows
staff to have contact with first-year
students to ensure they are making
a choice that best suits their needs.
“We have restricted the cluster to
returning or upper-class residents, but
freshmen may submit appeals, and we
have already had two which we have
approved. The restriction was intended
to allow us to educate new freshmen
so they would know what to expect and
to understand and be on board with
the learning outcomes model,” says
Walker.
Cole explains that, at the University
of Connecticut, the option had not
been previously available to first-year
students, but that is changing: “This
year we now have this option available
for new, incoming undergraduate
students if they want it. However, since
this area isn’t in our traditional area
for new freshmen students we haven’t
received many requests from new
students for this option. Interest from
new incoming freshmen may change
in the future, since they can now
request the option on their housing
applications.”
Applying for gender-inclusive
housing at the University of California,
Santa Barbara involves a process
separate from other room assignment
and selection processes. “As we started
the program, we quickly decided that
CONTINUES
52
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JULY + AUGUST 2011
43
CONVERSATIONS
Creating a Safety Net for Students
Members share how they align themselves with other campus
departments to provide a network of care for the welfare of their
students.
JOHN BUCK
Participating in this conversation are Richard DeShields, associate dean of students for
housing and student living and senior conduct officer at Central Washington University
in Ellensburg; John Buck, associate dean of students at Webster University in Saint
Louis, Missouri; Stacy Klippenstein, vice chancellor for student affairs at Montana
State University-Billings; and Paula Bland, director of residence life at the University of
Colorado, Boulder.
Richard DeShields: Central Washington
STACY
KLIPPENSTEIN
PAULA BLAND
RICHARD
DESHIELDS
44
TALKING STICK
University has had a problem-solving
team for over 15 years with the intention of
discussing incidents across the campus and
preventative measures to ensure that students’
rights and responsibilities are supported and
strengthened. This team – made up of our
university police, counseling clinic, diversity
center, student conduct, wellness, and housing
areas – typically discusses incidents across the
campus and assigns case workers while also
focusing on prevention efforts. About four
years ago, we started asking ourselves about the
caseload, the follow-up for individual students,
who else on the campus ”needed to know”
some of the information, and what processes
we have in place to answer these questions.
This led to the creation of a second team, our
Threat Assessment Team. Do you all have
similar teams, and what do you see as their
purpose? Who makes up the team?
John Buck: At Webster University, we have
a Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) that is
designed to be a quick-forming and nimble
team that can investigate and address the
behavior of a student who is troubled, in
crisis, or has been observed exhibiting
troubling behavior by a member of the
university community. The overarching goal
of a BIT Team meeting is to gather any and
all information available at the time, assess
the situation, project any potential issues in
the immediate and intermediate future, and
develop initial methods of intervention deemed
necessary. Our BIT Team is composed of
representatives from three key offices: public
safety, counseling, and the dean of students’
office. As a result, this provides us with a pool
of ten staff members, any one of whom has the
authority to convene a BIT Team meeting at
any time composed of one representative from
each of these three departments. The BIT Team
at Webster essentially serves as the university’s
Threat Assessment Team as well, providing
an initial assessment of the situation and then
bringing in any additional internal or external
resources and personnel as needed.
If the BIT Team meeting is required for an
issue involving a member of the university’s
staff or faculty, the dean of students’ office role
is replaced by human resources.
Stacy Klippenstein: At Montana State
University-Billings (5,400 students, a
commuter “urban” campus, the College of
Technology location separated from the main
campus), we have developed two teams: the
Student Behavior Team (SBT) and the Whatup
Team. For the purposes of this conversation, I
THIS IS A CHALLENGE FOR MANY INSTITUTIONS: HOW DO YOU MOBILIZE A THREAT
ASSESSMENT TEAM WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE TWO OR THREE PEOPLE CAPABLE OF
SUCH A TASK? . . . COMMUNICATION, TRAINING, AND DILIGENCE IS KEY.
will elaborate a little on the SBT, which
is very similar to Webster’s BIT as
described by John. We were developed
in 2006 as a way to assess student
behavior on campus and discuss
individual incidents and potential
threats (code of student conduct,
housing policies, counseling needs,
university police investigations). The
team is composed of representatives
from university police (chief and
assistant chief), housing and student
life, and the counseling center, as
well as the vice chancellor for student
affairs. We, too, are designed to
be quick-forming and nimble, as
described by John, and to serve as
the main threat assessment team.
