ACUHO-I News Blog

Wondering what to do during your (few) free hours during the Business Operations Conference, the Living-Learning Conference, or the ACUHO-I/APPA Facilities Conference? This post is the first in a “what-to-do-in-Charlotte” series. Readers,  please add your own suggestions too!

Let’s start with the museums. Charlotte has a lot to talk about there, as the city gained three new museums in just the past year.

One is the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, where you can see works by Miro, Degas and Ernst, among others. Admire the building too, with its four-story atrium, which suffuses the building with natural light. The fourth four gallery extends far over the plaza outside, and seems to be held aloft by an oblong column rooted in the ground.

Another is the Mint Museum, so named because the building was formally the first branch of the U.S. Mint. (Its name makes me think of ice cream and mojitos, though.) Now it is home to a huge selection of artwork:  early American pieces; ancient pieces from the North American continent; American and European ceramics; costumes and accessories; Asian art; African art; maps and contemporary pieces.  In addition to its usual displays, the Mint has rotating special exhibitions as well. Are you into shoes? “The Heights of Fashion: Platform Shoes Then and Now,” will be on view while you’re in Charlotte. It seems very apros, as platforms have swung back into vogue again. (Current styles are more Louboutin than Disco Stu, though.)

The third is the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. The Hewitt Collection, containing works from prominent African-American artists who achieved international recognition and broke new ground, has a permanent home at the museum. John and Vivian Hewitt were not who you picture when the words “art collectors” come to mind. He was a writer, she a teacher, and they saved and prioritized so they could purchase art. In 1998, they pledged their collection to the Harvey B. Gantt Center. In addition, other galleries display rotating exhibits.

There are college students who find managing coursework easier than managing to bankroll food and shelter. National Public Radio did a report on a student who is in that situation. They talk to University of California-Los Angeles officials about the problem. It’s hard to identify and deal with, since students are reluctant to admit they’re in need of that kind of help, especially at places such as UCLA, where some people seem to have more money than they know what to do with. Students likely assume there isn’t anyone who can help anyway. So they quietly struggle, often dropping out. While not all students are homeless and hungry regularly, many have a hard time making their dollars last the whole term.

Have students at your institution had these issues, and what programs have been instituted to assist them? Have you found effective ways of identifying these students–or persuading them to identify themselves?

Click the picture to go to our Flickr account for the whole set. (Set aside some time for this.)

Huzzah! Our conference attendees were certainly prolific this year, and generous, offering your work to the ACUHO-I Library for all to use for professional development for years to come. Thank you! To view the presentations, go to the ACUHO-I Library (enter as a guest); then search by a presentation or presenter name. To see them all, search “2010 Annual Conference.” The conference guide is in there too.

Austin, Texas is a wonderful city with what I believe is a unique brand of “Texas Spirit.” It was a great host city for our association’s Annual Conference and Exposition. This was perhaps one of my top “ACE” experiences in my fourteen year involvement with ACUHO-I. Why? This is the answer I give in terms of why I value and enjoy my connection to ACUHO-I. It is the people of this association that make the difference.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Bertice Berry, started the conference on an amazing high note. She shared her experiences as a residence hall student and how some special people made a big difference in her time as a first-generation undergraduate. One of the reflections I had from her discussion is how some people have a purpose in our lives, a purpose we don’t often see the first moment we interact with them.

As housing professionals, we are called to be people with a purpose in our students’ lives and in the lives of each other. We are charged to impact in positive ways the lives of others: What a wonderful calling indeed! This thought remained with me over the days in Austin. I had time to reflect upon the impact that my fellow ACUHO-I members have on me, even during the short period of three days at the conference. We offered each other programs that helped expand our knowledge of our profession; we networked with fellow professionals and business partners, building stronger relationships; and we honored and thanked people in our field who have excelled.

