SEAHO Report - Summer 2023 - 19

Missing the Mark:
Non- Higher Education/Student
Affairs Grad Students in Housing
By Jillian Webber, Appalachian State University
SEAHO, ACUHO-I, ACPA, NASPA, NODA, SACSA... ACRONYMS: we have a million of them in
higher education - Without blinking an eye many of us recognize what these words mean and likely
the context behind them. This short and non-exhaustive list doesn't even include the plethora of
acronyms each individual institution uses to describe their various job titles, offices, and buildings on
campus. In reflecting on working with graduate students, specifically those not in higher education
programs, are we onboarding them well for success?
It is not uncommon for the first day or two of graduate training to provide a list of acronyms specific
to the institution - but for most that's where the understanding stops. For graduate students in higher
education (HE) or student affairs (SA) programs, they continue to learn more history and context as to
why the decisions get made as they do, why students might be acting out in that particular way - but
they slowly start to creep away from their non-higher ed peers in overall understanding. Assuming
that someone else is going to take the helm in taking the time to describe and explain every why, we
accidentally leave them in the dark.
Please do not assume that non-HE/SA grads are a deficit to the department; on the contrary, we
get a new perspective on how someone else might view or understand a process. It becomes more
important with a mix of HE/non-HE grads, that we are bridging the communication gap in order to
be the best we can be.
In my own Housing experience (coming from a HE/SA Master's program), up until this year I only
supervised student affairs/higher education grads. Almost every one-on-one we would discuss what
was happening in class, why we thought a student was acting out a certain way, or how we could
better support our resident assistants. I never had to question if my graduate staff knew what I was
talking about or understood the assignment moving forward to help address concerns. This year,
for the first time, I have several grads I indirectly supervise that have a different understanding and
experiences coming into the role.
In almost every meeting, I see our leadership team use phrases and higher education specific
context to explain the decisions being made, but in a way that assumes student affairs specific
context that not everyone has. In meeting with my own Coordinators, I am reminded that not all of
our grads have the same level of understanding and I have taken steps to recognize where we are
leaving our grads behind- where we are potentially starting them in the second chapter of a novel
where they do not know the characters, setting or plot.
So, what can we do? We are seeing a dip in HE/SA specific graduate students compared to five
years ago. With that, we have more and more non-HE/SA grads coming into the role, and we need
to do better in utilizing our time to explain the developmental " why " of higher education.
Utilize Student Affairs/Higher Education grad students
Utilize your 1:1 meeting to establish what your grad students are learning in class. Checking in with
non-HE/SA grads, you can bring that same information from theory to practice. If you do not have
19

SEAHO Report - Summer 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Summer 2023