The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 20

Desiree D. Zerquera * Juan G. Berumen * Jason T. Pender

At that time, SHaRE's assessment efforts
relied almost exclusively on national assessment tools, primarily the Educational Benchmarking Index (EBI) survey, a commonly
employed survey in student housing issued to
students once per year regarding their housing
experience. However, the survey results did
little to inform the work of SHaRE staff.
Instead, the EBI survey only assessed student
satisfaction on their campus housing experience. At the same time, there were frustrations
being voiced by student staff surrounding
the lack of opportunity for input on changes
made within SHaRE. The upcoming sevenyear review provided an opportunity for those
seeking a change to develop a different process
to address limitations of prior assessments,
respond to broader housing staff needs, and
more strongly embed USF's social justice
mission in the work of SHaRE (see Figure 2).

The Development and Implementation of
the CDTT
The critical outlook of the assessment team led
members to think creatively and find alternative approaches for comprehensive assessment
practices. Both residents and RAs expressed
concerns of feeling marginalized within the
department and excluded from the decisionmaking process. As a result, the residence
halls felt more like a place of functional convenience (i.e. a place that serves an immediate
need) rather than a source of learning, personal growth and community-building. The
stated values of the institution, passion from
professional staff, and a desire to respond to
student needs created a drive to develop a new
education structure in the department.

A need to overcome business as usual and
hold the department accountable with respect
to the Jesuit's values of the university, specifically those emphasizing social justice, resulted
in the creation of the community development
tracking tool (CDTT) in the summer of 2014.
The CDTT featured a survey form that had the
main objective of capturing student growth
along SHaRE's residential curriculum learning outcomes and upholding the social justice
mission of USF. A collaborative and reflexive
process drove the development of the CDTT.
The process first involved input from SHaRE
staff for the initial draft, whereby the assessment team developed questions that aligned
with the outcomes of the residential curriculum. The draft was then reviewed and revised
based on individual feedback by SHaRE administration and collective feedback gathered by SHaRE staff during summer training
meeting sessions. This allowed all members
of the SHaRE staff to give input on the CDTT
prior to its launching.
Comprised of a Google form, RAs completed the CDTT following all community development activities in campus housing. The
CDTT's form included prompts regarding
programmatic and logistical data (i.e. type of
program, time, location, and participant information) via a series of drop-down menus,
checkboxes, and open-ended questions. The
open-ended questions also included prompts
to capture narratives around program implementation, conversations held, and evidence
of resident learning. RAs could also reflect and
offer input on their own experiences within
campus housing. As such, the CDTT captured
data about residents' growth and learning
without needing to directly survey students

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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