by Paul Gordon Brown
T
he COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted college and university housing for the 2020-21 academic year, and it’s likely that it will be forever impacted by some of the lessons learned – both forced and chosen – during the pandemic. As vaccines become more prevalent, and as the need for social distancing and other mitigation efforts recedes, one might be left wondering, “What is the new normal?”
The pandemic presented untold challenges but also a wealth of opportunities to rethink policies and practices. Pandemic-related changes forced campuses to try new things and do things in new ways. Technology and remote work became more frequent, leaders had to make hard decisions about where to focus energy and time, and everyone had to rethink how to build community and maintain student learning and support. Furthermore, the pandemic highlighted, in stark relief, the unsustainable workloads for campus housing and residence life staff.
Adding an additional layer to the pandemic is the United States’ national reckoning on systemic racism and white supremacy. Housing and residence life departments needed (and still need) to confront how they operate in order to dismantle systems of oppression. This relates not only to their work with students, but also to staff and organizational cultures and their place in higher education institutions and within society as a whole.
:: Should everything that was set aside during the pandemic come back? Should it come back in the same form? ::
Tina Tormey, director of residential education for The College of New Jersey, understands that while the 2021-22 academic year may resemble those of the past in many ways, there will also be unmistakable differences. “The pandemic has created an interesting cultural push and pull that residential education professionals will need to figure out how to navigate. There's an incredible desire from students to experience larger social events again, while there is also a need to catch up on the gaps created by online learning, combined with navigating the emotional and logistical demands of both a pandemic and a racial reckoning. It could be tempting for housing departments to shift to being administrative and social programming powerhouses, but we know that the intentional crafting of educational spaces that challenge students in ways that enhance their understanding of themselves and their role in their communities positively impacts retention, community, and overall student success.”
These changes will have an impact not only on the student experience, but also on campus staff. As Tormey explains, “Our frontline staff – the essential workers who are both responsible for those essential functions and the implementation of a curricular program – are feeling these demands the hardest. We tend to be a profession that lives on an academic year life cycle, but this kind of healing and evolution will likely take much longer. COVID-19 could be gone tomorrow, but the impact it has had on staff will be long lasting. I'm curious to see how employer mental health benefits might evolve to meet this need, but I also worry that the financial strain of the pandemic will continue to allow – or force – us to maintain lean staffs and create environments where folks are overworked. Public colleges and universities in particular may be feeling the strain of more than a decade of reduced state appropriations. There are many processes we have already streamlined or removed altogether, so what else can we do to prioritize and create efficiencies?”
Recognizing that change is coming, how do campuses come out of this pandemic stronger? One concept that may be useful to professionals is Greg McKeown’s notion of “essentialism.” As McKeown, an author and noted leadership expert, describes it in the title of his book, essentialism is the “disciplined pursuit of less.” As he explains, it is a “disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.” This disciplined pursuit of less means that decisions are made based on a clear sense of work and values.
:: Essentialism instructs professionals to focus on the areas of maximum impact and let go of things that are tangential to that mission. ::
During the pandemic many campuses reverted to providing accommodations without all the features that make a dormitory into a modern residence hall: those services and opportunities that college housing provides that differentiate it from off-campus housing. This is not essentialism, as McKeown describes it, however. This reversion was forced, not disciplined, and was guided more often by quick necessity than thoughtful decision making. Housing and residence life departments, filled with “essential staff” performing only the most “essential functions” did not practice what McKeown describes as essentialism, which “is not about going back to some simpler time. It’s not about eschewing e-mail or disconnecting from the Web or living like a hermit. That would be backwards movement. It is about applying the principles of ‘less but better.’” In other words, the pandemic forced change on the housing profession – immediately, and without pre-planning – in a way that was perhaps more of a retreat than a new way forward. As the pandemic recedes, however, and we have an opportunity to rethink practice in a more thoughtful way, practicing essentialism can be a useful guide.
This process of rethinking practices may be difficult at times. “Before the pandemic even began, we had unresolved issues that prevented us from genuinely actualizing essentialism. And by that I mean the tensions experienced between the Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials in the workforce, all while catering to the new needs and interests of Gen Z,” says David Hibbler, Jr., associate director of residential education at the University of South Florida. “Essentialism and the values associated with specific tasks, protocols, approaches, etc. in our work look and feel drastically different to these four cohorts. And suppose it already wasn't complex enough. In that case, we can also add the notion of toxic positivity. No matter how sad or difficult something may be, we must have a positive mindset and outlook or appear as though our glass is half full to be seen as productive in these unprecedented times when trying to essentialize and pare down our work.”
As campuses consider what the near future will look like, they should ponder four primary questions. The first is to ask what defines what campus housing does. If housing departments are clear about what campus housing is, what it is not, and what makes it a unique experience for students and offers a career that requires professional knowledge, they can make better decisions about what the core of their work is. These decisions should guide decision making going forward. There may be practices that should be maintained, former practices that should return, and some practices that should be phased out. These decisions can be made based on the core missions of individual campuses as well as outside assessments such as the ACUHO-I Standards and Ethical Principles and Core Competencies or the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) Standards.
Another question to answer is what aspects of housing have the biggest impact on students and institutions. The pandemic helped reveal the impact of residence life and what happens when some of these practices disappear. It also revealed what practices were ineffective or were more effective when delivered differently. By being clear in housing’s mission and by focusing on efforts that make a meaningful impact, departments can make better decisions about what to focus on and what represents a good investment of time and energy.
Understanding what programs have the greatest impact can lead to answering the question of what can be given up. In residence life it is often easy to fall into the trap of adding more and more to the list of responsibilities, but doing so is an unsustainable path. Should everything that was set aside during the pandemic come back? Should it come back in the same form? Many features of residence life that are viewed as standard practice, and ones that were never questioned, may not be working anymore. Maybe they never did. Essentialism instructs professionals to focus on the areas of maximum impact and let go of things that are tangential to that mission. This includes letting go of overly burdensome administrative processes if it means refocusing efforts on the things that matter.
Finally, housing departments must ask how they can operate differently. The switch to remote work and the use of technology to facilitate communication and processes shattered assumptions about how to accomplish goals. Furthermore, the workload burden on staff highlights that there has got to be a better way. Many staff members noted that work demands in residence life were unsustainable even before the pandemic. In a post-pandemic way of thinking, those who can subscribe to a “disciplined pursuit of less” can begin to reimagine what housing and residence life can look like in the new normal. This includes focusing one’s energies on practices that have the highest impact and letting go of practices that, although they may be good, are not essential or do not create the best return for the time invested.
Dr. Paul Gordon Brown oversees the campus experience at the software company Roompact and is a 20-year veteran of housing and residence life.
