DEC. 2012

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DEC 2012

The Hiring

Issue

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> HIRING IN HOUSING - 2

> ALUMNI CORNER - 5

> LLC DRIVE IN & ENOP - 7

Hiring in Housing

As we move on into the new year some of our focuses shift to hiring of student, para-professional and

professional staff. This issue focuses on this rather topical issue. Continued on page two,

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TRENT UNIVERSITY

Trent University, though a small school, possesses a dedicated and passionate student population that craves student leadership opportunities. Trent Hous-ing Services has been very successful in attracting quality Residence Life Don candidates in the past couple of years. For the last two years we have av-eraged close to 3 applications for each of the 27 positions available. We hope that this coming hiring cycle will yield an even greater pool of candidates to fill our amazing student leader-ship positions. We are expanding our efforts in the student staff hiring in three ways for the coming term. The first change is adding a Senior Don posi-tion to our ranks for each of the 4 Don teams. Senior Dons will be selected from returning dons who apply for the position and provided with additional respon-sibility. These responsibilities will allow them to gain further leadership skills that may help them seek fur-ther residence life positions beyond Trent University. The second initiative is to add five Living Learning Community Student Advisor positions to our housing program. Previously, our LLCs have been facilitated by Dons who took on the additional responsibility. This year we are hiring outside of the Don rankings and opening it up to any student (on or off-campus)

to become a LLC Student Advisor. The final change we are implementing comes in

the form of our Don hiring process. We believe that we do not get enough one-on-one time with every candidate, so for the coming year we hope to have one-on-ones with each candidate that makes it past the carousel phase to better gauge whether they are “Don mate-rial.” We have one-on-ones with our staff all year long so we feel it is appropriate to give the Don can-didates in the same opportunity. This will allow po-tential Dons to really show our professional staff what passion they possess for the position. With these three new initiatives for the coming year being put into place, we hope to build a stronger Residence Life Staff that will guide our stu-dents and our department to an amazing 2013-2014 academic year!

Vladimir Smiljanic College Residence Life Coordinator

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

Since Queen’s University does not hire second-year students as dons/RAs – only people with at least two years of post-secondary experience may apply – every year we are faced with the challenge of reaching out far beyond the residence community, which are pri-marily for first-year students at our institution. Our re-cruitment campaign begins in early to mid-November, and applications are due at the end of the fall term. We enlist the help of current dons to boost the campaign’s profile amongst upper-year students on campus. Be-ginning with an extensive poster campaign, we follow this with regular information sessions hosted by pro-fessional and student staff; we intentionally hold these outside of residences in popular campus locations to attract the rest of the student body. We also heavily promote a very popular Facebook group to all the stu-dent governments and societies (this year, we gained 300 new fans in the group’s first three days!). Our cur-

rent student staff also work at info booths in cafeterias and food outlets frequented by upper-year students and share updated application info through their own social networks. Finally, we target via email specific second-year students who had been recommended by their dons as potential future staff the previous year; these individualized emails are often successful and the recommended students frequently go on to join our team. We’ve had great success building our recruit-ment efforts and increasing the strength of our staff team, but we are also continually seeking to improve our recruitment and hiring process – this is always a work in progress! Caleigh Minshall Residence Life Intern Jordon McLinden Residence Life Coordinator

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WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY - BRANTFORD

After taking a look at some of the data collected for the hiring session at the Fall Business Meeting, it was interesting to see what various institutions val-ued in their prospective don applicants and how that was assessed throughout the hiring process. At Laurier Brantford, when we took a look at our carou-sel process for both residence life staff and student life staff & volunteer hiring, we wanted to ensure that the characteristics each applicant had, matched our expectations of the roles in which we were hiring. We adopted 5 core competencies that the carousel process would touch on, with each competency hav-ing a specific station or activity associated with it. The competencies are; Leadership, Communication, Problem Solving/Critical Thinking, Teamwork and Time Management. With our expectation being that a well-rounded student leader would possess all 5 of these traits. The applicant that does well across the board would have strength in all 5 competencies and as a result would be an excellent candidate. While an applicant who scores low in one or 2 areas would be lacking specific competencies rather than simply getting average scores and being deemed mediocre. We would then make a hiring decision based on the

applicant pool and our ability to train and develop each candidates area of weakness. In addition, our outgoing residence dons who act as group leaders for the carousel process will be asked to assess each applicant in their carousel group and provide an overall score for each competency. This will take some prep and coaching so the scores are not arbitrary, however since the group leaders spend the most time with the applicants, we really value their input. We plan to use a rubric to assess each applicant. In previous years, using a scale from 1-5 has yielded some fairly vague results (which is to say our volun-teers handed out lots of 3’s). Our hope is that by creating a fairly specific rubric for each carousel sta-tion, we will have a better idea of those applicants who stand out. The goal is to have a clear threshold of whether the candidate possesses this compe-tency or not and to what degree can they apply it. Chris Eley Manager of Residence Acting Manager of Student Life & Engagement Paul Reifenstein Residence Life Coordinator

