questions by James A. Baumann
There are few people whose career path follows a straight line. Personal plans, professional opportunities, economic realities, and many more factors can affect where someone ends up in their professional life. The field of student affairs and campus housing is no different. In this issue we speak with a number of people who started their careers in campus housing but now find themselves working for companies that serve the campus housing market in a variety of ways. Joining the conversation are Wimer Alberto (GradGuard), Paul Brown (Roompact), Cate Morrison (eRezLife Software), Chad Elliott (eRezLife Software), Terri Gray (CORT), Jason Gross (Adirondack Solutions), Allen Chouinard (Southwest Contract), and Ann Morgenstern (StarRez). They discuss their different paths, transferable skills, what they miss, and much more. It seems that you may be able to take the individual out of campus housing, but you can't always take the campus housing out of the individual. The responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Talking Stick: Describe your experiences working on campuses before making the jump to the corporate world.
Paul Brown: I worked in residence life and student affairs for nearly 20 years before starting work at a private company. I had never even thought of leaving the field until I was finishing my Ph.D. in higher education. As I neared the end of my time, however, I found myself wanting different things. Pursuing a faculty role would have required me to go on the tenure track and probably relocate to an area I didn’t want to live in. Going back into administration would have required me to make lifestyle sacrifices. Given my passions for and research in technology, it’s what led me to work for a software company, Roompact.
Jason Gross: By all accounts, I was on a path to work in student affairs for my entire career. During my undergraduate and graduate years, I was fortunate to have a great dean of students who got me involved in campus government and student affairs. I began as an RA, was promoted to an undergraduate RD, and then stayed on as a graduate RD while working on my MBA. So, after eight years of living at college, I walked out with two undergraduate degrees, a master’s degree, and a wealth of firsthand experience in the art of putting out fires – literal and figurative – that other people started. Throughout my time in student affairs, I had the opportunity to work with different service providers (food, furniture, laundry, technology), and it was always in the back of my head as a pivot career if and when I decided to leave the field.
Cate Morrison: I started my career in residence life as an RHA member and have worked as an RA, hall director, area coordinator, RHA advisor, and associate director at the University of British Columbia. I was fortunate to work with an incredibly talented, educated, and thoughtful group of colleagues at UBC who fundamentally influenced my perspective and the way I view student affairs and the student experience.
Wimer Alberto: I was fortunate to experiment in various functional areas prior to transitioning to a student affairs-aligned role. I served as a resident director at Utica College and Binghamton University for five years. I then served as a senior coordinator for occupancy management at Arizona State University. I was later promoted to the assistant director for guest and conference services position. Each of these experiences helped foster a deeper appreciation for the multifaceted work that residence life and housing professionals do on a day-to-day basis.
Ann Morgenstern: During my undergrad at Kansas State, I spent time as an RA and also worked in the housing office. I learned a lot from listening to the residence life team share stories of their daily life. After undergrad, I worked as an admissions counselor and traveled nearly every week for the fall and spring. I returned to the housing world at Ole Miss where I completed graduate school, worked full time in the housing office, and logged into StarRez for the first time.
Chad Elliott: Prior to starting at eRezLife, I worked within residence life for over a decade. I always had a strong interest in business, and it was during my time at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada’s largest residence life and student housing operation, that I decided to take my work and life experiences back to school and complete an MBA. In my final two years while working at UBC, my future business partner and I built and piloted a fully cloud-based software solution to help my colleagues manage their various residence life communities. Little did I know at the time that the challenge we were addressing was something many schools were also experiencing across North America.
Allen Chouinard: My experiences in campus housing and residence life run the gamut from being a student employee when I was a desk receptionist and RA, to then being a graduate student apartment manager and facilities manager, to finally being a full-time professional at a number of schools where I worked in several areas of housing, with facilities becoming my major area of focus. It was 22 years of fun at five different institutions.
