questions by D'Najah Thomas
October is Careers in Student Affairs Month, which makes this the perfect time to check in and learn more about the highs, lows, and in-between moments that make up working in campus housing and student affairs. This year, though, it feels like the conversation has shifted a bit. While student affairs has existed in various permeations for generations, the pandemic years brought the work into a sharper focus. While the pandemic spotlighted the importance of the work (engaging student communities, protecting student health and safety), it also intensified the inherent drawbacks (extended hours, expanding responsibilities). While the fallout from that reckoning continues, one can also sense a growing willingness to confront those issues and explore new ways to approach the work in service of the unchanging goal of optimizing the student experience.
Joining in this conversation are Erin Schneller, a community director at Wake Forest University; J.C. Stoner, associate director for housing operations at The University of Texas at Dallas; Tiffany Bromfield, associate director for residence life and inclusion at SUNY-Buffalo State University; Casey Wall, director of residential life and housing for Binghamton University (SUNY); Renee Gibson, associate director for residence life and student housing at Southern Methodist University; Paige Hicks, director of residence life at The University of Chicago; and Wesley Todd, associate director of housing at Wake Forest University. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Tiffany Bromfield: I was a very involved student athlete-leader. When I decided to do student affairs, I was working in leadership and service. My ACUHO-I internship at New York University served as a turning point in my career. I applied for a job at Winston-Salem State University, and the hiring manager said since I had an ACUHO-I internship I would know how to do the job, and that was all she wrote. I’ve been locked in since.
J.C. Stoner: I don’t know if inspiration is the right word, but I certainly fell into it because I realized I didn’t want to be either an architect or a high school physics teacher, my first two majors in college. I just kept doing something that I found some enjoyment in and seemed to be decent at, which at the time was serving as a resident assistant. That led to the typical progression through residence life for 14 years and then transferring gained skills over to the operations side of the house four years ago.
Paige Hicks: My love for housing started when I was a freshman at the University of Houston. I joined the residence hall association and immediately enjoyed collaborating with staff to host large-scale programming for residential communities. I worked for many offices throughout my undergraduate career. Housing and residence life is where I felt I made the largest impact.
Wesley Todd: As an undergraduate, I worked as a conference assistant and later as a conference coordinator, as well as working as a resident assistant. I never thought of it as a career; however, a month after I graduated I started my professional journey as a residence life coordinator. Even then, I thought I would only stay in the job for one or two years until I got a job at a major news network. Then 2008 came along, the economy tanked, and the jobs went away, but my passion for working with college students remained.
Renee Gibson: I was a resident assistant, and my hall director asked me if I had ever considered a career in student affairs. I thought I was on my way to law school and didn't know that student affairs was a profession. Fast forward to several years later (no law school, by the way), and I was in graduate school at Southern Methodist working on a master's degree in liberal arts when a community assistant position opened up. I applied, thinking that it was a temporary position until I finished my degree, but I was offered a graduate assistant position that eventually turned into a full-time position.
Erin Schneller: I was one of the students selected to attend the National Association for Campus Activities conference where I attended a program session about working in higher education and learned about student affairs. Even though I was only a sophomore when I attended NACA, it was like a light went off. I was someone who loved my college experience and never wanted to leave the college environment. From there, I found myself getting more involved on campus, joining a sorority and being selected as a member of the Residence Hall Association executive board. I also worked as an orientation leader, student director of orientation, and an RA. It was not until graduate school that I determined that residence life and housing was where I wanted to focus my career.
Casey Wall: As an undergraduate, I had several jobs within residence life. First, I was a front desk assistant and then became a student assistant in the res life office and an RA. Ultimately, being a student assistant in the office was what got me hooked on the idea of working in housing and res life specifically. My first mentor in the field was the campus director of residence life. I remember the conversation like it was yesterday, asking how to do this for a career.
