Customer Service

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others." - Lewis Carroll

     Today's post will be short, as I am currently busy serving paying customers. It may seem callous, but one thing that we have to consider when helping students and their parents/guardians is that they are paying to be here. Their attendance at the university, their presence in the residence halls, their involvement in certain programs - all of these earn the university money. It's the cold, hard truth (and cash - the phrase works both ways).

     Because of that truth, we have to do our best during opening to show residents what they are paying for in the halls. I wrote a letter to parents and guardians introducing myself and Residence Life's mission to them, and this letter is available to anyone who would like one when they move-in. I make sure that we have at least two people outside to greet people as soon as they pull up to the curb in front of the hall. I also have information about Hall Council right there for them to pick-up, learning how to become involved on campus right away. And, most importantly, I have myself and the RAs I supervise right there, all with smiling, excited faces. That is the customer service that students and their family and friends experience from the start.

     My staff and I have also learned that going the extra mile can pay off. For example, yesterday there was a resident and his parents who arrived early, wanting to look at the room he would be moving into today. I almost declined the request, but when I realized that the room they wanted to see was on a at-the-time vacant floor, and his father would not be able to see him move-in today, I agreed to bring them up and show them the room. It definitely paid-off, as the parents were profusely thankful, and they were able to get a few pictures of the resident in front of his door and with his father in the building as well. It was not only nice to see that moment, but also great to know that the parents had a positive first experience with Residence Life. Because of that moment, they may be more likely to sign the resident up for housing on campus next year, giving us another resident to help along in their development, and Housing another paying customer.

Quote Citation: Carroll, L. (n.d.). Goodreads.com. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/47608-one-of-the-deep-secrets-of-life-is-that-all.

Photo By: Me (some little creature that I met on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa =] )

Professional Attire in the Housing Profession

     "Dress how you want to be addressed." - Bianca Frazier

     It's Tie Tuesday! And in honor of this sacred, weekly holiday for about a dozen of us in Housing on campus, I have decided to ruminate (or at least comment - do not usually get the chance to have the word "ruminate" come to mind, though) on what I wear to work each day as a Hall Director.

     The standard outfit here is a polo and khaki pants, or a nice blouse with a skirt or pants. I have two pairs of khakis, and they are each worn at least twice a week. I rotate through my polo shirts, wearing one every day, except for Tie Tuesday, of course! I try to wear school colors using my polos when I can, showing my school spirit. On Fridays, we are allowed to wear jeans, although it is honestly a little hot in August to walk around in jeans, so sometimes I stick to the lighter khaki material. Casual Friday is fun, but sweating on a two-minute walk to the Union is not.

     As far as I can see, not wearing a suit and tie - or at least a shirt and tie - is somewhat of a trend for educators who constantly and consistently interact with students. When I was a substitute teacher in high schools, I started out wearing a shirt and tie every day. I would usually try to match the colors of the school at which I was subbing, because in my mind the students appreciated that (some of them probably did not even notice my name on the board, but oh well). However, I began noticing that I was one of maybe a dozen teachers dressed as formally. The principals and other administrators wore business casual, but most were in polo shirts or a nice skirt and blouse. So I eventually switched to wearing a polo shirt and slacks every day.

     When it came to shopping for some nicer clothing for my new position, my father told me to just invest in khakis and polo shirts, and he was correct in making that suggestion. It sums up what I always saw housing officers wear as a student. I have yet to do any research on the topic, but if I were to guess, both the housing officers and the high school teachers dress this way to connect better with students. If I were to sit in my office - in a residence hall - in a suit and tie each day, I think students would not find me as approachable (no matter how often they listen to Justin Timberlake). I would probably come off as stuck up in conduct hearings, and I myself would not be as relaxed or comfortable when having to respond to a crisis. So I currently believe that less formality is more when it comes to being a housing officer working in the residence halls.

     There is still something nice about Tie Tuesday, though. It enables me to wear the ties I own, and in school colors if possible. Also, people notice when I wear the tie, because it is not an everyday thing - points for self-esteem! And, even with all of the fun we have working in Student Affairs (I did a lot of crafting yesterday with residents, for example), I think it is a subtle reminder that this is a true profession, just with its own form of professional attire.

Quote Citation: Frazier, B. (n.d.). Goodreads.com. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/759451-dress-how-you-want-to-be-addressed.

Photo By: Me - yes, penguins are always dressed formally :)

First Interactions with Parents

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

     Yesterday, I discussed with a father the type of locks he should purchase for his daughter's bike. This morning, I keyed into an empty room to measure (with a ruler) the height of a bed for a mother purchasing a cabinet for her son. I expect these are only a glimpse of the interactions I will have with parents this year working in a residence hall, but I do not have an issue with them whatsoever.

     As a Resident Assistant, I was told simply, "You do not have to deal with parents or guardians," "That is not expected of you," or even, "You do not get paid enough." The same is true at my current institution - I basically tell the RAs I supervise to send parents' calls and concerns my way. Whether it is customer service (a post on this is in the works), concerns with FERPA, or simply age, there are multiple reasons that a department of Residence Life would rather a Hall Director interact with parents, and so that role is put on my desk.

