The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 82

Kimberly Otchere * Tekita Bankhead * Ayanna Williams

During the college years, some students develop
an awareness of their identities, which result
in intrapersonal conflict with beliefs they held
before entering college, as well as awareness
of differing political and sociological ideologies
within a student body. Student affairs professionals heavily rely on collaboration to support
college students in their evolution of thought
and self-awareness. An important strategy to
building effective and fruitful campus partnerships is assessing which campus constituents have the capacity to reach, influence, and
communicate with target student populations.
Campus constituents' ability to collaborate in
programs and services that incorporate peer
mentorship and supportive confrontation help
create avenues for healthy dialogue. In particular, university housing can easily access and
provide collaborative programs and services to
a diverse population of students. Professional
and paraprofessional staff members have frequent contact with students and thus have a
unique advantage of keeping a pulse on student
concerns while providing informal and presumably safe spaces for critical discourse. In
addition, university housing departments are
appealing partners for supplemental partnerships and resources because they typically offer
a considerable level of flexibility with funding
resources as a result of operating on external
revenue or an auxiliary budget. All of these
aspects of partnership are necessary building
blocks for successful campus movements.
Through a deliberate examination of historical and sociocultural influences, we can
better understand the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and systemic ways in which race influences students' understanding of self, the ways
they manage relationships, and how they navi-

gate campus systems on a campus struggling
to advance critically supportive racial campus
movements. In 2014, students in the residence
halls were ready to vocalize their experiences
with discrimination and develop goals for structural and social change. Students developed
strategies such as counter-narratives and were
further supported by increased resources, organization, and collective action opportunities.
In this article, we sought to analyze housingbased activism through the lens of social movement theory. According to Cress and Snow
(1996), social movements should incorporate
people with the right expertise and experience
alongside adequate financial and information resources. Thus, the success of a social
movement hinges on the availability of noted
resources. In this case, residents, professional
and paraprofessional housing staff, housing
libraries, former advisors, and internal and external funding sources all became central to the
success of the UIUC social movement that was
based out of University Housing. As students
of color fight for respect, safer spaces, and intentional action from the academy, housing
and residence life departments need to be cognizant of social movement theory.

UIUC HOUSING AS A SPACE FOR
TRANSFORMATIVE RESISTANCE
UIUC is a large public institution that serves
approximately 44,000 students and is located
in central Illinois. The Morrill Act enabled the
creation of this land-grant institution, which
has enabled UIUC to provide education for
individuals who have historically been excluded from higher education. The long 150year history of agricultural studies and serving
rural farming communities at UIUC has in-

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

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

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3