The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 3 - 67

Are You My Ally

ican College Personnel Association [ACPA] &
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators [NASPA], 2015; ACUHO-I, 2012).
Based on the residential and campus climate
for students from historically marginalized
populations, these training efforts need to go
beyond foundational knowledge and focus on
improving residential environments. LePeau
et al. (2016) indicated that bias-related incident response has two sides. BRTs support the
transparent side, where professionals respond
to the bias-related incident disclosures (LePeau
et al, 2016). The other side of bias-incident response (called the opaque side) creates a more
inclusive environment by finding balance
between various goals of creating change, responding with proactive and reactive practices,
and going beyond self-defining as allies to
being perceived as allies (LePeau et al., 2016).
Training for housing professionals should
focus on these areas.

Creating Change
According to LePeau et al. (2016), an area of
focus for bias-incident response is creating
change on the individual level and on the
systematic level. The ACUHO-I Core Competencies indicate that community development should be used to promote social justice
and enhance the residential environment
(ACUHO-I, 2012). When training on the role
of community development in creating inclusive and safe environments for all students,
facilitators should focus on the intentionality
of community development and how a strong
community can support students' feelings of
being marginalized as opposed to being dismissed. Among the participants, narratives
emerged that students received messages that
their experiences were not severe enough for

further action when the climate or community
was not supportive. Creating programming
efforts that educate residents about bias-related incidents can be beneficial for individuals
and the community. These efforts can accomplish two goals: (1) provide campus resources
available to students who have been targeted
by bias-related incidents and (2) promote messages that bias-related incidents are not accepted within their residential community and will
be taken seriously.
Housing professionals should have training that focuses on the values of social justice
within their department and institution. A
study by Schertzer and Schertzer (2004) found
that students have a higher level of institution commitment and satisfaction when the
values of the institution, faculty and staff, and
students are in congruence. Institutional commitment and satisfaction lead to higher retention rates for students (Schertzer & Schertzer,
2004). Training sessions should critically
examine the areas where departments are
"living" their values and where they are not.
If, in fact, departments are living the value of
inclusivity, then students should not feel like
the onus is on them to advocate for change;
however, that was not the experience of the
participants in this study. They indicated that
disparity in stated values and "lived" values
caused a mistrust in the institution, and they
questioned if the institution was an ally. The
participants of this study believed that professional staff should take more active roles in
assessment and creating positive residential
and campus climates. Training should focus
on implementing practices that demonstrate
the housing department's commitment and
role as an ally for students from historically

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 3