However, when we are dealing with
an individual student regarding threat
assessment (behavioral issues on
campus, in the classroom, etc. that
are deemed threatening) we shrink
in size to only a few members of the
team: those who are closely related
to the incident and have the ability to
assess and make recommendations.
As an example, we had a student
at our College of Technology who
was exhibiting some threatening
behavior toward his instructor and
other students. The interim chief of
university police, one counselor, and
I formed a quick response team to
address that individual issue. The
student was temporarily suspended
and was required to go through an
external threat assessment prior to
coming back to school. So, our SBT
can be nimble enough to form a small
team to assess threats.
Our campus is small, and staff
resources are scarce (small housing
staff, only two mental health
counselors and both are part time,
no dean of students, etc.). Therefore,
the SBT is made up of those people
who would be heavily involved in the
investigation and review of each and
every incident, including potential
threat. But they have other jobs as
well. This is a challenge for many
institutions: How do you mobilize
a threat assessment team when
you only have two or three people
capable of such a task? That could
be a blessing (less politics, red tape,
up and down management, etc.), but
it could hamper the quick response
and full-scale review of an incident.
Communication, training, and
diligence is key.
I know that legal counsel for
many colleges and universities have
different thoughts about teams
such as these and about appropriate
record keeping and response; this
is something we are still reviewing.
Add the “Dear Colleague” letter (Title
IX and sexual harassment/violence)
from the Department of Education
and the Office for Civil Rights and
you now may need to add the Title
IX coordinator to the team – or when
you are dealing with sexual assault or
harassment cases.
DeShields: Especially during tough
budgetary times, finding appropriate
resources for the teams is difficult, but
very important. We have established
a larger team made up of a faculty
representative, human resources,
office of equal opportunity, chief of
staff, disability services, diversity
center, and others but keep our
core team to the senior director of
counseling, police captain, senior
conduct officer, and a housing
representative to make initial
referrals to the team or to make initial
determinations. This allows for an
independent review that helps us
avoid “group think” mentality. We are
currently reviewing the size of the
team to determine how to maximize
our efforts.
Paula Bland: University of Colorado,
Boulder has formed a group named
the Behavioral Consultation Team to
receive reports from any member of
the university community: faculty,
staff, or students. Members of the
community are asked to report to
the dean of students any situation or
concern where a student’s behavior
indicates possible harm to self or
others. The purpose of the team is
to identify those students, develop a
strategy to address the concerns, and
help the student get back on track to
succeed in the university community.
Should the behavior warrant a
separation from the university, either
voluntarily or involuntarily, the team
can also help determine the conditions
which would need to be met for the
student to return to campus.
A case manager is assigned the
situation and begins an investigation.
Currently, the director of residence
life is assigned as the case manager
for all the cases involving students
who live in a residence hall. While the
director of residence life is the overall
case manager, other residence life
staff will most likely be involved in the
intervention with the student. Usually
the hall director will meet with the
student, or the director of residence
life and the hall director will meet
JULY + AUGUST 2011
45
CONVERSATIONS
together with the student.
If the behavior indicates an
imminent threat but is not an
emergency situation, the consultation
team is pulled together to review the
case and make a recommendation.
If the behavior does not warrant
an immediate meeting, the case is
reviewed at a standing team meeting
once a week. The consultation team
reviews the report and any related
information and determines the
strategy to address the situation. The
consultation team is composed of
the dean of students, the assistant
dean of students, two mental health
professionals, legal counsel, police
commander, director of disability
services, director of residence life,
director of student conduct, and an
administrative assistant. For case
review, other staff or faculty can be
invited as appropriate for the situation.
