SEAHO Report - Fall 2024 - 19

Staff Development Planning
We planned and implemented a yearlong GAC curriculum focused on staff development, both in their current
housing roles and as young professionals preparing for their future careers. The curriculum consisted of
monthly, in-person, professional development meetings across assorted topics. The process began by
first identifying a day and time of the week that all GACs would be available to meet. Then, we identified
areas of growth and needs of the team to design a content plan that targeted the skills and knowledge that
would best benefit the graduate student staff in their position and advance their careers. We organized the
following sessions: a resume and interview skills session with the university's career center, a behind closed
doors duty scenarios practice session, a personal finance session, and a self-care session. In the future, we
hope to continue this initiative by partnering with additional campus partners to provide more professional
development training opportunities. The overall feedback and assessment demonstrated growth, learning, and
understanding of the topics presented and an appreciation for the skill sets developed in the sessions.
Belonging
We specifically sought out intentional ways to make the GACs feel a sense of belonging and purpose within
the department, and ensured this was built into the job description and expectations. Due to the variety of
academic programs and commitments of the GACs, they are not all able to attend our weekly departmental
meetings. We reshaped the agenda and notes process to ensure all GACs were reviewing the notes and
able to provide thoughts and insight into any topics discussed. We continue to explore additional methods on
increasing our GAC involvement in meetings.
We designed a paired mentorship program with intent on pairing GACs together who will not have standard
interactions with each other throughout the year in their day-to-day work. It was important for us to design
these intentional mentorship relationships in ways that paired GACs who would not have as many interactions
(i.e., those that work within different communities, those that do not live in the same unit or complex, those
in different degree programs, etc.). This will be implemented in future training and throughout the year for
support.
In addition, we scheduled GAC-centered programming, organized activities designed to foster connections
and encourage bonding among the graduate staff, throughout the academic year. Specifically, we coordinated
a potluck dinner in the fall semester and a board game night in the spring semester. We plan to continue
coordinating similar bonding events in the future to further strengthen relationships and team cohesion. The
department plans to support this initiative by providing allocated funding particularly for GAC bonding events.
We also continue to ensure GACs are invited and feel welcome at larger department wide bonding and social
events hosted by our leadership team and other professional staff.
In summary, focusing on consistency, job performance plans, staff development planning, and belonging
have made our graduate employee program a stronger, more robust program providing better support and
development for our team. We highly recommend any department or institution employing graduate students
review these areas for maximum impact and support.
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SEAHO Report - Fall 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Fall 2024