Terri Gray: My work in student affairs and particularly campus housing was a second career for me. I realized I was on the wrong path, so I gave up a lucrative career and went back to grad school full time. One of the biggest lessons I learned working in higher ed is how important everyone’s voice is. I remained in higher ed until 2001 when one of the suppliers we worked with offered me a position out of Atlanta to help build their higher education market. It was an opportunity to live somewhere other than California for the first time as well.
TS: Were there classes or other previous experiences you had (work, hobbies, passion projects, etc.) that hinted you could end up doing what you are doing now? Or were you exposed to this possibility via your work on campuses?
Elliott: A bit of both. I’m not sure if anyone grows up knowing that they want to be an entrepreneur. My entrepreneurial spirit was fueled during my MBA, while also providing the perfect opportunity to collaborate and create business and marketing plans. My newly acquired business knowledge – combined with my intimate residence life knowledge, experience, and professional network – provided everything I needed to incorporate and launch eRezLife.
Brown: I also had always been somewhat entrepreneurial in my work. Through blogging, presenting, and speaking, I found that I could pursue passions independently. I was lucky to have many supervisors and mentors who nurtured and supported this for me. In fact, many of the positions I held in residence life were often created specifically for me. That’s also what happened when I went to work at Roompact. It was an opportunity to leverage my education and research interests in a way that still connected me to higher education.
Morrison: Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be working for a software company, as that was not where I have any education or experience. Being a campus school administrator of eRezLife fundamentally influenced how I approach my role there. Being in the shoes of our community members allows me to relate and better understand their experience. On a personal level, I can empathize with the experience of being pulled in many directions and having to deal with tough situations on a daily basis, while still needing to collect information that confirms the validity of the work.
Alberto: I was fortunate to work at organizations – and work for supervisors – that entrusted me with increased responsibilities that helped me gain the administrative, social, and political acumen that eventually set me up for success in my current role. One of my goals in the early chapters of my career was to have a holistic understanding of the work that residence life and housing professionals do. This was imperative when the opportunity to transition to a university relations role at GradGuard materialized.
Morgenstern: I tell people my career path in student housing started in first grade. My older sister was an RA, and anything she did, I was her shadow. Somehow, copying my older sister turned into a career and eventually led me to StarRez. My undergrad is in advertising and marketing, so I spent a lot of time writing, designing, and presenting. These are skills I still use every day.
Gross: When I was an undergraduate, out of a class of less than 400, the dean of students knew everyone by name and really did all he could to make everyone feel like a member of the community. For me, that meant a lot and opened my eyes to what a career in student affairs could possibly be. Like most young adults, I only saw one side of the story and thought, “Seriously, I get to stay at college forever? Sign me up!” Ultimately, I realized that entwining yourself in the lives of others is not a recipe for work/life balance and made the decision to step away.
Chouinard: I'm not sure there is anything in life that leads one to become a residence hall furniture provider, but events along the way probably shaped my thoughts about the crucial role that facilities management plays. So as I think about my move from working on a campus to working with many facilities directors on many campuses, I can say that I went from impacting the lives of thousands of students on one campus to impacting the lives of tens of thousands of students on many campuses over the course of my career.
Gross: A successful career in student housing allows one to develop the skills of thinking on your feet, doing more with less, organizing chaos, and working the room. Thankfully, that skillset translates to almost any career and provides almost instant credibility when talking with colleagues who are still in the field.
Gray: Ditto to what Jason said. Also I got a lot out of our staff retreats and training, especially learning about myself, my emotional intelligence, how I make decisions, etc. so that we better understood what each of our strengths were and how we could better work together.
Morgenstern: I agree that the experiences from several years in housing are part of my daily work. When I give a demo, I use examples and stories from personal experience. Years of working with students gives you endless content. It also helps to recognize how those working on a campus are feeling different times of the year. I completely understand just how chaotic August can be, how quiet the middle of December feels, and how long it takes to go through 800 room-change requests in May.
Elliott: To be honest, I regularly draw from the culmination of everything during my time in residence life. I’m truly grateful for the skills and experiences gained from living and working within such vibrant and diverse communities and teams: communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, active listening and empathy, negotiating and compromising, and team building and leadership. To me, residence life provided an environment to learn, make mistakes, and better prepare for what the world may bring.
