Talking Stick - July/August 2017 - 24

RES LIFE

Training Boost
How to foster a developmental approach
to resident assistant training
"It is important that sessions be sequenced
in a manner that allows staff to come up for
air," says Bowling Green's Joshua Maxwell.

PHOtO COuRtesy OF BOWling gReen state uniVeRsity

by Rich Whitney and Sherry Early
While the roles and responsibilities of
resident assistants (RAs) have changed
over time, some things will continue to
be a priority. Responsibilities such as
developing relationships with residents,
guiding them to campus resources, providing information, mediating roommate conflicts, documenting underage
drinking, and responding to quiet
hours violations remain constant. Britt
Frye, assistant director for academic
initiatives at Marshall University in
Huntington, West Virginia, pinpoints

24

KnOWlEDgE
DOMAinS
talking stiCk
in this article

interpersonal and communication skills
as being at the heart of these responsibilities. "These skills are used in leadership, mentorship, conflict resolution,
community building, and assisting
students with problems or concerns."
However, a major shift in the paraprofessional RA role is understanding not
just what skills are required for the
position, but how the role is enacted.
This shift involves a more developmental approach to interacting with
residents which focuses on enhancing

the residential experience rather than
simply acting as an enforcer of rules
and policies.
RAs' roles have evolved from being
an in loco parentis problem solver and
policy enforcer to being a peer mentor
or mediator who supports residents
and upholds and interprets policies.
Programming reflects a shift in the
RA engagement with residents from a
transactional interaction to an activist
perspective that raises awareness of a
broad range of injustices and encourages residents to have respect for the
rights of others. Given the change in
RA roles, the training provided to these
paraprofessionals must also evolve.
Rather than simply presenting information to RAs in a passive way, training
today provides an opportunity for facilitative learning tailored to meet each
RA's needs. Resident assistants need a
broad spectrum of skills - from leadership and mediation to collaboration
and crisis management - in order to
perform their jobs effectively, but training should not involve an arbitrary or
random presentation of topics or skills.
Ideally, training should be sequential,
with one skill building upon another.
We propose using a Resident Assistant
Sequencing Model (RASM) that respects individual campus and residence
life approaches while also considering
student development theory, a sequence
of specific training topics, and the evolution of the paraprofessional role.
The RA Sequencing Model respects the nuances and distinctions
of individual campus programs and
serves as a guide and taxonomy that
can assist training and development
teams to examine specific schedules
and topics. The model presents stages
of transformational learning for RAs as
a sequence that is essentially cumulative, one step building upon another.
Understanding how the topics are presented in your institution's RA training
can provide an overview of the weight
given to different aspects of training,

Human resources
Develop and deliver training seminars for staff consistent with the training agenda and
desired learning outcomes.
Talking Stick - July/August 2017

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