For behavior regarding non-students,
human resources has a similar team as
appropriate for those types of cases.
Buck: I think that one of the issues
continually in our minds is balancing
our assistance and support for the
student with the needs of those around
the student, who may be directly or
indirectly impacted by their behavior.
This is especially important when
the situation occurs in a classroom
environment, which then adds the
variable of an instructor into the
mix, who has a direct interest in the
situation and a stake in the outcome.
Oftentimes, it is student affairs staff
that are best positioned to balance
these sometimes competing interests
because we have a certain degree of
understanding and respect for all of
those perspectives. TS
This conversation is just getting
started. To view the full version, go to
http://blog.acuho-i.org/2011/07/safetynet.
Join us on Tuesday, November
1, 2011 at 2:00 to 3:30 (EST)
for the webinar “Student
Welfare Consultation
Teams.” Douglas Hallenbeck,
executive director of housing
at Clemson University, will
discuss how to form these
teams and review best
practices.
Giving Has
Never Been
So Much Fun
Join us at the 2011 ACUHO-I Annual
Conference & Exposition July
9-12 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Your gifts and donations during
the silent and live auctions help
ACUHO-I deliver knowledgeable
speakers, informative resources,
and innovative programs.
46
TALKING STICK
Visit the ACUHO-I Foundation booth for your chance to
bid on fantastic collectibles, clothing, jewelry, electronics,
event tickets, and more! To learn more about the ACUHO-I
Foundation and how you can support its efforts, visit us
online at www.acuho-i.org/Foundation.
ACUHO-I Foundation.
Because giving matters.
FIRST TAKES
breakin
GROUND
STUDENTS GET SNEAK
PEEK OF NEW HBO
SERIES
gs
University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
1SPKFDUFE0QFOJOH"VHVTUt$PTUNJMMJPO
Baker Hall comprises the first phase of a $100 million construction and renovation
project for university housing. The 117,000-square-foot residence hall will house 462
second-year students. The building will feature a community kitchen, game rooms,
television lounges, and meeting rooms on each floor along with outdoor areas for
relaxation and recreation. Set to be completed in August 2012, the renovation and
construction project incorporates three phases, including four new residence halls,
renovations to four older university housing buildings, and an 850-space parking
deck. The university partnered with the Ambling University Development Group for
the project, with a team including the architects Niles Bolton Associates and Lafayettebased Architects Southwest as well as construction by Juneau Construction and
Lafayette-based The Lemoine Company.
The University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa
1SPKFDUFE0QFOJOH"VHVTUt$PTUNJMMJPO
Designed by Invision Architecture, this apartment-style housing will be constructed in
three phases, the first of which will provide housing for 204 students. The complex
will feature a two-story lounge, meeting and recreation spaces, and an outdoor patio
area for residents. Built by Larson Construction, the structure will be designed to
meet LEED Silver certification with in-room recycling and energy efficient lighting and
construction materials. When completed, the complex will house 788 students in
apartments that include a common living and kitchen space.
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois
1SPKFDUFE0QFOJOH"VHVTUt$PTUNJMMJPO
Featuring two residential buildings, the new complex will provide housing to 1,000
students. The buildings will be composed in a cluster configuration, each cluster providing
space for 12 students who will have private bedrooms, semi-private bathrooms, and a
shared lounge space. Further amenities within the complex include a food court-style
dining area, recreation facility, and lounge and gaming space. The project was designed by
HKM Architects + Planners and is being built by Pepper Construction Group.
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
1SPKFDUFE0QFOJOH+BOVBSZt$PTUNJMMJPO
The construction company SKANSKA broke ground on a new five-story residence hall
which will house 147 students. Designed by William Rawn Associates, the building will
have LEED Silver certification and will be composed of two separate houses, each featuring
a “great room” emphasizing community engagement with the addition of kitchens and
study rooms. As part of the design project, a large university commons area will also be
constructed at one end of the building. This space will be utilized as an informal gathering
space as well as a venue for presentations, banquets, and musical performances.