Alberto: University relations work is about relationships: two organizations coming together to address a problem or need that neither organization would be best suited to address on their own. In many ways, these relationships resemble the work that I did at Arizona State. Each campus partnership is unique. Similar to the conference role, it is our responsibility to make, build, and fortify a long-term relationship with the department while also making sure that our partners see themselves as active stakeholders in the process.
Brown: Residence life professionals are often the Swiss Army knives of the university. You need to draw on an incredibly diverse skillset which makes you easily adaptable to a lot of different work experiences. Underpinning all of this, I think my exposure to general leadership development and the cultivation of a set of ethics and values has guided me in everything I do now.
Morrison: I draw upon my experiences on a daily basis. Whether it’s hosting roundtable discussions or contributing to conferences, committees, or working groups, the ability to connect and relate to experiences makes a huge difference. The context of my previous experience combined with the exposure to the experiences of so many colleagues allows me to see trends, address issues, and create resources that support our community and provide thought leadership to the industry.
Chouinard: I find myself drawing on the facilities planning skills, whether I'm reviewing with our partners the aspects of our products and trying to help them decide which ones will best meet their students’ needs or as I'm planning deliveries and installations with other partners. My goals are to help all of our partners improve the student experiences on their campuses. Each campus and each campus partner has unique student needs and cultures that they deal with every day, and my role is to help them meet those needs.
Morrison: This question is very difficult to answer! At my job now I’m able to continue to experience many of the aspects of residence life that I found fulfilling. That said, there has been a period of adjustment as the experience looks very different as a corporate member. There is a different level of excitement and energy when you step onto a campus, or have the opportunity to see a staff member have a breakthrough with a student, or find success with a new and innovative program. I miss that energy; however, I am fortunate to experience that through the stories of our community members.
Chouinard: I'd say the midnight calls about a pipe leak or a power outage is the one aspect of my on-campus roles that I miss the most. NOT! Really there are two things I miss: the student interaction and energy you got when dealing with students every day.
Brown: I agree that the collegiality and culture of higher education is one of the things that motivates me and gives me purpose. It’s not that you can’t get this outside of a college or university setting, but I do think it is more rare. By staying connected and getting involved in professional associations, by presenting and writing for publication, and by working with professionals from across the world in my daily work, I have been able to stay connected to this work.
Elliott: I’d probably say I miss the training and mentoring of young student leaders and watching them grow into confident individuals who will make a positive difference. I also miss the day-to-day interactions with my residence life network, but let’s be honest, I know for certain that I don’t miss being on call 24/7 and carrying a duty phone. I originally wrote “pager'” but realized I may be dating myself.
Gross: As I say in my demonstrations, I’m living the best of both worlds right now. I get to live vicariously through my colleagues’ experiences, but without the Zero Dark Thirty emergencies. By its very nature, student affairs is a collegial occupation, and I was always fortunate to work with great students, grads, and professionals.
Gray: I, too, have the best of both worlds and can’t imagine working with anyone but those on college campuses. While I still get to see – and sometimes work with – students on campus at various events, I really miss the amazing student staff we had. They were incredible.
Alberto: I miss being able to leverage the broader communal problem-solving culture that, in my eyes, embodies the residence life and housing ethos. This isn’t to say that we don’t have access to those same relationships now. However, part of the reason that residence life and housing departments choose to partner with specific vendors is that their vendor of preference provides a good or service that is somehow unique or proprietary.
Morgenstern: There is a feeling when you’re on a college campus that cannot be replicated. It’s watching parents say goodbye at the start of the year. And watching the same parents wonder how their child accumulated so much stuff by move-out. It’s hearing laughter and conversation as you walk down a hall. It’s watching students succeed and meet lifelong friends. When I walk on a campus, I still feel it and dearly miss it. But, like others, one ring of a duty phone quickly breaks the nostalgia.
James A. Baumann is editor of Talking Stick.
