Campuses are working out how best to arrange and manage their staff spaces.
by Stephen Henninger, Jillian Sturdivant, and James A. Baumann
Campus housing departments are experts in how the physical environment affects the student experience. Now, as campuses rethink workforce sustainability strategies and what work even looks like in a post-COVID world, they are also focusing attention on the office spaces that house the staff responsible for supporting these students.
It may seem, at times, as though staff setup was an afterthought, utilizing spaces that may be described as functional at best. But just as where students sleep, study, and socialize matters, so do the spaces where staff work, collaborate, and connect with students. By evaluating departmental needs, expectations for customer satisfaction, and program structure, housing departments are being more thoughtful about where staff are placed and how those physical spaces are designed and arranged.
In addition to considering the size of available staff spaces, it’s important to consider how they will be utilized. “Workplace square footage for colleges and universities is at a crossroads due to several pressure points,” says Jessica Figenholtz, a principal with Perkins&Will Architects. “There is increased scrutiny on space utilization, a desire to place high-impact program spaces at locations on campus that yield the highest and best use for student success, and the need to establish an infrastructure to promote and encourage interprofessional collaboration amongst faculty and staff. A culture that works together to increase and enhance individuals’ learning opportunities shows a university’s commitment to professional development and growth.”
As departmental leadership teams consider office spaces for campus housing, they also envision a new era of work expectations that may require balancing student needs, considering available options, accounting for technological advances, and managing limited fiscal resources.
Today's workspaces do not look, feel, or function as they did in the past. Kurt Haapala, a partner with Mahlum Architects, recalls a project that opened in 2018. The office space they designed for a housing department felt very much of its time, featuring modern amenities and strategic space alignment. Departments were organized into appropriate pods, and there was a mixture of private offices and open spaces. Looking back on it, though, he considers that “knowing this was also pre-COVID might make me think the project may not have been truly emerging in terms of the modern workspace.”
Since then, the Mahlum team has put those lessons to use. They were recently tasked by the Oregon Institute of Technology to create an engaging office layout that included at least three private offices, all within limited square footage and a tight structural grid. Their solution includes a large welcoming space containing a resident assistant service desk and drop-down study tables, a space that can be used not only as a waiting room but also for social gatherings or dining. The design includes open workspaces as well as dedicated nooks off the corridor (which provides room for copy machines and storage) and the primary conference room, a flexible multipurpose space that can host everything from staff meetings to RA projects and disciplinary hearings. Smaller spaces include a break room – which can support smaller, secondary meeting functions as well as respite space for staff, including maintenance and custodial staff – and a secondary conference room behind the reception area that can host individual Zoom meetings, ad hoc work, and one-to-one private conferences. Finally, there is a dedicated wellness room, a place for staff to meditate or pray, privately administer medication or pump breast milk, or take private, non-work calls.
Similar developments occurred across the country at the University of Cincinnati (UC), which opened its Marian Spencer residence hall in 2018; along with providing student residences and a dining hall, the new building became the central office for housing and residence life staff. Floor-to-ceiling windows allow natural light to flood in across the arrangement of work cubicles, office spaces, and conference rooms – a bright spot on a growing campus. Two years later, COVID hit.
UC residence life staff, like those on virtually all campuses, minimized the number of staff in the office during the pandemic. Trent Pinto, UC’s director of resident education and development, remembers what this was like. “The residence life leadership team all have individual offices that are used every day. During the height of COVID, we were on a slight rotation with people in the office only because the university encouraged having as few people as possible in the office. But once things returned to normal, we all came back, and we're all here every day. Our philosophy is that our students are here; we need to be here.”
Meanwhile, next door on the other side of the office the housing department added staff after the pandemic and transitioned into a hybrid work environment where workers have set remote days, though everyone is expected to be on campus on Fridays. Michelle Sujka, UC’s associate director of housing, explains that this arrangement means that the office currently isn’t prepared to leverage shared workspaces, but they have discussed the possibility “of having staff utilize the same spaces when some are on-site and others are remote.” After settling in and adapting to new ways of work, the department continues to tinker with its arrangements. Shared conference rooms have been slightly restructured and received technology upgrades. Cubicle space is also being reconfigured to ensure that staff who require privacy (for example, a human resources manager) can access it when needed.