Hicks: I received the President Staff Success Award at the University of South Florida. This was a very prestigious award, and it meant a lot to know that the president was made aware of efforts to create a meaningful residential second-year experience for students. My participation in the 2022 ACUHO-I Leadership Academy provided me with valuable tools, resources, and mentorship. I am proud of this accomplishment because it affirmed my belief in my work in housing and residence life and underscored my capacity to make significant contributions within the field.
Todd: Without question, being selected as the co-chair for the Regional Entry Level Institute (RELI) for the SEAHO region is my top career accomplishment. Having the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with young professionals as well as collaborating with my co-chair and the faculty was a moment I think about frequently. In addition, Wake Forest has been very supportive of me and my involvement with the ACUHO-I/APPA Housing Facilities Conference.
Schneller: I am most proud of all the work I took on in 2020 as the whole world shut down and I helped transition students off campus. While we were a small institution, we were still managing a move-out process for about 500 people with a residence life staff of two residence hall coordinators and one office administrator. We developed a system to stagger residents returning to move out all their items in addition to a review process for residents to apply to stay on campus. Some did not have a place to go home to. It was hard reviewing those appeals to stay because I had to weigh one person’s needs over another’s to keep our on-campus numbers low. I also had to determine which resident assistants would stay employed. Some of them relied on their paychecks, so it was difficult to have to end their employment. I hope to never have to experience something like that again, but I know that I set up a strong foundation of processes to be used if it did.
Bromfield: I have a few accomplishments I’m proud of, the first being helping to restructure student staff positions at my current institution. We split the responsibilities of the job to make the management more equitable by creating another position, so we have resident assistants and community assistants. Resident assistants focus on policy enforcement and the accountability of our students to the code of conduct, and community assistants focus on community building and programming. My second accomplishment has been my recent appointment as the Regional Affiliation Director to the 2024 Executive Board. I’ve served the Association in a few capacities, most recently as the Black Professional Network co-chair, so I am beyond excited to be on such a big stage alongside some pretty amazing folks.
Gibson: Southern Methodist University has provided me the opportunity to develop in my career as a student affairs professional while raising a family. With that being said, my biggest accomplishment has been welcoming my son to SMU as a first-year student. I have truly been able to see the work that we all do in our profession come to life while watching him go through the onboarding process from high school to college. It makes me proud to see my colleagues in other departments assist him and his peers through this really important transition.
Wall: A few things come to mind, and if you had asked me in February of 2020 this answer would be wildly different. I'm proud of my work with NEACUHO, which has been a staple over the course of my career, including recently being elected for the next NEACUHO presidential cycle. And if I'm being completely honest, the things I am most proud of in my career are the little things I’ve advocated for, that hardly anyone is aware of. I find that those things often make some of the biggest impact on the field, students, and staff.
Stoner: I’d say my academic involvement, whether that be writing for publication or co-instructing a doctoral-level statistics class. I’m also proud of my SWACUHO involvement, having served as a few different committee chairs, serving a term on the executive board as secretary, and starting and maintaining the SWACUHO podcast for the last two years. And while those are largely individual pursuits, those I take the greatest pride in are the ones that involve others. There are certainly staffs I supervised that will always have a fond place in my heart, but I’m probably most proud of individual staff who have done great things long after I ceased being their supervisor. I’m also proud of the frontline housekeeping staff I supervised throughout the pandemic and their positive and caring attitudes in spite of the challenges and fear experienced day in and day out.
Bromfield: Eventually, I would like to be a university president. My next step is to move up to a director-level role. I am currently pursuing my doctorate degree, so that’s really the most important step. I have a board of directors which consists of a mix of senior-level housing officers of varying identities. When I first entered the field, I focused on developing relationships with folks who have similar identities to me. While I have maintained those relationships, my ascension in leadership has led me to expand my support team. I’ll have to shout out to “The Meeting After the Meeting” podcast, as it has offered so many perspectives to me as a mid-level manager, and I have passed those gems on to my staff.
