Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 48, No. 2 - 75

It is important for RAs to create a welcoming community for students, as a sense
of belonging is the foundation for student and institutional success. This can be seen
in the form of student satisfaction: Students who show high satisfaction with their institution
also show higher rates of persistence to graduation (Foubert et al.,1998). This
satisfaction with the institution can be fostered in a student's early college experiences,
which occur within residence halls, as first-year students are often required to live on
campus. RAs can provide students with a sense of belonging and can be a resource
when they encounter roadblocks in their college career. Creating this buy-in to the
institution is crucial in supporting retention rates and satisfaction with the institution.
Higher retention rates benefit the institution, which then can improve factors that are
a part of students' day-to-day life, which then benefits the student.
The RA position is intended to benefit not only the residential community, but
also the RAs themselves. Benjamin and Davis (2016) state that students who are in
RA roles gain " interpersonal and pre-professional benefits " (p. 16). These skills can
rarely be taught in a classroom setting, which makes these interpersonal and pre-professional
benefits a unique feature of the RA position. Students rarely get to work
closely alongside their peers while also working with college staff and faculty in other
on-campus positions. The resident assistant position affords students a great deal of
hands-on experience and workforce preparation.
The role of an RA requires a unique blend of strong interpersonal skills and
professional decorum. By contrast, little is known about the depth of self-care needed
to mitigate the impact of the role on an RA's quality of life. As such, this research
seeks to explore the impact of the role on students employed in the position of a
resident assistant.
METHODS
This exploratory mixed-methods research project seeks to determine the Professional
Quality of Life (ProQOL) for resident assistants, who were surveyed using a pre(n
= 106) and post-test (n = 115) survey prior to the beginning of a spring semester
and at the conclusion of the same semester. Thus, the ProQOL surveys were reviewed
using quantitative methods. At the conclusion of the semester, all RAs were asked
one open-ended question, and the narrative responses were viewed as a rich source of
qualitative data.
The nature of this study is best characterized as program evaluation research
(Reeping et al., 2019), given the emphasis placed on the impact of the work on RAs'
quality of life. The reflective aims of the survey and the intention to seek data to inform
richer multi-faceted understanding of the experience are indicative of program evaluation
(Fetters et al., 2013; Pruitt et al., 2018; Richardson et al., 2019).
Volume 48, No. 2 * 2022 75

Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 48, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 48, No. 2