Zach Zettler, a principal and the director of higher education for GBBN Architects and part of the UC project design team, described some of the modifications. “Generally, we are providing a little smaller desk space and pushing that square footage to other amenities like team meeting areas with soft seating, small huddle areas, or high-top meeting space. We designed different areas for quiet and contemplation versus energy and collaboration, which allows staff to choose how they want to utilize the space.”
As the demand for small meeting spaces where one or two people may sit for an online meeting grows, Zettler recognizes specific improvements that contribute to this privacy, such as improved sound insulation provided by decorative and colorful acoustic panels on the walls and acoustic materials on the ceiling. Flexibility is especially crucial for these smaller spaces. Kitchenettes, for example, can serve both as a place to eat and as an option to temporarily get away from one’s desk. Zettler acknowledges another sign of the times in the demand for attractive backdrops used during Zoom calls, a design element that has become increasingly important for senior leaders.
Flexibility of use for office space on both small and large scales is vital to a re-imagined workplace structure. Given the increasing number of options for remote work, the never-ending need to collaborate, and minimal ways to add more office space, thinking of creative ways to use existing spaces is paramount. “When thinking of flexibility and adaptability, planning should be aligned with a ‘kit-of-parts’ mindset,” Figenholtz says. “This allows for spaces to fit a variety of functions with minimal rework and change as departments grow and contract over time.”
At the University of Utah, a large public institution, staff have outgrown the physical space over the last two years as the university prepares to onboard 5,000 additional beds in the coming years. Flexibility in the utilization of space has become increasingly critical because of limited possibilities for additional office space, a physical divide between different sides of campus, and projected growth. For example, in some cases office space can be shared between remote workers; at the University of Utah, the marketing staff can easily share a single office because their remote work schedules complement one another. Other offices are being designated as drop-in spaces for staff to use between meetings or they have been transformed into spaces for collaboration or conferences.
Frances Watson Lengowski, a senior associate at VMDO Architects, notes that technology has created opportunities to make office spaces more flexible. What used to be a standard office with a desktop computer can now become a smaller workstation where different staff at different times can easily plug in and out, a practice often called hot desking or hoteling. Blurring the lines between areas that are purely for staff and purely for students enables even more flexibility, she says. “I like the idea of bringing staff more into the heart of the residence hall. We talk about that with every project. How can we provide that space that allows a big multi-use program and pair that with office space? That sort of flexible meeting space can be used by students in the day as a study space and then by staff and students at night, or vice versa.” She envisions creating spaces where full staff training workshops can break out into smaller groups for more focused advising.
At Pace University, an urban institution situated in the heart of lower Manhattan’s financial district, expanding office space is problematic because of the high population density in this part of the city. For now, the main central office for residence life and housing operations will be closed for two years for significant renovations, and the new office space has separated the two departments, making collaboration and informal meetings and conversations extremely difficult. To remedy these challenges, Pace has implemented several measures, such as setting up Zoom meetings and collaborative workstations within the main office where staff can work together at shared computer dock stations. The main office also has dedicated private office spaces for staff who interact with students, while others have been provided with private office spaces in another building. Additionally, staff are allowed to work remotely, provided that they have a conducive workspace; since all housing operation and residence life staff live on campus, a quick response time can be ensured if in-person assistance is needed.
Just as campuses rethink their physical spaces, they must also consider how their staff are arrayed. Incorporating smaller, so-called satellite offices can place staff and services closer to where students live. Figenholtz accentuates how common areas can impact engagement and a sense of belonging. “Specifically for the residential life workplace of tomorrow, the idea of modeling community and neighborhoods is imperative. Offering flexibility and choice, with common areas to gather at an appropriate scale for that department, encourages RAs, emerging staff, and students to see the benefits of work happening everywhere, and the workplace can serve as a catalyst to engage with each other and with their communities.”