     How do I approach said role? By applying my training, of course. We had a wonderful session discussing possible situations that could arise with parents, but the main idea I took away was "serve with a reassuring smile." That is exactly what I have done and will do: smile, use a reassuring tone, and serve as much as time and policy allow. It is most important to remember  - or at least tell yourself - that they are only concerned for their students' comfort, safety, and education. Parents are our partners in our goal for providing the best educational experience possible. They will often also give us more insight into our students' lives and development. And yes, in many cases they also help pay the resident's rent and the student's tuition. Just another connection to campus.

Quote Citation: Franklin, B. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/benjaminfr141119.html.

Photo By: Me 

Time Management

"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is everything." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

     As you may have noticed, there have not been posts here the past two days. As you will soon notice, today's is shorter than others. I can promise you that this will not become a pattern, but I cannot promise that it will never happen again. In other words, I plan to write a post every business day, but have certain items that jump onto my to-do list that I need to prioritize before reflection and subsequent writing.

     Part of this plays into my new favorite way of thinking about time management. While sitting in RA Training the other day I had the pleasure of attending a session on the topic led by my colleagues Dan and Alex. They presented on three different time management theories: Eisenhower's Matrix, Maslow's Hierarchy, and Analysis Paralysis. I will discuss Eisenhower's model here, as it spoke the most to me and my time management - the latter two you find out all that you would care to on a simple Google search. The basic model, attributed to US President Eisenhower and Dr. Stephen Covey (1994) takes two facets of one's tasks - urgency and importance - and places the tasks on a grid based on the relative values of those two facets. One axis is labelled importance, the other urgency. This created four quadrants: tasks high in importance and high in urgency, tasks high in importance but low in urgency, those high in urgency but low in importance, and those low in both urgency and importance. 

     Two days ago, this is how my matrix looked:

     As you can see, "Blog" fell into the bottom-left quadrant, so when it came to the time I would normally work on this post, I instead attacked the items in the top-right. As time moved-on, though, some of those top-left items shifted to the right, becoming more urgent. For example, Opening is now in only two days! Priorities can change as well making some of those less important yet urgent items more important, such as when I realized the RA Social was only two hours away and Pandora was playing some non-inclusive music. Also, classes will become much more important for me next week, but right now I am focusing on my work.

     What do you think? I had never seen this prioritization technique before, but now I am using it almost every day! I wish I could move the blog, but right now I feel that there is simply not enough room in those two top quadrants. Maybe once opening passes!

Citation: MindTools.com. (2013). "The Urgent/Important Matrix." Retrieved from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm .

Quote Citation: Qtd. in Nixon, R. (1962). Six crises. New York: Doubleday.

Photo By: Me

Supervising Student Staff (Part 1)

“Not all those that wander are lost." – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

     The reason I entitled this post "Part 1" is because I expect to comment on this facet of my position multiple times, and will hopefully in the future as well. And I say "hopefully" because I already genuinely enjoy supervising student staff members. Sure, you can check back in once they begin classes and extracurriculars and turn 21, but I expect that part not to change. Disclaimer: the RAs I supervise are amazing, understand the importance and influence of their position, and put-up with my being new to campus, my position, and supervising every day and thus must be angels.

     An expectation I set for the RAs in my building this year reads: "Be professional, and work towards skills according to the RA Competencies." Reflecting on this item, we discussed how the RA position is a paraprofessional position, and consequently they should treat it like one, taking their RA agreements and my position as their supervisor as seriously as they would any other position. They all of course nodded their heads in unison, saying "Of course, why wouldn't we?" and the like. But they probably did not grasp this item fully.

     As a colleague and I discussed this idea last night, he was actually the one to point out the difficulty for student staff's grasping true professionalism in their position. His comment opened my eyes, and much more than I expected too when I reflected this morning. His comment was on fairness - why do we expect our student staff to grasp true professionalism - at the same level we do, for the record - when they are in fact working amongst other students, developing as students and not professionals? 

     My quintessential example is scheduling RA duty for Spring Break. It never fails - there are RAs who have already made plans, have made hypothetical plans, or are planning to make plans. And then some of us as supervisors become frustrated, because their contracts clearly cover Spring Break and so they should plan to be present. Reflecting on this shifted my mindset slightly, though. Spring Break is sometimes a huge part of the college experience. Some students go on service trips, instilling a sense of serving others in them. Others go on road trips or beach trips, assisting in the development of interpersonal competencies and also plenty of personal care and responsibilities. And yet we still become frustrated when RAs want to have these experiences. Is this contradictory? I still do not believe so, but it forces me to be more understanding.

     An additional thought I have had on this topic is professional development. Some of those RA competencies are professional skills, which include knowing how to appropriately prioritize and recognizing the importance of certain tasks. Why I expected the RAs I supervise to be full-fledged professionals upon stepping into the hall is now beyond me - I'd much rather that they develop professionally, growing throughout the year. This falls into our goals of student development and supervising student staff.

