journal_vol49no3 - 19

Investigating the Mental Health of Housing Staff
that each year " 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness " and " 1 in 20 U.S. adults
experience serious mental illness " (2022, para. 1), which highlights the importance
of being aware of the significant impact the pandemic has had on our mental health.
The pandemic brought unique challenges and worries to university housing professionals,
which likely impacted their mental well-being in many ways. Due to federal
and state recommendations on social distancing, many residence halls across the
country abruptly closed in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus (Williams,
2020). ACUHO-I's (2020a) second installment of a straw poll survey on March 27,
2020, indicated that 81.8% (234) of institutions closed their residence halls but made
exceptions for some students, primarily international students, to stay on campus.
These closures left behind various levels of housing staff across different functional areas
who were trying to navigate the complexities of the pandemic. ACUHO-I (2020a)
also reported that almost half (40.2%, 146) of participating institutions' mental health
services " were operating at a reduced capacity " (p. 17).
The fall semester of 2020 unveiled various institutional models of operation,
with 44% of higher education institutions across the country going primarily online,
21% using a hybrid model, and 27% offering primarily in-person classes (Smalley,
2021). ACUHO-I's (2020b) sixth installment of a straw poll survey on August 10,
2020, reported that 84.7% (149) of institutions continued to offer housing to students
regardless of which operational model was in effect. This resulted in housing staff
having to develop and implement specific protocols to ensure continued operations.
Such protocols are outlined in ACUHO-I's (2020b) survey report: 80.4% (144) of institutions
increased the number of days for move-in, 93.9% (168) required residents
to move in only during very specific timeframes, 97.7% (168) imposed a mask mandate,
and 84.9% (146) either closed or restricted the capacities of common spaces.
Some institutions such as the University of Kansas required their resident assistants
to perform COVID-19 saliva tests as part of their move-in process (C. Robinson, personal
communication, August 2022). These protocols all added stress and created an
additional burden on housing staff, likely impacting their mental well-being.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES
The scarcity of research on university faculty and staff is likely due to academics being
willing to study other groups but rarely studying themselves, as suggested by Abouserie
(1996), a tendency that is reinforced by the perception that while scholarly work is not
highly compensated, it is highly autonomous-and that type of control is often considered
to be a buffer to the stressors of work (Abouserie, 1996). Mark and Smith's (2012)
study on the mental health and job satisfaction of college and university employees
found that staff exhibited higher and statistically significant levels of anxiety and depression
(even up to clinical levels) than did the general population. University employees
16 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

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