Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C30

sional in their ascension to higher levels of leadership. But it feels like housing has fallen out of the good graces of
student affairs, and it is not promoted in
this positive way.
It should also be said that, of all the
student affairs positions, housing can
be the most difficult. Long hours, oncall responses, and late night meetings
and programs are taxing. Housing professionals sometimes never seem to get
a reprieve, as they are constantly in the
domain of students who need time, energy, and attention. It is tiring, all consuming, and stressful work, but it can
also be invigorating, motivating, and
rewarding. Unfortunately, far too many
housing colleagues apologize, make excuses for, or act ashamed about their
positions. They emphasize the negative
instead of helping young professionals of color understand that it is tough
work but also the most educational.
The truth is, if a person can make it in
housing, they can do just about anything in student affairs.

Intentionally Mentor
Professionals of Color
All professionals need to be intentionally mentored, but this is especially true of
professionals of color. While the backgrounds and experiences of professionals of color are not monolithic, many are
the first in their family to attend college.
As a result, they may lack the social and
professional capital needed to navigate
professional spaces. It is sometimes difficult as a professional of color to even
know how to ask for this support.
Senior housing administrators of
all backgrounds must create opportunities for young professionals of color
and international professionals to have
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access to student affairs and, if possible,
other types of institutional leadership.
Department administrators should
create speed mentoring events or host
presentations about the importance
of mentoring. They can explain how a
mentor can help with a specific question or professional need, that an indi-

in which people of color from a wide
variety of backgrounds, including international professionals, navigate the
leadership role. It should be recognized
how approaches to leadership come
in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Unlike
their white counterparts, professionals
of color learn how to lead under added

. . . as demographic changes continue to trend
toward more and more students of color
attending college both domestically and
internationally, higher education and student
affairs must position themselves to have
professionals of color not only in entry-level
positions, but as visible campus leaders.
vidual can have more than one mentor,
or that they don't have to be long-term
relationships. A mentor is any person
who can help another one learn something. Most importantly these administrators should identify one or more
professionals of color and have conversations with them about the effect they
are having on them and how they can
affect others. Creating this culture of
mentorship will go a long way in helping professionals of color build a network of knowledge and support as they
progress in their career.

Develop Intercultural
Competence
It is imperative that supervisors, especially those who identify as white or
Caucasian, become more interculturally aware and sensitive about the ways

scrutiny and through a racialized or
internationalized lens. White students
who may never have been supervised
or led by a person of color tend unconsciously to be more critical and more
resistant as well as judge leadership
styles more harshly than they do for
their white supervisors.
I personally have lived through
this experience and have had an untold
number of young professionals of color
approach me about how to manage the
perceptions of their supervisees as it
relates to their style of accountability,
support, or mentorship. Unfortunately, and just as often, white supervisors
can fall into the trap of allowing paraprofessionals to bypass their supervisor of color with complaints or feeling
uncomfortable with what they perceive
to be a failure to follow white cultural
norms of leadership.
Professionals of Color

Talking Stick - January/February 2019

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