This April, more than 200 students at the
University of Houston in Texas were treated
to a special VIP screening of the premiere
episode of HBO’s original series “Game
of Thrones.” The event was arranged in
collaboration with the university’s Student
Program Board.
Based on the bestselling fantasy book
series, A Song of Ice and Fire written by
George R. R. Martin, the series, which
made its HBO debut on April 17, details
the struggle between kings and queens,
knights and renegades, and liars and
noblemen for power and control of
the prestigious throne. With the series’
popularity among college and university
students, the special screening was also
shown at the University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia; San Francisco State
University in California; Temple University
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia; Drexel
University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
and Boston University in Massachusetts.
PUTTING AN END
TO BED BUGS AND
DUST MITES
Created as a joint collaboration between
Southerland, Inc. and Allergy Technologies
LLC, the Southerland Total Protection
Sleep System has been introduced as the
first mattress and foundation system to
eliminate the problem of bed bugs and
dust mites. The Total Protection Sleep
System was developed in response to
the increase in bed bug and dust mite
infestations, which not only cause
concerns but also pose potential health
problems.
The new system is designed with
ActiveGuard technology, an EPA-registered
bedding product that kills bed bugs
and dust mites upon contact and offers
continuous protection. Emphasizing safety
as well as comfort, the Total Protection line
is currently available to hotels, universities,
apartments, and retail stores.
JULY + AUGUST 2011
47
REPORTING OUT
Capturing Sustainability on Film
University Program Makes History with Award
Eastern Mennonite University in
Harrisonburg, Virginia, was named
the winner of the National Wildlife
Federation’s annual competition “Chill
Out: Climate Action on Campus.” The
university was one of six schools that
were honored in this competition,
which recognizes innovation and
implementation of sustainability practices
on campuses.
The University of Florida Department of Housing and
Residence Education in Gainesville has been recognized as
the first university program in the world to be awarded Green
Shield Certification from the Integrated Pest Management
Institute of North America, Inc.
In a short video entry, several
sustainability projects on EMU’s campus
were highlighted: in particular, the solar
array installed on a library roof in fall
2010. Other features emphasized were
a LEED-certified residence hall, campus
greenhouse, trayless dining hall, campus
garden, composting, a bicycle cooperative,
and the integration of sustainability into
the academic curriculum. The awardwinning video can be viewed at emu.edu/
video/green.
The other schools honored in the
competition were Central Carolina
Community College in Pittsboro, North
Carolina; Baylor University in Waco, Texas;
Manhattan Comprehensive Night and
Day High School in New York; Missouri
University of Science and Technology
in Rolla; and Montreat College in North
Carolina.
The contest’s winners were recognized
in the National Wildlife Federation’s “Chill
Out: Climate Action on Campus” webcast
in April. The schools also received a
monetary award from the organization to
continue developing further sustainability
initiatives in the future. “I am proud that
there are organizations like the National
Wildlife Federation that care about the
environment and recognize universities’
sustainability efforts,” says Lindsey Kolb,
a producer of EMU’s award-winning
video. “I hope that other universities and
organizations will be inspired by our video
to try their own sustainable initiatives.”
48
TALKING STICK
The certification resulted from a year-long process to
meet the demanding standards established by the IPM, an
independent third-party evaluator. These standards include
expertise in integrated pest management, close monitoring
and inspection of pest-related problems, minimal use of
pesticides, and the record keeping of pesticide performance
when utilized.
Green Shield Certification lasts for one year and can be
renewed through completion of an annual update form.
Additionally, an on-site evaluation is also performed every
three years to assess pesticide management.
For more information regarding the Green Shield
Certification standards, visit www.greenshieldfcertified.org.
