LtD: Supporting Academics in Residence Life

Dear Debbie,

I've been wanting to write about this for some time because academics are very important to me and to the university, and because I fear that with every year academics becomes less important to the mid-adolescents who go off to college to be 'educated.' I remember having a few conversations with the other three musketeers (as I fondly think of my GA co-workers) about how frustrating it is to have a field called student development that claims to have so much influence over the direction students' development takes and yet often sees its goals as separate from or - dramatically put - in opposition to the goals of faculty.

I may or may not have silently vowed never to become one of 'those people.' I may or may not now be one of those people, and I am unhappily able to see the difficulty of their position.

From my newly enlightened position as one of those people, I am beginning to realize how much everything is different when you step into a job. Last time I mentioned that I've been experiencing 'growing pains' as a RD, because my world and scope of influence (I'm being generous with the term) keep growing. The old ways I had of working with students just aren't sufficient to the demands I have on my time and the professional standards I want to maintain. In no area of my life is this so apparent as my desire to support academics. When I was driving back to Fort Wayne after Christmas I recorded a voice memo that went something like this:

Once upon a time, when I was a student, I felt like I could help other students through sheer force of will. You know, I would proof read their papers and discuss the changes with them, encourage them daily about specific classes. As a professional I can't really do that; I can't do things for them in that way because there's just so many of them.

I probably would have continued in that way if I had stayed at Geneva. I go back and forth with wishing that I had been able to stay at an institution where I not only understood the academic requirements but knew the faculty in and out of the classroom so that I could give students honest opinions and advice. Deep down, though, I can see that the 'force of will' approach is a bit immature. The question is, what do I do now? How do I support the academic mission of the university without letting that overshadow the rest of the responsibilities in my job description?

Here are a few of the things I've come up with:

1. Support faculty through my conversations with students. It's amazing how easy it is to build rapport with residents if you listen to them complain about their professors. While I believe it may be helpful to express frustration over classes, I believe that it is my responsibility to help them find a more balanced outlook on their professors because if they have such a negative view they're not being particularly teachable. (I'm almost certain that some development theory would support this, I just forget which?)
2. Show an interest in residents' classes. I have a lot of student-athletes in my hall, and it's very easy (also very FUN) to attend the various sporting events to show my support. What I don't do nearly as easily or well (so far) is find out about lecture opportunities that I can advertise or learn about some of the more popular classes and start conversations about what they're actually learning instead of waiting for them to volunteer that information.

That's what I've thought of so far, but I would love more input, if you* have any ideas. I'm still learning about residence life so I don't want to get overloaded with 'other' things, but if my work in student affairs doesn't ultimately support education in the classroom as well as learning outside of the classroom, I think I will have failed in my endeavor.

Cheers,

Ceci

*although these are 'Letters to Debbie,' they are also blog posts and as such I encourage any reader to join the conversation. PLEASE. :)