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The
Structure of Residence Life Subcommittee (Jeannine Belton, associate dean
of residence life, chair; Maura Ambuter '04, house community advisor; Rae-Anne
Butera, assistant dean of student affairs; Soda M. Lo, president of the
class
of 2005; and Tom Riddell, associate dean of the college and dean of the
first year class) was asked to evaluate questions with regard to the structure
of residence life staff (current structure is shown in Appendix
9). These
questions include:
What residence life staffing model is
most appropriate to address student needs and achieve the desired educational
outcomes associated
with the residential
life experience?
What is the most appropriate relationship
between residence life staff and elected student house leaders in order to
achieve the educational
mission
of
residence life?
Members of the subcommittee, building
on the work of the mission subcommittee, determined that the residence life
staff must support
the educational
mission of residence life in the following ways:
Provide experiences
that support students’ growth and development
as scholars, citizens, co-workers and friends.
Prompt students to challenge
their ideas and beliefs through exposure to individual, racial, cultural,
religious, moral and political differences.
Create opportunities for students
to be actively involved in the Smith community and beyond, while supporting
their need for solitude and reflection.
Assist students in managing and resolving
conflict as well as helping them learn how to live with disagreement and
ambiguity when no resolution to
disagreement
is possible.
Foster students’ acknowledgement
of their interdependence and responsibility to one another as well as
their independence.
Current Conditions
House life today operates under two parallel
systems. One is the elected student leadership of each house, in place since
1942, which
includes the
House President
and many other elected positions. The second is the system of paid residence
life staff, including student Head Residents, House Community Advisers
and House Coordinators, and professional Residence Coordinators and Area Coordinators.
The elected student leadership, under the House Presidents, is connected
to the Student Government Association since the "Head of HPs" sits
on the SGA cabinet. The paid staff reports to the Associate Dean of Residence
Life, which is an office of the Dean of Students. The parallel system has
produced
tensions and confusion over the years in terms of appropriate roles and authority.
Smith students and administration have struggled with the appropriate balance
between the desire of students to govern themselves and the college's responsibility
to administer a safe, educationally relevant housing system.
Residence Life
Surveys
Members of the subcommittee reviewed residence life related surveys conducted
in 1999 and 2000 (by the office of residential life) to obtain historical
data about students’ perceptions of the residence life staff and
house presidents. The surveys show that many students were satisfied
with the work of the residence
life staff and the house presidents. However, in each year a significant
number of students (typically hovering around 30%) expressed dissatisfaction
or no
opinion about the effectiveness of the residence life staff and/or house
presidents. Further, the survey responses about the effectiveness of
elected house leadership
and residence life staff were essentially the same, attesting to a blurring
of responsibilities and roles. This blurring of roles and responsibilities
lies at the heart of tensions between the structure of the house governance
system and residential life staff, and contributes to student dissatisfaction
with both. At issue here, for example, is leadership in the house community
vs. accountability and enforcement of policy.
Focus Group Findings
In mid-January the subcommittee conducted three focus groups with the
residence life staff. The first focus group contained the six professional
staff
(assistant director, housing coordinator and four area coordinators);
the second group
contained the 10 part-time residence coordinators staff; and the third
group contained student staff (a total of 15 head residents, house
coordinators and house community advisors). The focus groups findings include:
Concerns
about the structure and operation of the house governance system and
residence life staff and the tension between elected house leaders and residence
life staff. This tension stems from blurred roles and responsibilities
and
conflict as to who is or should be in control.
Issues about student
and professional staff recruitment and retention were identified. In part,
retention concerns arise from the structure of staff
positions.
(For example, only seniors are allowed to apply for the 17 head
resident positions, which produces a 100% turnover rate each year. Attracting
and retaining
residence
coordinators in 13 part-time positions has been difficult for the
last few years, although improvements in the salary and benefits in this past
year have
addressed this to some degree. The part-time nature of the position
is perceived to be less attractive to current staff, however.)
High staff turnover
has increased the need for training beyond the capacity of the department.