Illinois Wins Ad Award
Campus Dining Services at Illinois State
University in Normal has won a Silver
ADDY® award from the Peoria Ad Club. In
collaboration with University Marketing and
Communications, Campus Dining Services
created a passport for students to use as
they visited different venues throughout
the dining center. Each venue had a
corresponding page and passport stamp.
The Peoria Ad Club is a part of the
American Advertising Federation. The
ADDY® Awards are that industry’s largest
and most representative competition,
attracting more than 50,000 entries each
year in local competitions.
22
CONTINUED
FACILITIES
problem; it’s your responsibility to
educate them about it. Focus on why
you need the money, mention the
expected outcomes and objectives,
if appropriate, and let them know
precisely what you wish to accomplish.
The methods/design section
should include an explanation of how
you intend to follow through on what
you say you will do. The methods are
the map for your project. They dictate
what you will do and the sequence
of those steps. Think of this as a
contract between you and the funding
source: Identify timelines, roles, and
responsibilities; specify who will help
you complete the tasks; provide clear
and specific justifications for all the
elements.
Funding sources also want to know
how the project will be assessed and
evaluated. In this section, specify the
tools that will be used to evaluate the
success of your project. When you
have finished detailing the present
situation, the intended solution,
and the projected evaluation, look
farther into the future. If additional
funding is needed, will it be there later
on? Is this a one-time solution that
requires no additional capital, like the
installation of a fire safety product on
a stove? Or will alternatives to alcohol
programming require additional
funding to expand the program in the
following year? If so, have a sense of
where that new funding source might
be. Most organizations want to support
an important project that has some
permanence, something that gives
them bragging rights and connects to
their own mission. That permanence
may be compromised if you are not
aware of how additional funding needs
will be met. In some cases, funding
sources may expect a matching
donation from your institution, and
that part of the financial support also
needs to be established.
Finally, fill out the budget section
with hard data and details – and be
realistic. You may, for example, require
additional administrative support to
complete the grant, in which case you
should demonstrate the value of hiring
someone and the cost of providing
a workspace or environment for
them. Include expenses for smaller
program elements such as copying
and printing, office supplies, and
materials. Also include the money for
facilities and administrative fees. If
the source will not fund these fees, it’s
best to know that going in.
Grants provide a tremendous
source of funding to help solve
many of the problems that higher
After
educational institutions wrestle with
daily. As resources become more
limited and staff are being asked to do
more with less, grant writing might
just be the skill that sets you apart
from the rest of the pack. There are
opportunities to be discovered at your
institution, around your community,
TS
and throughout the profession.
Barry Olson
is the director of business
administration at North
Carolina State University
housing in Raleigh.
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49
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19
CONTINUED
RES LIFE
opportunities for non-U.S. citizens,
both as principal investigators or coinvestigators.
environment in which to study, work
on projects and papers, and prepare
for exams.
The next GSSS program was done
in collaboration with the University
of Florida Career Resource Center.
A career counselor who specializes
in graduate students’ unique career
needs spoke to residents about the
academic job search. He focused
on networking, the logistics of visa
sponsorship, and different cultural
expectations that may relate to the
students’ searches.
A balanced and holistic community
development approach with a focus on
academic needs is critical in graduate
and family housing. While campus
partners offer excellent academic
support services, graduate students
balancing multiple roles are all too
often unable to take advantage of these
opportunities. Bringing academic
resources to graduate students’ living
area allows them to better manage
their time between family, work, and
The GSSS concluded with a
financial planning expert who gave a
very focused presentation for students
who, though not making much money
now, will soon need to plan how to use
their income. He talked about options
for sheltering, investing, and saving.
Like previous presentations, this
workshop was also tailored to address
the unique circumstances of oncampus graduate students who may or
may not plan to stay in the U.S. upon
completion of their degrees.
The sessions were very successful,
averaging around 20 participants, and
each session ended with the sharing
of a meal, which included food from
a local green-certified restaurant and
offered Japanese, European, Indian,
and Latin cuisine. After each program,
faculty members and students
were able to enjoy more intimate
conversations related to their own
research endeavors, job search, or
other topic. Again, the combination
of a more formal presentation and
an informal opportunity to share a
meal added depth and dimension to
students’ learning experiences.
