Talking Stick - May/June 2012 - 61

coNTINUed

Milestones

practice, and law. The same is true on college and university campuses, and in many cases some of the most visible changes can be traced back to a specific incident. In the wake of the tragic death of Jeanne Clery, a student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who was raped and murdered in her residence hall in 1986, the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act was renamed the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act, passed in 1990 and amended in 2008, mandates that all colleges and universities that receive federal funds disclose information about crime and other safety information on their campuses and in the surrounding communities. In addition, institutions with on-campus housing facilities must annually inform prospective students and employees about the availability of safety report and fire statistics and must disclose notification procedures for missing students. New legislation was also enacted after a rash of high-profile fires on U.S. college and university campuses. Spurred largely by residence hall and fraternity house fires at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1996), Murray State University in Kentucky (1998), Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey (2000), and Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania (2000), key pieces of state and federal legislation were enacted that have shaped present campus housing operations. Another mandate created in reaction to these events is reporting requirements. The Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act became federal law as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. The new law required that colleges and universities maintain fire logs containing data about fires that occur in campus housing; report the data to the federal government; and publish an annual fire safety report that gives students, parents, and the public current

information about fires in on-campus housing.

Designing for Millennials
By the turn of the century, many of the residence halls built to accommodate the Baby Boomers in the 1960s had outlived their functionality and usefulness. At the same time, this marked the arrival of a new generation of students tagged, appropriately enough, the Millennial Generation. Also called the Baby Boomlet, or the Echo Boom, this group was large, diverse, pressured, and engaged. The United States Census estimated that there were 19.7 million college and university students enrolled in 2011, up from 14.4 million two decades before. Meeting the needs of these students took many forms. On the facilities side, an increasing number of new residence halls were designed with apartment or suite-style rooms. In fact, the 2010 MGT/ACUHO-I Construction and Renovation Survey showed that only 18 percent of the rooms created that year were of the traditional variety. In addition, other features once considered to be luxuries – such as large screen televisions, classrooms, cafés, kitchens, fitness centers, music practice rooms, study lounges, laundry facilities, and plush furniture – became more commonplace in campus housing. Spurred by competition from private developers as well as other campuses hoping to attract the top students, this so-called amenity war escalated, challenging campuses to offer more features while maintaining costs in a tight economy. On the residence life side, other changes occurred as well. Campus housing professionals responded to the increased use of electronic communication and social media by re-focusing programming and education efforts to improve

conflict resolution and interpersonal communication. The “anything goes” nature of the Internet and several high-profile incidents brought the issue of bullying and so-called “mean girls” to the forefront, issues that could be effectively addressed in residential programming. In addition, student affairs professionals shifted their attention from Millennial students to their parents and devised means to channel the hyper-involved energies of helicopter parents.

Looking Forward
The history of campus housing has been as rich as the lives of the students who have lived in the halls. This history is filled with discovery, debate, tragedy, and tradition, proving that there is far more to residence halls than simply four walls and a bed. As higher education expands its reach around the globe and the role it plays in society, the role of residence halls will evolve as well. If there is anything that history has shown, the only constant is change.
tS

Allan Blattner

is the associate director of staff and student development at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Email: apblattn@ uncc.edu. is an associate professor in counselor education at Clemson University in South Carolina. Email: cawthot@clemson.edu.

Tony Cawthon

James A. Baumann is the ACUHO-I director of
communications and marketing. Email: james@acuho-i.org.

May + June 2012

Talking Stick - May/June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - May/June 2012