This model is epitomized on campuses like Elon University, where the housing office operates out of one central office and seven smaller ones, which loosely match up with the campus’s eight student neighborhoods. “We are a hub-and-spoke model, with most processes originating in the central office and each neighborhood carrying out those processes for their area,” says Kirsten Carrier, assistant dean of campus life and director of residence life. “For example, housing operations and assignments are done centrally, but each neighborhood does its own room changes, move-out processes, damage billing, and key audits.”
The central office staff also manage all living-learning community administration and student selections, and they work with staff across all neighborhoods throughout the year for support and training. Neighborhood offices liaise with these staff and faculty, work with them to create programs, and include them in their neighborhood associations. The central office serves as the dedicated office for the Loy Center Neighborhood as well as Greek housing. The other neighborhood offices include a community director, program assistant, and a combination of faculty directors or faculty-in-residence representatives who share office space. In addition, the three neighborhood offices that serve first-year students include a graduate apprentice who provides additional support.
Flexibility of use for office space on both small and large scales is vital to a re-imagined workplace structure. Given the increasing number of options for remote work, the never-ending need to collaborate, and minimal ways to add more office space, thinking of creative ways to use existing spaces is paramount.
Carrier highlights several advantages to this structure. The newer professionals serving as community directors get additional involvement in staff supervision and benefit from a more hands-on experience with the operational aspects of campus housing. Students, in turn, receive a more personalized experience since it is easier for them to form relationships with staff and other residents. There is a widespread feeling of camaraderie and pride within the neighborhood, as the offices also serve as social areas where RAs can interact with residents. That is also true for faculty who have shared spaces in the neighborhood office and can take advantage of more in-person connections. Carrier admits that it can be a challenge to ensure consistency from neighborhood to neighborhood in terms of dictating how processes are carried out, and this can lead to differing student experiences. Also, staffing levels may feel bottom heavy since much of the staffing for operations is determined by these neighborhood offices rather than the central office, which can result in there being a secondary reporting line to housing operations, along with residence life.
The University of Hartford explored office solutions to manage a decentralized office structure. Previously, the department’s central office staff (team leaders and those in housing operations) worked in a central suite, while the resident directors operated out of their own community-based offices located close to the students and student leaders for whom they were responsible. While this setup was effective throughout the pandemic, new challenges later appeared. With six different office spaces, resources and staff were being stretched thin, and collaboration between staff was suffering. In response, this past year, the housing department expanded its central office into adjacent office space to be used for three private office spaces and a small collaboration and meeting space.
Staff offices can and should be different based on staff responsibilities. These differences can be more pronounced when housing departments find themselves overseeing a larger portfolio. For example, Haapala notes how his firm is currently working with the University of Washington on plans for a new wellness center, which includes situating a handful of staff offices among cardio machines, dance studios, meditation rooms, and weight training equipment. The care specialists who work in the center require an adjustable space that can be used for both individual and group therapy sessions. Security and privacy are essential, but the spaces also need to feel welcoming. It's a careful balancing act: They need to be functional for staff as well as accommodating for students. “In this space I see themes in the creation of open spaces that anticipate and offer a diversity of experiences, which is essentially how the office space is being considered,” says Haapala.
All of these efforts to re-imagine the use of physical space communicate value. Embracing flexibility, prioritizing both collaboration and privacy, and making thoughtful decisions about expansion, renovation, and structure allow housing departments to create work environments that support both staff and students. However, this process requires careful consideration and a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. As Figenholtz notes, “Every solution needs to be aligned with the campus culture and campus strategic goals demonstrating stewardship of finite resources while embracing holistic health and well-being.”
In the end, the goal is to create work environments that are not just functional but are also inspirational – spaces where staff feel valued and supported, where collaboration is encouraged, and where the physical environment reflects the institution’s commitment to both student success and staff well-being. By re-imagining their office spaces with intention and purpose, departments can lead the way in shaping the future of campus housing work.
James A. Baumann is the Publications Director for ACUHO-I.
