I am on the plane home from Milwaukee and Campus Home. LIVE! as I type these words. The earbuds are in place, and it’s entirely possible I just exhaled for the first time in a week. It has been several days filled with beaming smiles, deep thoughts, cherished memories, heartfelt hugs, challenging ideas, and refreshing rejuvenation. Oh, and those amazing cheese curds. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Of course, ACUHO-I is much more than just our face-to-face events, but there is something special in being in community with other professionals who understand the ups and downs of what we do.
One of my favorite parts of the conference was unveiling a new video detailing the dramatic impact that campus housing has on the student experience. Over about 150 seconds, it uses data from the ACUHO-I Campus Housing Index, ACUHO-I and NSSE-sponsored research, and student surveys done by Benchworks by Elantra to illustrate the difference that housing makes and the sheer expanse of our work. As I said in my address, this is not news to all of us who are in the thick of the work every day. But it is a nice reminder of the difference we can make, and it is also useful evidence to share with other audiences around our campuses.
Empowering professionals to illustrate the value of campus housing was one of the goals of the Future of the Profession project, and I think this goes a long way toward that. I would encourage all of you, if possible, to meet with members of your campus assessment and marketing teams and see if you can’t create something similar for yourself.
Another goal of the Future of the Profession is to better enable a sustainable workforce. In that spirit I encourage all of you to read the interview in this issue with Jason Lynch, Molly Mistretta, Jamarco Clark, and Erik Sorensen, who discuss trauma-informed leadership. They all bring a valuable mixture of practical experience and academic research to this subject that I found to be remarkably insightful. One of the pieces that really stuck with me is their call for widespread and holistic changes in how we do our work. True leadership goes beyond the supervisor and supervisee relationship; it means advocating for conditions and structures that allow housing professionals to be their best as they give their best to create the best possible student experience.
I want to thank everyone who was able to attend this year’s conference. If you weren’t, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that registration is open for the Business Operations, Academic Initiatives, and ACUHO-I/APPA Housing Facilities conferences. Of course, ACUHO-I is much more than just our face-to-face events, but there is something special in being in community with other professionals who understand the ups and downs of what we do. Hope to see you there.
— Gay Perez, ACUHO-I President
Talking Stick magazine takes its name from the symbol of international friendship presented to ACUHO-I in 1973 by the Ohiat Band of the British Columbia Indian Nation. The talking stick, or speaker’s staff, is hand-carved, and the inscription explains, “It is a sign of authority carried when proclamations are to be made or a meeting of chiefs is in session. It is a token of common heritage both to Canadians and Americans.”