Journal of College & University Student Housing "Housing While Black" Theme Issue - 33

Residential Mattering for Black College Students
support trust building for study design. The peer-to-peer interviewers also supported
the values-based coding method utilized for this study. This style of coding was particularly
relevant to better understanding the sense of mattering as it connected to
group membership, and units were coded as values, attitudes, and beliefs, as well as
for meaning and interconnection (Saldaña, 2015). Validity through a double coding
process and member checking ensured that themes and findings were accurately
represented.
FINDINGS
This study revealed important findings connected to mattering and marginality, as
well as key areas of understanding for better supporting Black college students within
residential housing. The remainder of this article will discuss major findings of
this study and implications for future research. Whenever possible, specific quotations
from the students themselves were included to ensure that their voices were lifted and
accurately represented.
Redefining Mattering
Thomas, a Black student living in an ILLC, described his experience in the community.
I saw hope. I saw hope for a sense of color to come in and actually have a place where
they could be themselves. I know that living in their residence halls, they would always feel
isolated, by their roommates, by their suitemates, by the people that lived in their wing,
because they looked a different way than most traditional White kids looked like at a PWI.
But I saw hope within the ILLC, and that's why I stayed.
Similar to other students who participated in this study, Thomas defined his experience
within the ILLC not only for what it brought to his housing experience but
also, more deeply, how it impacted his desire to stay at the institution. For students
interviewed in this study, particularly those who lived in the ILLC, mattering meant
more than what the current definition suggests; it involved others " depending on us,
being interested in us, and being concerned with our fate " (Rosenberg & McCullough,
1981, p. 165; Schlossberg, 1989). Mattering was directly connected to a shared identity,
making current definitions of mattering representative of the majority population
and thus not encompassing the Black cocurricular experience. For Thomas, mattering
was defined as a feeling, as an incentive for hope. However, this hope was not for
inclusion, as the current research would indicate mattering to be, but more so hope
for the connection with other students who shared an identity and a mutual underIdentity-based
living-learning communities (ILLCs), sometimes also called
affinity communities, are more in keeping with the fundamental design
of being student driven, with an additional focus on the shared identity of race,
ethnicity, and culture.
30 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

Journal of College & University Student Housing "Housing While Black" Theme Issue

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