Finally, in response to the
residents’ reported need for access
to a quiet space within their village,
at the end of every semester each
community’s commons area was
reserved for reading days and finals
week. These areas are equipped with
wireless Internet and were open until
1:00 a.m. so that graduate students
had a peaceful and convenient
academic responsibilities. In this
way, on-campus housing programs
can best attract and retain graduate
students while facilitating their timely
graduation and future success. TS
Mary C. Jordan
is the coordinator of academic
residential programs at
the University of Florida in
Gainesville.
Thomas Germain
is the residence life coordinator
for graduate and family housing
at the University of Florida.
Megan C. Miller
is a graduate student at the
University of Toledo in Ohio.
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JULY + AUGUST 2011
51
43
CONTINUED
Making Gender-Neutral Housing Work
developing a formal process was akin
to putting folks in a box that didn’t
necessarily fit in a box. We decided
we would work with individuals on
a case-by-case basis. Fortunately, the
numbers are at a level that make
this approach sustainable,” says
Mario Muñoz, assistant director of
apartment assignment services at
UC Santa Barbara. Muñoz conducts
personal interviews with residents to
understand their unique needs and to
gather information that would help in
making roommate assignments. After
completing the personal interview,
Muñoz calls potential roommates
to make personal contact about
the pending roommate match: “I
tell them what I am looking for in
consideration of what the original
applicant discussed with me. If
they are comfortable with living
with the person, I’ll either make the
assignment or connect them with each
other, if that makes more sense. If
they are not completely comfortable, I
move on to the next person.” He finds
that what he refers to as a simple,
organic process is often heartwarming:
“The first time I did this process,
I needed three roommates. After
leaving messages and getting calls
back, I ended up speaking with seven
people. Every one of them offered to
be roommates with this student. There
was even some disappointment from
one student that did not get assigned
to the unit.”
Offering a gender-neutral housing
option may involve some additional
elements in staff training programs.
“We do an extensive social justice
training program with all our staff,
which includes gender and sexual
orientation issues,” says Koerting. The
University of California, Riverside
offers training opportunities for
all those who may be involved in
the community. “Our staff in this
area receive training on LGBT allies
and gender identity development.
Additionally, we have offered training
to our housekeeping, assignments,
52
TALKING STICK
and maintenance staff on LGBT
identity and what they may see while
working in this community. We also
educate on posters and symbols of the
community that they may see around
them,” says Smith.
Ohio University is prepared to
offer specialized training to student
staff who will work in the cluster of
buildings where the gender-neutral
assignments are housed. “Although
this program will be located on one
floor, we will provide training to all
resident assistants in that complex.
Our training program for all resident
assistants includes a significant
diversity component; however, we are
currently developing a more inclusive
training for the gender-neutral staff,”
says Sheets.
Cole, however, found that there
was no need to expand training for
staff in the gender-neutral areas:
“During the resident assistant hiring
process, we will seek out applicants
who have expressed interest in
having the gender-free housing on
their floor. However, we don’t do any
additional training with them since the
students in gender-free housing don’t
necessarily identify as GLBTQ. From
our focus groups, we’ve found they
mainly like having that option of living
with their friends or other people of
the opposite gender.”
Assessing the
Results
Focus groups and other forms of
assessment play a critical role in
understanding students’ experiences
in gender-neutral housing and
ensuring that the programs are
meeting the institution’s goals.
“We will complete both a pre- and
post-assessment process utilizing
the Educational Benchmarking
Inc. Resident Satisfaction Survey.
Participating residents will also
meet as a focus group in the
preceding spring quarter to discuss
their anticipated outcome of this
community,” says Sheets. Western
Washington ties its assessment
initiatives to the research that initially
led to the implementation of genderinclusive housing. This research,
conducted by the Gender Inclusive
Committee, included consulting peer
institutions, researching LGBTQ
student experiences, and reviewing
related standards set by the Council
for the Advancement of Standards in
Higher Education (CAS). “University
residences undertake a quality-oflife survey every year, and our living
clusters get special sections to answer.