Hey Housing Pro staff! For the January issue of the OACUHO Pulse, we will be doing a Residence Life Conference themed issue. The Communications Committee is looking to see if all professional staff attending the conference would be willing to write a piece for the Pulse (approximately one paragraph, but it can longer if you wish) and also ask your student staff to do the same as a reflection piece on their experience, the benefits of the conference etc. (really anything related to RLC). We realize many institutions require reflection pieces after the conference from delegates so we are hoping that with the student delegate’s permission, you can pass them along to share with others! Since the Pulse is typically sent out on the 1st of each month, we are hoping to get submissions fairly quickly after the conference. We are hoping to get all submissions in by January 30th, which leaves three working days after the conference. We hope you and your student delegates will take the time to participate in this month’s issue and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments etc. Thank you and have a great day! Heather MacKinnon Communications Director - OACUHO

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U OF T MISSISSAUGA

To Theme, Or Not To Theme, That Is The Question. Do you use a theme when recruiting new Residence Life Staff? At UTM we have been using themes for as long as I can remember. Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with themes. I sometimes find them fun, sometimes silly, and sometimes restrict-ing. We have used broad themes, specific themes, fun themes, and silly themes. Some of the themes we have used include: Board games Western Mystery Innovation Dr. Seuss I have learned a lot over the last few years when it comes to themes. There are aspects of themes that I like and other as-pects I dislike. Before de-ciding whether to use a theme, you should con-sider the following: What I like about themes In general I enjoy how themes create consistency in advertisements, presentations, and activities. If you are the creative type, everything you do can be tai-lored to reflect your theme, adding personality and dimension. For example, during our board game theme we created posters and icebreakers adopted from the game Mad Gab. Read the following and try to decipher the message: Apple–Lick–Eh–Shawn Ave.-Ale-Apple at the Residence Services Desk. For our western theme we had a photo station at our banquet with hay bales, lassos, and cowboy hats. The staff loved it! A recruitment theme does not have to end after RLS are selected. Why not continue the theme into RLS training in August? We have learned the benefits of continuing the theme through out the year and using it for RLS door nametags, hall decorations, training presentations, banquet decorations, and in-service activities. It is fun to integrate the theme throughout the year.

What I dislike about themes We experimented with the broad themes of “Mystery” and “Innovation”. While they allowed for a seemingly infinite amount of creative possibilities, they were also very difficult to work with. For exam-ple, how do you decorate for innovation? As a result, the light bulb and Einstein quickly became our go-to displays. Beyond the lack of decorating ideas, we discovered some difficulties when using a broad theme. Unless explicitly explained, students may not know a theme existed, and if they did, students likely could not name the theme. We could not help but think, if students do not know our theme, is there a point to having it?

Do students understand the theme? This was another ques-tion we wrestled with. Some of our themes may be culturally exclusive. Does everyone in the world know Dr. Seuss and “Oh The Places You’ll Go”? If not, does it mean we should not use the theme? All of these ques-tions around the use of themes created numerous heated dis-cussions within our department.

To theme or not to theme… the final verdict Unsure if we should continue the tradition of using an RLS theme, we turned to our current staff and asked, “Do you want a theme?” Unanimously, the students responded with a booming, “YES!!!” It turns out they love the themes! Our RLS remember themes from years past, remember the posters, re-member the games, and remember the decorations. We learned 2 things that day. The first was that no matter how silly, broad or thought provoking, themes are fun and build unity. The second was a realiza-tion. We, the administrators, spend a lot of time dis-cussing and debating issues that can be easily an-swered. You just have to ask the right people, our students!

Greg Hum Coordinator of Residential Transition Programs

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Kristen Moore Alumni Corner

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T he concept of being an alumnus of Housing and Residence Life is an idea that is quite new to me, and one to which I am still very much learning to adjust! A short eight months ago, after working for six years profession-ally in residence life at both the University of Guelph and Trinity College at the University of Toronto, I was of-fered an amazing opportunity to move into the role of Associate Registrar at Trinity College. The decision was a tough one, as it meant truly altering my life in more ways than I would initially understand, and switching the focus of my career path. Despite my hesitation to leave the safety and comfort I had come to know in the resi-dence life world, I realized the great prospect before me, and decided to take a leap out of my comfort zone to pursue what I thought to be a totally different line of work.

