Questions by Jason Lynch
For many reasons, ranging from academic pressure to losses related to the pandemic, today’s college and university students require increased mental health care and services. For staff in residence life, this may mean responding more frequently to incidents, providing education and training, offering support services, and most everything in between. Much of this responsibility has fallen to campus housing staff, but, on more and more campuses, help is on the way in the form of additional staff focused on student well-being.
Sharing insights into what’s being done on their campuses are Kelsey Reynolds, assistant director of residential life at the University of Houston; Allan Blattner, executive director of housing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Mandi Bloodworth, a case manager for The University of Mississippi.
Describe what roles you have been able to add to help support residential students’ well-being. Are these positions full time, or are the responsibilities in addition to other duties?
Allan Blattner: Over the past few years, the university has taken a comprehensive look at well-being services, including hosting a campus-wide Mental Health Summit to seek feedback and encourage discussion. As a result, we became a JED Campus, launched the Heels Care Network website at care.unc.edu, and added some positions in counseling and other strategic areas.
The Carolina Housing department added a new position – a full-time, master’s-level coordinator of conduct and care – to help reduce the volume of cases our live-in staff usually has to manage. In addition, we are in the second year of a pilot program, after adding two Masters of Social Work interns as wellness coaches to work directly with our residential students. Additional information about this program was included in the Inside Higher Ed story about the program.
Kelsey Reynolds: In the fall of 2023, the Student Housing & Residential Life Department at the University of Houston added a student support and well-being team comprising myself as the assistant director and four residential life Coordinators for Student Support & Wellbeing, also known as SSWs (because we know higher ed loves their acronyms). They are responsible for meeting with residents of concern who have been identified by the university CARE Team or connecting with residents who have utilized our bookings link to set up a time to meet with one of the coordinators. This support staff also implement proactive programming based on the nine dimensions of wellness. This team focuses solely on the residents and student staff team when concerns arise, which allows the residential life coordinators (RLCs) to focus on building and facilities concerns to ensure that our ethic of care is delivered across all residential halls. The hope is that this team will take some of the metaphorical weight off the RLCs’ shoulders. Having a dedicated team to support residents of concern is vital not only for the residents but also to building staff who interact with them every day.
Mandi Bloodworth: Student housing at The University of Mississippi added a housing-based case manager in early 2019. This has been a full-time role dedicated to providing both case management for residential students and support and wellness education for resident assistants (RAs). The RA support piece plays a unique role in not only providing much deserved care for our student staff, but also equipping them to serve as a resource for their residents. Beginning in the fall of 2023, we added a graduate assistant, who works 25 hours per week alongside the full-time case manager to expand capacity for support services.
What role does interdepartmental collaboration play in the effectiveness of your residential well-being initiatives?
Bloodworth: UM’s full-time case manager for student housing is a dual role with reporting lines to the UMatter: Student Support & Advocacy office (i.e., case management office) and student housing. This collaboration has been invaluable, as it allows the case manager access to appropriate supervision in terms of case management, as well as to students of concern identified by UMatter staff, while also allowing access to student housing systems, knowledge, and staff. This access streamlines case management and support for residential students and places the case manager in a position to advocate for policies and practices in supporting wellness for residential students.
Blattner: Campus partnerships have always played a vital role in our well-being initiatives. Historically, our most direct links have been with Counseling and Psychological Services, UNC Police, and the Dean of Students Office. As the result of the many campus-wide conversations about mental health and well-being, we have more intentional and substantial relationships within a much wider network. In these conversations, Carolina Housing has also been recognized as a key partner in our campus response strategy.
Reynolds: Interdepartmental collaboration is imperative for the work done by the Student Support & Wellbeing team. As the assistant director, it is my job to build strong connections with other departments so we can collaborate more effectively. We are actively trying to improve the residential experience with our Campus Recreation and Wellness Department and actively work with the dean of students’ Student Outreach and Support Services team to collaborate on cases where there is overlap.
As residence life evolves to better meet the needs of students, what do you believe is a reasonable expectation of residential life professionals in supporting student well-being?