Because the cluster is new, we have
plans to run focus groups several
times during the year and to survey
the cluster residents in spring. We will
assess how well we met our learning
outcomes and goals,” Walker explains.
In addition to assessment, the
lessons learned from established
programs can be invaluable for
residence life professionals seeking
advice or insight on newer programs.
Smith recommends working with
stakeholders who can serve as
collaborative partners. “Partner with
your students and your LGBT resource
center if you have one. Working with
our LGBT center has been great in
that often they refer students to us,
or we refer to them. Additionally they
assist us with working through issues
students may face or needing genderneutral housing,” says Smith.
Perhaps echoing the sentiments
of many others, Koerting vows she
wouldn’t do anything differently if
given the chance to start building
Wesleyan’s gender-neutral program
over: “I wouldn’t change anything, as
we learned as much from our mistakes
TS
as our successes.”
Stacy Oliver
is the assistant director of
housing and residential life at
Indiana University, South Bend.
Kathryn Magura
is the assignments and systems
manager at Oregon State
University in Corvallis.
AD placeholder
WELCOME
College of the Rockies
NEW MEMBER HIGHLIGHT
Primary Contact: Pam Catsirelis
Established in 1975, College of the Rockies is
located in the Kootenay Rocky Mountains of
southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Purcell
House Student Residence is a 97-bedroom,
pod-style facility built in 1995. To accommodate
various lifestyles, the building is divided into
social, quiet, and very quiet sections.
The student residence is available as a
member of Hostelling International mid-May
through mid-August and can accommodate
individuals or groups of up to 42. It offers
fully serviced private bedrooms with shared
washrooms and kitchen facilities — all just
minutes away from key transportation routes,
the city center, and sports venues.
ACUHO-I welcomes members who joined between April 2, 2011 and June 2, 2011.
Institutions
Bethel University Housing
McKenzie, Tennessee
Butler Community College
El Dorado, Kansas
College of the Rockies
Cranbrook, British Columbia,
Canada
Allergy Technologies, LLC
Ambler, Pennsylvania
Carroll Campus Development
Greensboro, North Carolina
Function First Furniture F3
San Diego, California
Hay Dobbs P.A.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Daniel Webster College
Nashua, New Hampshire
Logical Choice Technologies
Lawrenceville, Georgia
Fisher College
Boston, Massachusetts
NAC Architecture
Denver, Colorado
Nichols College
Dudley, Massachusetts
Ranchwood Homeowners
Association
Fresno, California
Three Rivers College
Poplar Bluff, Missouri
University of Leicester
Leicester, England
Wesley College
Dover, Delaware
William Penn University
Oskaloosa, Iowa
Xavier University of Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sustaining Affiliates
AIT Environmental
Technology
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
54
TALKING STICK
Joseph Volin
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois
Katie Wickliffe
Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina
Tim Young
University of California, Los
Angeles
Fountain Valley, California
Mary Henefeld
Northeastern Ohio
Universities College of
Medicine
Rootstown, Ohio
Lance Meche
Southwestern Assemblies of
God University
Waxahachie, Texas
Faculty
Lisa Ortiz
Ferris State University
Big Rapids, Michigan
Steven Janosik
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
& State University
Blacksburg, Virginia
Terry Phipps
Southwestern Assemblies of
God University
Waxahachie, Texas
Associate Affiliates
Jon Shaffer
Ferris State University
Big Rapids, Michigan
Regional K9 Detection
Services
Halethorpe, Maryland
Douglas Adams
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont
Rohrbach Associates PC
Iowa City, Iowa
Audrey Adamson
Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois
James Sittre
Ranchwood Homeowners
Association
Fresno, California
Joy Crawford
University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
Heidi Thuesen
McKendree University
Lebanon, Illinois
WellBeing Hygiene
Gainesville, Georgia
Students
Ryan Moyher
Biola University
Costa Mesa, California
Erik Poropat
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Amy Garbacz
State University of New York,
Oswego
Oswego, New York
Online. All the time.
