by Brian Samble and W. Todd DeKay
Sometimes changes pay off in ways that were not intended. Such was the case last year when Franklin & Marshall College (F&M), a liberal arts campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, rolled out a radically revised student leader position. The retooled college house advisor (HA) position combines the most salient components of traditional student leader roles (resident assistant, orientation leader, and peer mentor) into a single position. The goal was to streamline all of these roles, attract and retain the most talented students, and embody a focus on what is essential. It turns out that having top-tier student leaders in such a role was just what the campus needed to support students during the chaotic beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic and help to keep them compliant with processes as in-person learning re-emerged.
Franklin & Marshall College is a highly selective liberal arts college of 2,400 students. Campus life is rooted in what is called the College House System, where every student is a member of one of five living-learning communities for all four years. Each house has its own dean, a student affairs leader called a don, a tenured faculty member, and a student-led house government. In addition, before 2018, each house had student residential positions that were diffused over multiple roles and functions. This meant multiple recruitment processes, varying job descriptions and reporting lines, and large staffs that were modestly or poorly compensated. Things needed to change.
After benchmarking against peer institutions, they set about crafting a revised role for student residential staff, which reduced the number of student leader roles from more than 100 to 50. Then they raised the minimum qualifications for students to apply, enhanced the direct supervision and in-service training of each house’s HA staff, and instituted a multi-year staff evaluation process that includes self, peer, and supervisor evaluations. House advisors were permitted to work only this one job; on- and off-campus employment beyond this role was prohibited so that the focus could remain on the core responsibilities of the HA, with exceptions only for academic roles or roles that advanced pre-professional goals.
Traditional hall programs were reframed as “intentional efforts,” geared to mesh with other regular student activities. These ranged from group trips to the library, athletic events, or presentations to having students watch their HA register for courses or join them at a club meeting. Whatever they were, they were designed to minimize planning and organizational burdens while maximizing new students’ integration into campus life.
The benefits accrued by the revisions to the HA program were evident before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Staff retention remained high, and the HA role has become a beacon for the most talented students. HAs have become far more adept than previous iterations at observing and reporting behavioral concerns and are better able to support academic success outside the classroom. Incident reports submitted by HAs increased 82% over a two-year period, and public safety interventions have declined. Care team reports submitted by HAs increased more than 300% in two years, which has allowed earlier interventions for students in need and enhanced college-wide responsiveness.
The HA program became especially indispensable once the pandemic hit in full force. Like most colleges, F&M had to navigate an unplanned move-out, a transition to online instruction, equity issues that resulted from widely variable home environments and access to technology, student mental health challenges, social isolation, and more. Because the HA staff was lean in numbers, broad in training and expertise, and made up of carefully selected students, F&M was able to make these changes in a way that maximized reach and effectiveness. For example, they established a virtual care community of staff members, drawn from offices across campus, who each remained connected to a small group of students who were now engaged in virtual learning. House advisors, paired with each staff member, helped to guide them in how best to engage students, address concerns, and refer those in need to the appropriate office or resource.
Once F&M instituted a return to on-campus instruction in August 2020, the HAs were trained to handle the myriad challenges of bringing new students to campus under strange and difficult social conditions. The new students received a truncated orientation, but HAs were able to provide continuity into the semester to better allow new students to adapt to the unusual circumstances of attending college during a pandemic. F&M was able to remain open, in-person, throughout the semester and has been open and in-person since, in large part because the HAs are able to engage students in whatever ways are required, moment to moment, in response to changing circumstances.
The redesign of the College House Advisor position is a gamechanger. The structural walls and hierarchies that separate student life departments have disappeared, and each of these critical areas has found greater success at F&M by combining forces. A larger compensation package that attracts the most talented undergraduate student leaders, cross-trained in multiple aspects of student life, poses exceptional promise in offering a new level of student support. As the college-age demographics continue to shift, and as students arrive on campus with more diverse needs and challenges, a flexible, broadly trained, and carefully recruited and selected student residential staff will become increasingly valuable as the college continues to adapt on a historically rapid timetable.
Other colleges and universities might also benefit from integrating student affairs positions that, like the HAs, function as carefully selected and trained generalists: knowledgeable about fiscal policy, human resources, enrollment management, and academic matters. As students’ needs continue to change, as higher education evolves, and when the next unexpected rapid shift occurs (pandemic or not), the ability to pivot swiftly and to engage with issues efficiently and without undue redundancy will enable more effective engagement with the challenges of tomorrow.
Brian Samble, Ph.D., is the dean of students at Lafayette College. W. Todd DeKay is the assistant dean of student affairs at Franklin & Marshall College.
