MAY 2024Discussion Guide

TS HEADER UPDATETS DIVIDING RULEThe Talking Stick Discussion Guide supports individual and departmental professional development efforts. These discussion questions, crafted by campus housing professionals, help readers to make meaning of the content and best identify ways the information applies to individual practices and institutions. Some suggestions for how to incorporate them into a professional development curriculum include the following:

building discussions into departmental meetings;

delegating articles to staff and asking them to lead discussions;

reading articles that address topics outside of normal day-to-day responsibilities to broaden knowledge of different campus housing aspects or aspirational positions;

incorporating articles into class discussions for graduate students;

assigning articles to graduate classes and coordinating opportunities to discuss readings and how they would apply to future careers.

Download this guide as a PDF worksheet.Thick RuleAn Updated ModelAuthors revisit their living-learning community model and wish practitioners would quit being so hard on themselves.CORE COMPETENCIESResident Educational Services: Create environments for constituents that support community development goals. READ ARTICLE

The authors discuss the difference between theory and practice and note that best practice or high-impact practice may not work the same on every campus. Has your campus or department implemented a new practice only to find that it did not work on your campus? How might you have adjusted the practice so that it could work on your campus?

How do you define engagement on your campus? Outside of the pandemic, how has this definition changed for you over the course of your career? Has this change been reflected in your department’s definition of engagement?

The book’s authors discuss a typology of “foundational, intermediate, and advanced” to define different levels of high-impact practices in LLCs. Does your campus have common language about what success looks like in your environment?

The authors are discussing the practice of living-learning communities, not just the theory, and how that has changed since they first wrote the book. How have you worked to gain student buy-in to programs, especially those considered to be LLCs? How have your efforts been supported or challenged by students?

Thick Rule-2Legal DecisionsAuthors contend that context matters when it comes to matters of the law.CORE COMPETENCIESEthics: Embrace ethical principles, governing behavior, and decision-making when considering policies and legal issues within a campus housing department.READ ARTICLE

Who are the practitioner experts on your campus you could reach out to for insight on seeing a situation in a different way?

How does your department prioritize one side over the other when there are “competing needs between communities and individuals”?

Think of an example when, after dealing with a crisis, reflection was able to expose a side of it that wasn’t obvious while you were in the moment. How would you turn this into a teaching moment for your staff or for a colleague reaching out for advice on managing crises?

How would you use this book to update your onboarding process and staff training? How would you use it as part of your policy development process?

Thick Rule-3Why Care About Liberation?A new mindset can help create an environment that supports human flourishing.CORE COMPETENCIESEquity and Inclusion: Create environments that are welcoming and accessible to all students.READ ARTICLE

Bring your team together and think about the practices you want to change. How would you re-imagine them?

What steps could you put in place for you and your staff to start thinking differently about the future of the communities on your campus? Could it be meeting biweekly or monthly to focus on what changes to make?

What feedback from students and staff can you use to start imagining the practices that will support future campus communities?

Thick Rule-4Staff OverboardUpdated approaches to mentorship and job descriptions help mid-level staff stay afloat.CORE COMPETENCIESHuman Resources: Write job descriptions concurrent with the needs of the department and in conjunction with the recruitment requirements. Support the professional development of all staff in creating and sustaining healthy and effective supervisor/supervisee relationships.READ ARTICLE

How do you define mid-level staff, and what has informed that definition (number of years worked, position title, moving past your first or entry-level position)?

We often hear that the onboarding process for mid-level positions is lacking when compared to what we routinely have in place for entry-level staff. How effective is your mid-level onboarding process? What steps can be taken to improve it if that’s necessary?

As supervisors how do we move away from leaning almost exclusively on how we approached our past mid-level positions? How do we start to listen longer and more fully to staff and invite their voice by asking for more information on situations they face? How do we embrace how those roles may need to be performed now while also still passing along the lessons learned from our experiences?

What are the best ways for mid-level staff to seek out and obtain mentors (both at their institution and from professionals throughout the field)?

What comes to mind when you think about mid-level professionals managing the pressure of being between two worlds, “caught between the expectations of leaders above them and the needs of the staff they supervise.”

The article talks about mid-level professionals needing to be fluent in all levels of the organization. What does that mean in your department, and how long do you think it would take to reach that goal?

We have seen a rash of “bachelor’s required; master’s preferred” postings in an attempt to find more candidates for entry-level positions. When hiring replacements with less experience, what steps are you taking to make sure that the supervisory burden on the mid-level professionals does not increase drastically?

Thick Rule-5New BeginningsCampuses help refugees restart their lives half a world away.CORE COMPETENCIESAncillary Partnerships: Identify and facilitate appropriate partnerships between housing and other campus departments, including memorandums of understanding if needed.READ ARTICLE

What factors would most influence your decision if you were asked to consider housing a refugee family on your campus?

What campus offices or local organizations could you partner with to best provide services for a refugee family? Do you have existing relationships with those groups?

What other programs or services could your housing department offer to support underprivileged members of the larger community?

Thick Rule-6Taking the LeadLet’s talk about the life of housing directors.CORE COMPETENCIES Human Resources: Identify and leverage one’s strengths to maximize success in one’s current and future roles. Seek out and participate in activities designed to address areas where one’s performance can be strengthened.Read Article

For those aspiring to be a director, who would you want to shadow for a day or a week to get a sense of what the job is like?

What gaps in knowledge or skills do you think need to be addressed before taking the leap into a director position?

For new directors, who would you want on your support team? Who are the director counterparts in other departments that you can lean on?

What self-care practices do you have in place to get you through busy and challenging times?

Thick Rule-7ACUHO-I Talking Stick | May+June 2024reader guidemastheadVisionGreystarSpotlight: University of California, DavisSpotlight: University of North DakotaSTARREZPage TurnerFirst PersonWash and RoyalWhy Care About Liberation?microfridge_brillStaff OverboardCarrier and BenchworksNew BeginningsmarketplaceAn Updated ModelFOUNDATIONLegal DecisionsConversations:CHLyour_acuhoiSnapshot: Stephen HenningerSnapshot: Charlie PottsDiscussion Guide