Just like your students.
AD placeholder
www.rms-inc.com • E-mail: sales@rms-inc.com • 919-845-9004
SNAPSHOT
DELPHI KOZMENIUK
I NE V E R TA K E
FO R GR A NTE D
WHAT AN
AMA ZING TE A M
I HAV E . . . .
I AM
CONS TANTLY
COLLAB OR AT ING
WITH THE M AS
THE Y A R E
THE TR UE
EXPE RTS . . . .
What’s the first thing you do when you get into
the office each morning?
Check my email – boring, sometimes the most
unproductive thing I could do, but true.
What’s the biggest issue for the students on
your campus right now?
While finances are always at the top, I think
that figuring out what they want to do with their
education as new professions are continually
emerging and morphing is a big one; for many of
them, they are training for professions/jobs that
don’t even exist yet. I often wonder how they can
remain focused when the goal at the end of their
studies may be so unclear.
What’s the biggest issue you see facing the
profession right now?
Communicating with our residents: how to do it and
what to communicate.
What makes your campus unique?
Actually, our residences. We offer nine very different
residence options, and Lister Centre, which is the
residence I look after, is one of the largest residence
complexes in North America.
What resource can’t you live without?
Chocolate. I’m a Luddite when it comes to
technology – I can live without most of it – but I
could not survive without chocolate. I wish I were
kidding.
When was the last time you awoke to a phone
call from work in the middle of the night?
Never. Knock on wood.
What do you wish was different about your job?
I wish the summer months weren’t so stressful; our
summers are very short here, so it would be nice to
have the energy to enjoy them.
technologically advanced societies, our attention span
and attention to detail has suffered. Where does our
responsibility for the “digestion” of our communiqués
begin and end, when the users don’t have the
patience to read the entire message?
What’s your biggest challenge on campus?
Connecting with and educating the rest of campus
about residence and how we, too, are educators and
experts.
Favorite campus traditions?
While I really don’t have much of a basis for
comparison, I don’t feel that we are a campus rich
with tradition. So my favorite tradition within our
department is the Residence Community Awards,
where we honor outstanding residents and the
community of the year. It happens just at the time of
year when, professionally, our energy is waning, and
it is the perfect reminder for us of why we do what
we do. I feel it re-energizes us for the remainder of
the year.
What qualities do you think are important in a
housing professional?
Empathy, approachability, critical thinking/problem
solving skills, can-do attitude, creativity, a great sense
of humor, and highly developed stress management
skills.
How do you tell your staff you appreciate their
work?
Directly: I say it to them (and everyone and anyone
that will listen) as often as I can. I never take for
granted what an amazing team I have.
Indirectly: I am constantly collaborating with
them as they are the true experts, and without their
input and guidance, we could not provide the level of
service that we do and we would not be constantly
evolving that service. Basically, I show them how
much I value them. That and I provide them with a
lot of chocolate.
New social technology and media like
texting and Twitter: How has it helped your
communication with staff and students? Is there
a downside to this type of communication?
In theory it allows us to quickly connect with
our residents; however, the challenge is what we
communicate using these media and how to craft
that communication. I feel that, collectively, in all
56
TALKING STICK
DELPHI KOZMENIUK is the residence
administrator at the University of Alberta
in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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Don’t miss the ACUHO-I Conference Series
CONFERENCE
SERIES
ORLANDO,
FLORIDA
HOUSING FACILITIES
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
OCTOBER 2011
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LIVING-LEARNING PROGRAMS
HOUSING
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BUSINESS
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LIVING-LEARNING
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OCTOBER 3-6
OCTOBER 12-15
OCTOBER 15-17
Registration opens in May
www.acuho-i.org