FEATURE ARTICLES Foundations: Staff Training & Facilitation One way to help set the tone is to use trained student staff as facilitators. Staff can establish shared ground rules, ensure all parties are heard, and reinforce the purpose of the conversation. Training student staff on active listening, conflict mediation, and intercultural awareness can ensure a foundation of trust is built through roommate meetings. Some topics that are helpful for student staff to be trained on and keep top of mind are: * Students may be new to shared living arrangements and not everyone will know what to expect from residence life right away. * Students may have very different cultural approaches to communal living and negotiating shared space. This may lead to very different expectations and comfort levels in sharing their needs or opinions. * Staff can use their active listening skills to seek clarification when necessary and ensure students are being understood by one another. * The facilitating staff member may be called upon to support conflict management later on in the year should it arise, so building trust during roommate meetings is critical. * Communication styles vary culturally and individually. Ensuring that this is acknowledged within the roommate meeting is important to combat potential barriers. * Consider having staff reflect on Barna's (2017) Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication and how they might be aware of them/combat them during a roommate meeting: * Assumptions of Similarities * Language Differences * Nonverbal Misinterpretations * Preconceptions and Stereotypes * Tendency to Evaluate * High Anxiety To learn more about roommate agreements, check out our blog post where we worked with Skyfactor Benchworks to look at data and what that tells us about roommate agreements. As a precursor to roommate agreements, check out this helpful PDF document that identifies stressors and strategies related to roommate assignments. As we move from move-in season to assignments season, reflection and data is essential for continual improvement. If you want to chat more about assignments, we'd love to hear from you! Reach out to community@erezlife.com and we'll set up a time to chat. 15https://www.bit.ly/3uwxSZb https://www.bit.ly/3D4Nar6