by Mark A. Hall and Ellen T. Heffernan
What if the first line of your job description was “navigate a changing environment?” It’s not a hypothetical question. Written or unwritten, that’s likely the truth behind everyday professional life for virtually all campus housing professionals thanks to the emergence of COVID-19. And it is likely to be true for the foreseeable future. The effects of the pandemic have accelerated a wide variety of long-term trends in the higher education industry. Some could be considered positive, including remote work, virtual instruction, and, in the job-search world, virtual hiring; however, it also has brought more urgency to some of the negative forces impacting higher education. Those professionals who successfully navigate the evolving environment will be the next generation of successful senior housing and student affairs officers.
The pandemic and all the related fallout has amplified existing issues within higher education that were often in discussion at various levels but with nebulous timelines for identifying recommended actions. Institutions that previously faced long-term enrollment, retention, and financial issues now find themselves in a full-fledged crisis and are being forced to take drastic steps to maintain their viability. These include reducing academic programs, laying off faculty and staff, and implementing significant campus-wide salary reductions. A limited commitment to making admittedly difficult and impactful decisions during a relatively prosperous era has led to the need to make those decisions now, under adverse circumstances. The consequences for the institutions and the people affected are significant and will impact hiring decisions spanning the next few years. A focus on candidates with the skills and experience to influence student success and to address the educational equity gap has become more prominent in hiring decisions; housing professionals should be prepared to share stories about the measurable impact they have had on retention and graduation rates across all student populations.
Housing and residence life has long played a critical role in the delivery of programs and services that are central to campus life. Housing revenues frequently support additional student-centered programs across the institution. A career path through housing provides experience with managing significant budgets that include auxiliary revenues, supervising a large staff, dealing with student conduct and behavioral issues, managing debt, and overseeing construction. All of these experiences are seen as critical preparation to serve as a senior student affairs officer, but, in the future, it will be other aspects of managing a housing and residence life program that will help pave the way to career advancement.
Campuses also will be looking for leaders who demonstrate creativity. There was no playbook for what occurred in 2020. No amount of emergency planning adequately prepared institutions for the challenges that faced them almost overnight.
The pandemic has emphasized the importance of a strong student affairs organization with talented, nimble, and inclusive senior leadership. Hiring activity for senior student affairs officers has remained strong throughout the COVID crisis as presidents and chancellors recognized the critical role that student life professionals played in developing plans for students to return safely to campus. College and university presidents are also recognizing the need for senior cabinet and unit leaders who can build and grow inclusive communities. The crisis has reinforced the skills, abilities, and personal characteristics that lead to success in this environment. Creativity, an ability to make quick decisions, and a talent for working across functional areas will be highly valued commodities for aspiring senior student affairs officers. Inclusivity, a fundamental understanding of the student experience – particularly for underrepresented student groups – and the capacity to cross racial and class divides to build community will be actively sought by those hiring. For the foreseeable future candidates will be asked about their involvement in the response to the COVID crisis on their campus. Moving past COVID, the questions will be sharply focused on successfully building inclusive communities. Those who are able to tell their story about successful crisis management outcomes with congruent success in supporting underserved communities will have a significant advantage in what will always be a competitive hiring process. Housing and residence life professionals can succeed in this evolving environment if they have a plan and are thoughtful in preparing themselves for their next career opportunity.
Understanding the desired outcomes, such as positive trends for retention and graduation, successful fiscal management, increased efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, and improved crisis response, what will be the most desired leadership characteristics for student affairs officers moving forward in a post-pandemic world? One of the most commonly noted skills will be nimbleness in leadership. Higher education has most often been compared to a battleship rather than a jet ski when it comes to changing direction. The shared governance model reflects institutional values around inclusivity and community and provides buy-in from stakeholders who are part of the process because it allows time for many voices to be heard. It is not, however, a practical decision-making process in an emergency, and some of the skills that produce good outcomes in this environment are not the same as those that lead to successful crisis management.
Creativity, an ability to make quick decisions, and a talent for working across functional areas will be highly valued commodities for aspiring senior student affairs officers.
It’s a safe bet that the COVID crisis will not be the last global health threat that campuses will face in the coming years, and these lessons are not lost on senior leaders. To their credit, many institutions have demonstrated a nimbleness in responding to the crisis that few would have thought possible just one year ago. In a matter of weeks, instruction was moved online and faculty and staff were transitioned to remote work. Between the academic years, massive initiatives were undertaken to develop safety protocols for a return to at least limited in-person instruction for the new semester. The scale of the task was overwhelming and required high levels of coordination, collaboration, and cooperation between diverse constituencies within the institution, many of which were not accustomed to working together. Fortunately, housing professionals often found themselves at the center of these efforts due to their integral role in the successful implementation of any program designated to allow for the return of students to campus. Those who soon will be vying for leadership roles should consider how they will concisely communicate their role in the quick decision-making and operational adjustments that took place during the past year.
