SEAHO Report - Spring 2017 - 17

SEAHO Features
Therefore, the Independent Sophomore student transition and integration experience lends itself to be most
challenging, often resulting in low satisfaction and sense of belonging, loneliness, isolation, intensified and
compounded anxiety and mental health struggles. The social culture focused on elite social organizations
contribute to (if not exacerbate) these issues. Residents believe (and thus act like) their social life is over and
treat housing as a bed and desk, which enables untrained and non-persistent RAs to think and act the same
which affirm resident's believes, etc. This forms a vicious downward culture cycle. A major paradigm/culture/
perception shift is needed to combat deep-rooted status quo. This could not be solved with a one-time, quick
fix, product but only an ongoing, long-term, process.
A New Approach
For the 2015-2016 school year, Graduate Resident Elliott Smith and Residence Coordinator Charlie Clausen
implemented an alternative approach to the RA program in Kilgo Quad given their knowledge and previous
experiences. Clausen had implemented leadership development programs for college students in camp ministry
and residence life capacities for eight years. Smith had experience spanning the same areas as well as outdoor
education for twelve years.
The RA role was framed as a leadership program with a mission to "Make living in Kilgo a quality living
experience" because they believed everyone is at their best when they have a home to come back to, Kilgo in
their student's case. As a result, it was understood and explained to RAs that "RA Training" was a long-term,
ongoing, experiential process, which lasted all year since leadership skills should be learned and developed
beyond the 10 days of "Formal RA Training". It was stressed that the business of difference making and
impacting is not a short-term, one-time, copy and paste product. To make a difference for students, you must
care, which can't be faked, and show that care consistently and in all the different ways students need.
With this as the mindset, they neglected to focus on or chase a specific number of programs, specific survey
results, etc. They believed community building, resident satisfaction, and house identity are byproducts of RA
leadership development. That is, unless Kilgo RAs are cared for first, unless Kilgo RAs are at home in Kilgo,
unless RAs are invested in, they will not be able to provide those things for residents. One way they did this
was by greeting RAs when they arrived to campus and helping them move in. Move in is the first interaction
with staff so modeling what was to be expected was important, because, when in Rome, we do as the Romans
do. If RAs are to be welcoming and caring from the beginning, RAs are to be welcomed and cared for from the
beginning. This was especially impactful for Sophomore RAs who had only experience First-year move in and
been told about how unhelpful everyone is for Upperclass move in.
Moving into the school year, HDRL charged quads with building up and rehabilitating Independent house
identities. Talking with students who live in the building, one could hear how often a significant loss in 'sense
of community' is reported in the transition from East to West. An objective for Kilgo was to recapture this
lost sense of community by creating what was called an "East on West" environment in Independent houses.
Targeting incoming Sophomores, the strategy was to harness and perpetuate their momentum and energy
returning to school. The newer the resident to West campus the easier it would be to establish Kilgo-like East
Campus-as a welcoming community, serious about community.

SEAHO Report Spring 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Spring 2017