Quote Citation: Tolkein, J. R. R. (1954). The fellowship of the ring. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Photo By: Me

Intentional Talks towards Academic Success

“You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them.” - L. Frank Baum, Ozma of Oz

      While the above quote may seem an interesting start for a blog post about practicing and studying higher education, I remain a realist (as I told the RAs I supervise today). Baum is correct in that many college students do not like to work, yet still have an amazing experience. Divisions of Student Affairs across the country provide students with plenty activities to participate in outside of the classroom and assist with the procrastination from reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, I am also happy to say that there is also much those Divisions do to steer them back towards the studies.

     I surprised myself today with how strongly I felt about that function of my Department - that of assisting students in achieving academic success. I was reviewing our department's programming areas with the RAs I supervise, allowing them to come up with their own answers of the "why" for each of the areas (thank you to my colleague Lexi for that idea!), and then providing my own supplemental discussion of the "why." I found that the longest, most passionate, and best articulated supplement I gave in the area of academic success - not leadership development, social justice, or even community building, as I had expected.

     Part of this may be due to coming from a very academically-focused institution, or possibly even my background working in an office advising on applications for scholarships. On the other hand, though, I do see it as an essential part of Residence Life to help facilitate what is often the primary reason our residents are in school: to learn. And no matter how well-prepared they are or believe themselves to be, there is still so, so much that RAs can do to better prepare them, and most of this is through intentional conversations. Here are some essential topics of such intentional talks:

1. The main differences between high school and college academics.
2. How to read a syllabus and plan accordingly.
3. How to approach a professor for help and best utilize office hours.
4. How to best manage your time to make sure that you sleep rather than study at night.
5. Why you should study / read even though there is not an assignment or paper due.
6. What resources on campus are available for tutoring and/or help writing papers.
7. What are the best ways to get into class that may be full (may not apply to all campuses).
8. How to plan your course-load so that you graduate on time.
9. How to pick a major or minor to help you towards your professional goals.
10. How to constructively manage academic stress.

     The points above are not comprehensive, but you hopefully agree that they are important points for students to consider during their college years - the earlier the better - and having a decent conversations around them could better prepare them to tackle their studies. They do not have to enjoy the work, but they have to complete it in order to learn and graduate, and ideally these conversations will help them do so and make college an even more "excellent place" for them.

Quote Citation: Baum, L. F. (1907) Ozma of Oz. Chicago: Reilly & Britton.

Photo By: Me

New Staff, New Impressions

“I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong. You can look at a painting for the first time, for example, and not like it at all, but after looking at it a little longer you may find it very pleasing. The first time you try Gorgonzola cheese you may find it too strong, but when you are older you may want to eat nothing but Gorgonzola cheese. Klaus, when Sunny was born, did not like her at all, but by the time she was six weeks old the two of them were thick as thieves. Your initial opinion on just about anything may change over time.” - Lemony Snicket (1999)

     Today I met my first supervisees! It was nerve-wracking at first, as I was trying very hard - possibly too hard - to make a good first impression. Not as a person, but as a supervisor. I like to think (probably too confidently) that I make a decent first impression with peers and supervisors, but this was entirely different. Do I set a strict tone from the start? Do I attempt to relate to them? Do I try to be super-energetic to get them motivated, or is that not cool? All of these and more ran through my head as I walked to that meeting.

     In the end, I went for an honest, realistic, trusting, but no-nonsense approach, which is one that I have appreciated the most from supervisors. I prefer when a supervisor trusts me to complete the tasks expected of me and at the same time is realistic in their expectations. Furthermore, I prefer a supervisor to be as open and honest with me as possible about my tasks and position. And since I want this from a supervisor, I want the staff I supervise to see these traits in me.

     Did I put this across on the first day? Did I need to? I do believe I was open with them, and I did "get down to business" as soon as we started. Plus I believe I made it clear that I trusted them to be professional enough to be at places on time on their own. I don't know for certain, but it is only day two now. Will their perceptions of this day change, though?

     Which brings me to Mr. Snicket's quote, from the first book of his Series of Unfortunate Events, The Bad Beginning.  I have been trying to think back to my first impressions of my previous supervisors, of which there have been many, to think if my impressions of them changed over time. I believe it has varied according to supervisor, to be honest. For some my perception changed, and for others it did not. Of course I call to question whether or not my current perception on the "consistent" ones has simply overridden any previous impressions, but that is a psychological discussion for a later date.

      I believe consistency is the most important factor, when you truly analyze impressions of supervisors. While I may want the staff I supervise to have one impression or another, I would not want it to change because I changed. Rather, I would want it to change because they rethought my style or sought to understand my expectations in a different light. And if it stays the same, then my first impression came across the way I desired, and I remained consistent throughout the year. More new staff to come tomorrow, so wish me luck on more new impressions!

Quote Citation: Snicket, L. (1999) The Bad Beginning. New York: HarperCollins.

Photo By: Me (I imagine this penguin being shy about meeting new staff members...)