Bloodworth: At the least, I believe it is reasonable to expect that residence life professionals are collaborating with campus partners in the mental health and wellness areas to provide programming for residents and training for all levels of RA staff. These trainings should happen in addition to intentional professional development such as conferences and webinars focused on student well-being.
Recognizing staffing and budget constraints, it may not be reasonable for all residence life units, but I do believe it is a reasonable expectation for some to dedicate a staff person to student and RA well-being. I am biased because I’ve been this staff person, but I believe it’s an investment that will ease the burden on the team as a whole.
Reynolds: I want to echo Mandi’s statements regarding this question. I believe that training about mental health and on-campus resources that support mental health concerns and address the nine dimensions of wellness are vital. Having a team dedicated to providing residents with opportunities to discuss their concerns, describe how they’re currently navigating the problematic situation, and recognizing the coping tools they currently have in their toolbox is fundamental to student success – though staffing and budget constraints are certainly factors that may impact a university’s ability to have a staff member or team like this.
Blattner: I feel that our residential education team has always played a vital role in the university’s response to students in crisis – and always should. That said, the needs and demands of students have increased, so the expectations of frontline staff (live-in professionals and student staff) and those that support them have become an issue that needs to be addressed. An increased caseload or the increasing complexity of these cases have many housing departments and universities searching for ways to reset expectations to a more realistic level. We’ve added a coordinator of conduct and care position, restructured the professional staff on-call schedule, and initiated a wellness coaching program in an effort to rebalance expectations.
What is one program or initiative that you have implemented that was particularly successful? How might this program or initiative be translated to other campus contexts?
Bloodworth: The case manager’s meaningful working relationships with RAs have been fruitful in a variety of ways. The case manager has established these relationships through networking at monthly RA wellness events and attending RA staff meetings on occasion. As a result, RAs know the case manager and can connect residential students to them when they need support. Furthermore, RAs and other residence life staff have invited the case manager into the residence hall for programs, which allows the case manager to connect with a variety of residents.
These efforts can be applied in other campus contexts even without a residence life staff person dedicated to student well-being. Identifying a case manager, counselor, or other wellness-focused campus partner who is willing to be available in the halls after hours is an effective first step, and outreach efforts can include inviting this person to a staff meeting or lunch to network and to brainstorm opportunities for increasing support for residential students.
Blattner: Both of our initiatives are too new to be called successful, but early indicators are that they are helping and will continue to do so. Specifically, the wellness coaching program has all the ingredients to be successful. It should continue to serve students who aren’t necessarily looking for (or needing) therapeutic support but who are seeking individualized support in areas like relationship building, motivation, confidence, and stress management. Over time, we will evaluate based on the criteria below.
Reynolds: One program or initiative that we have started is a peer mentor program in partnership with Mentor Collective. This initiative is still new, and we are working towards gathering more data to see if residents have an increased sense of social connection, along with a sense of belonging, that can contribute to increased retention and matriculation.
What metrics are you using to assess the performance of these efforts?
Reynolds: As the Student Support and Wellbeing team is still new, we are developing assessment forms for our programming initiatives and feedback surveys for residents to complete after meeting with one of the residential life coordinators. The goal for the feedback is to ensure that residents feel supported in their time of need, have been provided the resources appropriate to their situation, and were assisted in developing coping skills and strategies for their current situation.
Blattner: For the wellness coaches, we have implemented self-reported pre- and post-assessment to understand the level of satisfaction each resident had in their interactions with their wellness coach and to track what skills or strategies they have gained in addressing the stressor that motivated them to seek out wellness coaching in the first place. We also track participation numbers. For the conduct and care coordinator position, we looked at the overall caseload of staff, with the hopes that this newly created position helps reduce the volume of cases managed by our live-in staff.
Bloodworth: Through the years, the case manager has used RA surveys and focus groups to assess the RA wellness initiatives. Assessment has consistently shown that the case manager role contributes a great deal to RAs’ stress management and overall feeling of support in their role.
Jason Lynch is an assistant professor of higher education at Appalachian State University. He also helped develop the recent ACUHO-I Behavioral Health and Well-Being Institute.