Staff at all levels express concern about the
adequacy of staff positions in terms of the ratio of student staff to students,
and professional staff to
students. There are significant differences in the size of
areas (supervised
by area coordinators) and houses (supervised by residence coordinators
or head residents), resulting in disparity in staff responsibilities for similar
positions.
The majority of staff perceived that the role
and responsibility of the residence life staff and the residence life department
as a whole, while valued, is not
well understood by students or the larger Smith community.
Other
Staff Observations
A number of individuals with responsibility for student life
offered observations of the residence life system garnered
over time. These
include class deans,
dean of students, dean of the college, student affairs staff
and others. Most have found Smith’s residential system
to be unique and cherished by students. Its 36 separate houses
have a long tradition of self-governance. The role of
professional residential life staff was developed much later
and in parallel to the “self governance” system.
Since the abandonment of the “house
mother” system in the 1970s, staff and students have
struggled with an appropriate balance between the desire
for students to govern themselves and
the college’s responsibility to administer the residential
life system.
The struggle for this balance, and the parallel
and sometimes competing staff and governance structures,
yields outcomes
that reduce the
quality of residential
life. A significant minority of resident students report
finding the houses unappealing, in that they allow a “politically
correct” student
culture to flourish, while at the same time affording inadequate
education and conversation about differences. Insufficient
attention is given to managing
the conflict that often arises from these differences.
The
transition for first year students to the house system is
particularly challenging. Student-generated programming
is in
place to help
new students learn about the perceived house culture and
tradition but
relatively
little effort has been devoted to helping students appreciate
and understand the
differences that new students bring and the changes to house
culture they might desire.
First year students—especially those who decide to
transfer to other colleges—describe an experience that
is far from the democratic ideal of respectful disagreement
and critical thought brought to bear on the problems
of individuality and community. Rather, they describe a stultifying
community where debate is discouraged and conflict avoided.
At worst, the house system
borders on operating like a sorority system. If you don’t “make
it,” you may be ostracized. The hidden effect of Smith’s
housing and dining structure, with its competing elected
house leadership and residence
life staff structure, is to create 36 intense, exclusive,
decentralized sub-communities.
The central challenge for the subcommittee
was to assess whether a different staffing structure (including roles/responsibilities,
scope
of responsibility,
compensation, etc.) could be readily identified that
would better meet the educational mission of residential life.
Given
the range,
magnitude,
and
history of concerns elicited by the research efforts,
such a model could not be identified
at this point. The subcommittee urges that a more comprehensive
assessment, one that also considers recommendations contained
elsewhere in this
report (i.e., theme-living and housing options and changes
to the lottery system)
will be necessary.
Basic Tenets:
Affirm the necessary and unique
functions of professional and student residence life staff and elected house
leaders in contributing to an educationally
purposeful
residence life environment.
Ensure that residence
life staff and elected house leaders have responsibilities and a scope of
authority consistent with their complementary
roles, training and/or academic preparation, student and institutional needs.
Ensure
that the workload of student and professional staff is fairly distributed
and expectations are appropriate.
Recommendations:
- Address the wide variations in residence life
staff responsibilities, aiming particularly
at achieving a more equitable and manageable
distribution of students/houses/staff
supervised. This will require analysis of
staff responsibilities, number and type of staff needed,
staff training and
development requirements, and the
level of resources allocated in light of
the characteristics of students and student life at Smith.
- Address the historic
tension between residence life staff and elected house leadership by
clarifying the
roles and
responsibilities of each
within the
context of the educational mission of residence
life.
- Determine the most appropriate staffing
structures for the traditional house system
and for current
and future
living options.
- Engage consultants knowledgeable
about residence life and its purpose in a residential liberal
arts college
to evaluate
the current
organizational
structure
and assist in redesign efforts. We urge
this be done immediately (summer and fall of 2003)
so that
reorganization
might
be implemented for AY
2004-05.
- Adopt into staff design and
evaluation nationally recognized best practices
to be responsive
to the unique characteristics
of Smith’s housing system
and the needs of students.
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