Wall: A career aspiration of mine is to have a lasting impact on the field and, in doing so, prepare the next generation of students in a way that has often been challenging to anticipate. And I will continue to question anything that includes "because we have always done it." While there is a lot that is unknown for higher education in the coming decades, I do firmly believe there will be space for the residential campus experience in student lives. Students will continue to be different than the ones before them, and while a lot of us as practitioners will stay the same, what motivates me is to continue to challenge the status quo.
I have great mentors in the field that I often call on to talk things through. My assistant vice president and vice president are also great supporters. They are both big on innovation and recently started an innovation council in our division. I'm excited for that!
Gibson: I am at a place where I can focus more on what I would like to give back to the profession and consider where my skills and talents can be used outside of my institution. I am seeking opportunities to be more involved with ACUHO-I and mentor new professionals in the field. I have been fortunate to have people who have taken note of my strengths and have been willing to help me cultivate those in ways that have benefited me in my career, especially when I was not confident or self-assured enough to see those strengths on my own. Particular mentors include Doug Hallenbeck, K.C. Mmeje, Dawn Norris, Jennifer Jones, Aramis Watson, Lori White, and Melinda Carlson, to name a few. All of these folks were instrumental in my development as a professional and in affirming my work.
Todd: My next goal is to be a director of housing. I love the work I get to do with facilities professionals, and I have grown to have a passion for project management. I don't think I would enjoy my work too high up on the organizational ladder, because I personally feel like that takes you further away from the students and their experience. I say that to clarify that, when I reach my next goal, I will have to critically think about my future and next steps as a professional in this field. As for the list of people who are helping me reach those goals, at the risk of forgetting someone, I will just say that for any of them that may read this, you know who you are. Thank you!
Schneller: My career aspirations included taking on mid-level and eventually director-level positions in residence life and housing as well as serving in leadership positions on the regional and national level. The people who come to mind who are supporting me in reaching those goals include Lacey Kondracki, Michael Butcher, Stephanie Carter, D’Najah Thomas, Curtis Jackson, and Gene Washington.
Hicks: I desire to publish an article in ACUHO-I’s academic journal and become a senior housing officer for a department. For support, I am thankful for my board of directors! They are committed to my success, and I value their guidance, affirmations, and critical feedback. While I can’t name them all, I am thankful to Julie Leos, David Hibbler, Jr., Brenda Ice, Melinda Carlson, Ana Hernandez, and Marilyn Tyus.
Stoner: I’ve never been a fan of 10-year career plans because those are typically made with limited experience. When grad students tell me they want to be a vice president, I always think in my head, “You don’t even know if you will enjoy being a director (or the other four or more position levels in between).” Why are we seemingly trained to be perpetually unsatisfied with our current jobs? On a very individual level, someday I’d like to get back in the classroom as an instructor, write a few articles with some friends I’ve never written with, and who knows what else. I’ll tell you in 10 years!
Todd: I would have loved to work for a state or national park. I find a lot of solace and joy in nature, and it is where I go to reenergize. As for the transferable skills, the ones that come to mind are critical thinking and problem solving, time management, resource management, and social skills. You meet some very interesting people out on the trails the same way you do in the residence halls. Having the soft skills to foster conversations and manage emotions goes a long way, both with our students and with people in the wilderness.
Schneller: I would have worked on the administrative side of K-12 schools or even worked as a teacher. I believe some of the transferable skills student affairs provides include event planning, crisis management, supervision, teamwork, and marketing.
Wall: Without a doubt, college athletics. I have done a fair amount of college coaching, and I'm not sure if I would have been a full-time college coach, but I am confident that something in athletics would have been in my path. There are quite a few transferable skills such as building relationships, talking to students, developing a culture, understanding policy and procedure, communication, team building, logistics, and training.
