The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 1 - 37

Resident Assistant Training at Urban Institutions

to their beliefs and practices while celebrating the truths of other students. With stimulating and thorough training, resident assistants will learn to temper their cultural experiences with the experiences of others to create an environment that celebrates the entire community. The more that student affairs professionals and educators are able to provide their student leaders with a platform for open dialogues about multiculturalism, the more comfortable they will feel confronting these ideas with peers. Furthermore, when resident assistants, who also serve as teachers at times (Blimling, 2003), are educated about the diverse experiences their residents may face, they can better conceptualize the kind of support they should provide. In What Makes Racial Diversity Work in Higher Education: Academic Leaders Present Successful Policies and Strategies, it is concluded that “to become a true educator requires familiarity, literacy with all kinds of analogies, stories, and case studies of the varied experiences, perspectives, wit, and social categories of our heterogeneous nation and world” (Hale, 2004, p. 48). It becomes clear that teaching resident assistants to validate the different challenges faced by their residents is an important dimension of the training process. One of the challenges that RAs may encounter among residents centers on retention and graduation rates. While students of color made up more than 28% of all U.S. undergraduates in 2000, they earned 21.8% of all bachelor’s degrees. Additionally, 5 out of 10 college and university students leave without obtaining a degree, but the attrition rate increases to 7 out of 10 for African-American students (Blimling, 2003). Moreover, understanding how such challenges affect those attending urban institu-

tions, where retention rates are lower than those on traditional campuses, is especially pertinent. That the majority of students at commuter urban campuses are first-generation college students further compounds these obstacles. The lower retention rates at urban colleges and universities may be attributed to students needing to sit out of school for a period of time to attend local community colleges or to deal with family responsibilities (Torres, 2006). What is more, students at urban campuses often feel the need to offset the financial burden of college life by maintaining jobs outside the campus environment, which may compromise study habits and, eventually, the quality of school work. Subsequently, startling disparities like the aforementioned must be considered when training resident assistants at urban institutions—they must be cognizant of these challenges in order to understand their role in providing support (i.e., developmental, academic, and/or educational programming, etc.) to their residents. Resident assistants need to be more than glorified hall monitors—they must be role models. In fact, the role of mentor/role model may be the most crucial facet of resident assistants’ positions at urban institutions (Blimling, 2003); they are positioned to directly impact the way their residents view the life of a college student. If resident assistants model good study skills and have a healthy balance of academic and social interactions, their residents are likely to develop similar habits and have a point of reference by which they can chart their own collegiate goals. This kind of mentorship and support tends to make students feel less isolated. For instance, students of underrepresented groups,
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 1