It’s equally important to be able to critically assess decisions made at different stages of the crisis that perhaps did not turn out as expected. Information changed daily as the pandemic surged forward. It’s safe to say that no one got everything exactly right, so how were staff able to adjust to all of the twists and turns as the pandemic evolved? What lessons were gleaned as a leader that can be taken forward?
Campuses also will be looking for leaders who demonstrate creativity. There was no playbook for what occurred in 2020. No amount of emergency planning adequately prepared institutions for the challenges that faced them almost overnight. The models that had served higher education well for decades were no longer relevant. The traditional core of the college and university experience has been primarily residential and was dependent on the ability of students to interact in-person. Suddenly the basic tenets of the enterprise were turned inside out, and solving the puzzle was critical because many institutions’ survival depended on finding a new model, at least for the short term. It’s hard to think outside the box when the box itself has disappeared!
Housing organizations were essentially out of business in the short term and faced daunting challenges to develop a workable plan for the fall term. These experiences can be used by professionals as the basis for a discussion of how their organizations explored a wide range of options in uncharted territory. Housing and residence life professionals should articulate the collaborations and cross-functional work that was done within the student affairs unit, with facilities, and with academic affairs partners. The pandemic also underlined the critical importance of professional networks. Institutions across the country faced many similar challenges, and close connections with other professionals offered opportunities to learn from each other and bounce new ideas off colleagues. Campus presidents are seeking leaders with diverse, talented professional networks that they can activate in a crisis.
Presidents and chancellors are also emphasizing cross-functional leadership skills and abilities and an aggressive approach to applying them across the organization. Buzzwords like partnership and collaboration are no longer adequate. Successful cabinet-level leadership increasingly demands more than cross-functional collaboration. Senior student affairs officers must be willing to forsake territoriality and traditional approaches to drive institutional strategies that will engage colleagues and students. Outreach to critical partners should be an everyday priority, not something that comes into play only when a crisis has emerged. Successful leaders will treat cross-functional relationship building as though it is a bullet point in the top third of their job description. Consider creating a list of colleagues with whom it would be important to have a professional connection during a crisis, and then create an intentional plan to get to know them. Critical response functions must be seamlessly integrated. In a crisis, existing high-quality relationships across the institution are immeasurably valuable and must be built in advance.
Finally, this pandemic has laid bare and exacerbated significant divides that further illustrate the ways in which a sizeable and increasing number of students are disproportionally impacted. Hiring authorities are seeking leaders at every level who can approach every project, program, idea, and budget with an equity lens. Candidates for leadership roles must demonstrate and articulate an understanding of the connection between access, persistence, and completion and the concept of institutional solvency. Residence life has always been an institutional unit that positively impacts retention, but the questions for candidates will now reflect with greater specificity how residential living programs can impact equity for underrepresented students, build community inclusion outside of the residence hall, and demonstrate action on issues of the retention of both staff and students of color.
The COVID pandemic is ongoing, yet already its effect is being felt on hiring decisions for senior-level student affairs leaders. Presidents and chancellors are adapting their priorities based on the abilities of the members of their senior leadership team who were able to help them successfully navigate the pandemic response. The next crisis faced by institutions may not involve public health, but it will still involve improving the outcomes for underrepresented students, and the skills and experience required of institutional leadership will likely be similar. The value that these abilities bring to student affairs leadership is not new, but their importance for successfully advancing careers is magnified based on the lessons learned in the pandemic response.
Many may want to erase 2020 from their mind, but the lessons learned are too important to be cast into the dustbin of history. Staff should reserve some time to document their experiences during the pandemic and make notes on critical projects and initiatives, including the process, outcomes, and lessons learned. Specific memories will inevitably fade over time, but the impact of the pandemic and the need to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion will remain central to the hiring process for the foreseeable future. Despite all of the challenges, pain, and frustration of the past year, it has provided invaluable experience. Taking the time to reflect on and examine the lessons of the pandemic, and how they can be channeled, can positively impact the experience of the students who will be coming to campus for the next decade and beyond.
Mark A. Hall is a vice president and senior consultant for Spelman Johnson, an executive search firm. Ellen T. Heffernan is the president of Spelman Johnson.