Stoner: On the inevitable bad days, I’ll sometimes stop and think, “At least I’m not an architect.” Seriously, though, I can’t even imagine what I might be doing had I never gone into housing, but what I do know is that the list of jobs I could move into now with my transferable skills from student affairs is endless. I know a person who did campus recreation operations and is now the director of operations for a law firm. I wager that I could run a major hotel housekeeping and maintenance program based on overseeing those aspects of a summer conference program.
Does anyone else stop to estimate the volume of people they have interviewed and then hired within all their supervisory umbrellas? How many people, undergrad to full-time staff, have they built training programs for? I sure have, and based on those annual hiring cycles, I imagine I could do recruitment, training, and development in the private sector. And I got pretty good at mowing intramural fields and fixing their irrigation systems in graduate school, so I am sure I could leverage that into something.
Bromfield: I would have probably taken the hospitality route in hotels or stayed in the K-12 sector. I left housing and residence life for a year and a half to handle some family things and worked with students on the autism spectrum. I missed working in residence life, so I came back. Working in higher ed has given me skills in recruitment and development, customer service, administrative follow-up, and time management, as well as relationship building. I’m a firm believer that a résumé can get you the interview, but it’s the way you articulate your experiences that will land you the position.
Hicks: I would have applied for law school to become a lawyer. Working in student affairs provides a lot of transferable skills such as problem solving, data analysis, communication, leadership, and strategic planning. I have watched and cheered for folks who have taken the talents they developed within student affairs to impact other industries.
Gibson: I am pretty certain that I would have been a high school English teacher. In fact, my plan for retirement is to be a substitute teacher. I absolutely love everything about high school (with the exception of a few attitudes) and really enjoy that student population. I believe that my work with college students would be useful in helping students in high school transition to college. I am able to navigate conflict while demonstrating care and concern in a way that still holds young people accountable. Student affairs has given me the skills to communicate effectively with young people in ways that other people are not comfortable doing.
Gibson: It makes me sad to hear that people are leaving the field; however, I do understand that there is a lot to be said for their reasons. Those factors are real, and all too often the work that we do gets overlooked by fancier titles and the business of running a university. I know that, for some, it's a hard decision to make because the reason we are all in this profession is because we love students. It is also because we developed a relationship with someone in college who worked in student affairs and made an impression on us. So when it feels like institutions don't value the work that we do and that the compensation doesn't align with the time and effort, I understand the need to go elsewhere.
Bromfield: I want them to be happy. Do you, Boo Boo. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else but this.
Wall: This is an interesting question. All of my closest friends are people I met through working in res life. Five of these friends have left the field and pursued other career paths. To be honest, until this question was posed, I'm not sure I had thought about my reaction. Now that I have, my reaction is to be glad that people are finding their next passion. As with anything, the only constant in life is change. I've held a variety of roles within housing and residential life, so I support anyone who wants to do something different for work. I've developed several opportunities over the course of my career to help different staff gain experience in a different part of higher ed to get the next job they want. I think leaving the field altogether isn't much different.
Todd: Honestly, I support their decision. This is a field and career where you have to be bought in. When people stay around who are not bought in, it shows, and it can have a detrimental impact on our colleagues and students. This is a career field built on servant leadership; you do not always get the credit or recognition that you deserve and have earned. We have lost great professionals in the field over the years due to many reasons, and the administration at our institutions should be working to truly hear from those who are leaving as to why they are and also talk to those who are staying so that those individuals are heard and recognized.
Schneller: My first reaction is sadness. Most people who have left the field did so because they had an extremely bad experience with a supervisor or the salary was no longer sustainable. I believe that department management can make or break someone’s experience. When I think about compensation, it is nowhere close to salaries that can be found at the corporate level. In today’s world, student affairs professionals should not have to leave their job at 5 p.m. to start another job just to make ends meet. Institutions need to create better systems that consider the cost of living and merit raises that truly reward the great work of their staff rather than a standardized system across the board.