I am extremely lucky to have accepted a position that allows me the opportunity to split my time between work-ing one on one in an academic advising capacity with students and working on various projects, such as; ad-missions, recruitment and transition programming. While it is true that several aspects of my life have changed since accepting this new role, I have also come to understand the clear parallels between my previous positions in residence life and the work I am doing now! My experiences working in residence life, not only professionally, but dating back to my days as a student, are absolutely the ones that have prepared me to jump into the Regis-trarial world feeling both comfortable and confident!

While I know that I have gained more skills than I could ever adequately describe while working in residence life, I have identified three for which I am particularly thankful.

Advising – while working in residence life I learned; the skill of listening, asking questions, challenging behav-iour, making appropriate referrals, offering feedback and even providing direction and guidance when neces-sary. I learned how to appropriately identify when students were in situations of crisis, how to help navigate through these circumstances and assist in planning for the time when the crisis had passed. Each and every single one of these skills is completely transferrable to my new role, only now I look at each with a bit more of an academic perspective.

Project Management– residence life offered me numerous opportunities to have multiple balls in the air and manage large scale projects, all at the same time. Whether it be attempting to manage student conduct in my area, address staff related dynamics, develop training sessions or co-ordinate a staff hiring process, the ability to take the lead on projects and manage multiple competing priorities is a skill that comes in handy each day in my new role!

Relationship Building with Campus Partners – the learned ability to develop strong working relationships with various departments on campus is one in which I again credit my experiences working in residence life. The capability to understand whom to call and when, all while knowing that an ally is on the other end of the phone, is certainly a skill honed during my days of referring students, working on training sessions and soliciting advice from various experts across campus.

While thinking back on my numerous years spent both living and working in residence, I am nothing but sin-cerely thankful for all of the opportunities afforded to me. It was through these varied, often complex and dy-namic experiences in housing and residence life, where I learned the ability to see the wider perspective in a situation, all while remembering to pay attention to the details. I honestly cannot think of a better way for a new graduate to begin their career than working in residence life, as the skills learned during these years truly do lay the foundation and open doors in the years to come!

Kristen Moore is the Associate Registrar at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. She can be reached at [email protected]

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LLC drive in & ENOP Dan Cantiller byby

ENOP Network tweet-chat #2 recap On Tues. Dec 4th, we had our second tweet-chat for the ENOP Network. Our topic for this chat was “Recognizing Hard Work: Thanking Our Student Staff & Colleagues”. I was thrilled that the number of contributors grew for this edition of the chat, with new participants sharing some great ideas! I was experiencing some difficulty with Storify earlier this month, so here is what I was able to capture (in pdf form). My apologies if it may not be as complete as in the previous report. Following the tweet-chat, I asked members of the ENOP Network Facebook group if the day/time of the chat worked for folks. Based on their feedback, future tweet-chats will continue to be planned for Tuesdays from 12pm-1pm EST. To determine the topic of the January edition, I presented some op-tions with colleagues who had completed their information on the ENOP Network member info - Google doc. I hope to continue this form of consultation to determine future chat topics. The next ENOP Network tweet-chat will be on Tues. Jan 15th from 12pm-1pm EST. The topic will beon common learning and challenges experienced in the first couple of years in professional housing roles, and how mid- and upper-level professionals assist/support them. The preparation document and questions will be made available by Tues. Jan 8th. Hope you’ll join us in the new year for more engag-ing discussions!

Living Learning Communities Drive-in Living Learning Communities Drive-in Conference recap On Friday, December 7, 2012, about twenty housing/residence life professionals from various Ontario institutions met at Humber College's North Campus for a drive-in day conference on living learning communities. Sponsored by the OACUHO's professional development committee, and coordinated by Shari Walsh and the team of Humber College, attendees were fortunate to learn from Sarah Tetley of Webster Uni-versity, Missouri. The day was full of valuable learning, brainstorming and institutional planning. Sarah was a fantastic and engaging presenter, offering a wealth of knowledge from her experience of devel-oping learning communities at Webster (7 communities and 10 cohorts within the past 5 years!), as well as valuable resources: literature, planning documents, calendars, and so much more! It was a privilege to be able to attend and share in conversations with colleagues interested in similar work, and I very much look forward to opportunities to continue our conversations. Here's a link to a pdf highlighting some of the learning via the Twitter backchannel: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9ZItsihNwZON3BGTDVueXVJTVU