Talking Stick - September/October 2014 - 51

hall with one of my hall directors
two years ago at our regional
conference. The program committee
believed it would be of interest to a
smaller number of attendees due to
the size of the program room, and,
frankly, I thought that likely as well. I
was very surprised when the room
filled and overflowed with RHDs and
graduate staff running apartment-style
buildings. They were looking for better
answers for their communities. We
tend to train our staffs and set our
expectations similarly for these halls
(traditional and apartment), yet the
challenges are different. I see this as a
great opportunity for the apartments
committee to develop a structure
that allows us to reach back into our
respective regions and provide some
expertise and assistance as well.

Eric Neilson: I couldn't agree more on
the need for extending our knowledge
and understanding with regards to our
undergraduate traditional populations,
but I must say there is also a need for
caution to not simply jump only in
that direction. Right now around the
country, there appears to be a trend
in not only building apartment-style
housing for traditional undergraduates,
but also in removing the older
buildings that were traditionally
family and graduate housing as the
structures become older and costs
of repairs aren't always set off by the
rental rates. That said, there are many
communities that combine the two
populations. What I see with this
trend is a growing need to not only
bring in new professionals, new ideas,
and new methods of working with an
undergraduate population, but just
as strongly a need to find a way to do
that without alienating the graduates
and families. Not only through
programming, but also through
comparisons of amenities that may
occur as new structures arise. As our

breadth of constituents grows, we need
forums and sounding boards for new
professionals and veterans to voice their
challenges and successes, and we need
to gain colleagues for guidance and
help as the field continues to expand
and change. This is where I see the
committee filling a large void for many
professionals.

Alfred Flores: We are seeing increases
in the number of apartment housing
programs on college and university
campuses both within the United States
and throughout the world. I attended
the international symposium at the
ACUHO-I annual conference and was
astonished to learn not only about
the number of member institutions
outside the U.S. that have and/or are
building apartment-style housing, but
also about the challenges and creative
approaches that are occurring in our
globally diverse member institutions.
We can assist in creating a global
dialogue about these best practices
and unique/creative approaches
across the planet. In my experience,
many, if not most, apartment housing
programs tend to be both domestically
and globally diverse. Fostering global
connections and collaborations among
member institutions will have the
added benefit of helping us better
understand and serve the wide range of
national cultures that are represented
in our globally diverse apartment
communities.
Germain: As mentioned earlier and
based on this conversation, it really
reinforces the need for us to reach
out to a larger professional audience
to truly represent and fill the gap that
you all identified. I would like to add
an area to our focus. At the annual
conference in Washington, D.C.,
this year, I attended a roundtable on
public-private partnerships (PPPs),
and I was astonished by the number

of professionals attending this session.
The room was full and very diverse,
from institutions having successful
PPPs on their campus to housing
departments that are challenged by the
concept and the management. Many
of those PPPs are apartment-style
housing units, and people in the room
were desperate for help and advice.
Once again, I think it is one area
where this committee can really make
a difference and truly advance the
profession. Finally, one of our biggest
challenges is going to be able to engage
this diverse group of professionals.
We all have staff who are struggling or
who are successful in managing their
on-campus apartments complex. We
just need to give them the platform to
meet and interact . . . but first we need
to build our network.

Neilson: It seems clear from even
the diversity of our answers that each
apartment and campus environment
is different, and the students that they
serve are unique in their needs. This
is what makes the committee and
ACUHO-I relevant to professionals
both new and veteran. It is a safe space
to pose questions, to network, to gain
answers and insight, and to develop
both mentorship as well as friendship.
That space is truly necessary to have for
a professional to thrive inside changing
environments. Additionally, this is a
unique time in our committee for new
professionals to get involved, which
leads to many wonderful opportunities
for veterans to join in and mentor. tS

September + OctOber 2014

51
Talking Stick - September/October 2014

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