Stoner: I think Erin brings up some legitimate concerns, but I hesitate to agree with the assigned motive of “most people.” In my experience, a lot of supervisors take it personally when someone completely leaves the field, thinking maybe they failed that person in some way. Maybe they did – or maybe the field did, as Erin describes – but from a practical lens, we need to come to the realization that there isn’t enough space in organizational charts for everyone to be a housing lifer. The further up someone seeks to go, the fewer positions there are and the longer people stay in those positions. Why are we generally not proud about their decision to leave the field? I say good for them. I think we need to stop trying to beat a lifer mentality into young professionals considering getting into housing and start telling them, “You want career options? Come work in housing for three years out of college, and then you’ll be set to move into any of these other areas because of the transferable skills you will gain.”
Hicks: I am happy for folks who have prioritized their needs and found meaningful and values-congruent work. As we evolve, we need different things from our environments. I also hope that departments and institutions take notes and make structural changes to systematic issues. With so many people leaving the field, we must have critical conversations about the environmental factors causing folks to depart. A mentor once told me that student success cannot be detrimental to staff well-being. As a field, it is imperative for us to continue reimagining our work to ensure that we can support both students and staff.
Schneller: Many people who end up in student affairs were highly involved students in their undergrad experience. It can be a difficult transition to becoming a staff member, but it is a rewarding experience. We truly need people in this field who love working to create a positive experience for our students.
Bromfield: Every career has its challenges. It’s going to take a little while to make good money, and you’ll likely have to move a few times. The best part about student affairs is that there is always work to be done because students will always need to be served. If you don’t like where you are and have the ability to move, then go.
Gibson: I would tell them that this career isn't about money. It's about your desire to help students be successful in navigating their way through college and life. The rewards that come with this type of career are immeasurable, especially when there's a student who circles back to you years later to say thank you or to remind you of that one conversation that changed the course of their life. If you are in this career for the right reasons, success will find you.
Stoner: Find fulfillment in doing a good job in the mundane while improving small things. There are going to be some big projects and flashy initiatives along the way, but a vast majority of the job is the day-to-day routine. Some of the biggest and, in my admittedly biased opinion, most effective initiatives I created didn’t last much longer than I was there, which is fine because departmental, institutional, and association priorities change, leadership changes or refocuses, or who knows what else. But the skills I developed in doing those flashy things continue to compound and benefit me far longer than whatever program lasted.
Todd: You have to be in the business of people to be able to thrive in this environment. You have to have thick skin while at times being vulnerable. You have to make decisions and stand by them, even if you have to stand alone. And you have to accept that sometimes your best may not achieve what you wanted it to, but you must give your best each time.
Hicks: I encourage folks interested in student affairs to remember their “why.” Also, I believe our work happens in seasons: “There is a time to plant, and there is a time to harvest.” I am engaged and acutely attuned to the needs of my staff during peak seasons, and I am committed to practicing rest and restoration throughout all seasons. Rest can look different in each season, so I encourage folks to remain committed to discovering how you will show care and compassion to yourself.
Wall: Two things. First is to find your people. Res life is a job that has you living where you work, especially when you first start out. It is easy to think your people are your colleagues, and while sometimes they are, I believe it is critical to have people you can turn to, get advice and support from that are not a part of your day-to-day. Next is to focus on what's right now. What's next will come before you know it, and you cannot go back. Do your core job well, and get as much experience out of that job as you can. Moving up or on to the next thing is important, but not at the cost of your current role and responsibilities. Doing your core job well will expand your sphere of influence and provide new support for your ideas and creativity to shine. There is much more opportunity with influence than many often realize.
Wall: It takes a village.
Schneller: Challenging, but an amazing experience.
Bromfield: It’s about balance and boundaries.
Gibson: Challenging, fun, unpredictable, rewarding, and fulfilling.
Todd: Doing work for another’s experience!
Hicks: Impactful, ever-evolving, and transformative.
Stoner: Remember: it’s just a job.
D’Najah Thomas is director of The Placement Exchange.