I had my own high and lows at the conference this year as well, and some special people with a purpose in my life were there with me. My high was celebrating my 42nd birthday on Friday, June 25, by visiting and catching up with many colleagues as they arrived in Austin. My low was an unexpected conflict with someone that left me feeling a distracted. Once again, my fellow professionals were there for me. A few special people let me vent, offered me advice and direction, and purposeful moment of connection to set me in a positive direction. We don’t always know the purpose of the people in our lives but the people I interacted with that day had real purpose in my life. These fellow professionals know who they are.  I have to say to these people: Thank you.

Knowing we have purpose and our impact, while not always acknowledged, is real. This can keep us motivated and focused on what is really important. Our connections to others help motivate us to deepen our impact on the collegiate experiences of so many. Our connections are also ways to have a purpose in the lives of our fellow professionals as well.

Editor’s Note: This is Aaron Lucier’s first–but not last!–contribution to the ACUHO-I blog. Lucier is Director of Housing Operations Campus Living & Dining at East Carolina University.

Editor’s Note: Stacy Oliver has turned over her blog to the interns again. This week’s post is from Dillon Wyatt, a graduate student at Western Carolina University, who is interning at Indiana University South Bend for the summer.

Graduate students usually take an internship for the summer to experience a new place, a new institution, and to learn how things are done elsewhere. Along the way we usually learn a few things about ourselves, the area of student affairs, and how to work better/smarter/faster, gain new skills, or some combination of the above list. These are great opportunities for grad students because internships can exponentially increase our knowledge of the field.

However, those of you that supervise grad students during the academic year or who have grad students working for your department can benefit a great deal as well. When your grad comes back, be open to hearing about their internship. Ask them what they learned and if they notice how things were done differently where they were for the summer.  Think of issues you may be facing at your institution: Did your grad experience similar things over the summer? How did their host institution deal with them? Remember, your grad interacted with a whole different department of people for eight or so weeks. Ask them if they have any ideas on how to improve things at your institution or if they saw any good practices that might work at your institution.

A lot of places are experiencing budget cuts, travel freezes, or some other type of financial limitations that may have kept your department from attending professional development opportunities. Or if it didn’t affect your department perhaps it kept another department from attending an event you were at where you could have learned a thing or two from them. Your grad gaining experience at another institution is a great way for you to gain some professional development by seeing what they have learned. In the end, remember that listening to their ideas and thoughts doesn’t mean you are promising to change things but it does expose you to new ideas.

Editor’s Note: In the July+August 2010 issue of the Talking Stick magazine, we asked members to discuss how they try to harmoniously blend international and local students living in their residence halls. The conversation, however, overflowed the pages. What follows is the full, unedited text. Participating in this conversation are Rebecca Chan, director of the Student Residence Office at the City University of Hong Kong in China; Jack Gibbons,  associate director for the Office of Residential Life at the University of California, Los Angeles; Janice Robinson, director of residence life at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada; and Kristin M. Hunger, residence life coordinator for the Pollock Halls of Residence at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Rebecca Chan: City University is located in the city of Hong Kong, and we have 3,000 on-campus student residence places. We are building 700 more which will be completed in 2011-12. In the undergraduate halls, we have been accommodating all non-local students (international students, students from mainland China, and exchange students) on campus. The number of non-local students has been increasing in the past few years, and it is becoming a problem to accommodate them all. So, starting from students admitted in 2009, we only guarantee non-local students a two-year accommodation in on-campus residences; this way we can adjust students’ and parents’ expectations beforehand. Nevertheless, we are trying our very best to keep students on campus as long as we can.

We do not intend to place all non-local students in residence halls, since this might neglect the needs of local students (students from Hong Kong). We have a policy of maintaining a reasonable ratio between local and non-local students in residence halls, an arrangement that facilitates intercultural communication and learning among students; non-local students will get to know and live with local people and vice versa, which is ultimately beneficial to all. At this moment, the reasonable ratio is 50:50. So in practice, for a typical undergraduate hall of 300 students, 150 will be local students, and the other 150 will come from either mainland China or overseas.

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When I was a young(er) professional, it was role modeled for me that I should give back to my profession. My supervisor in my first professional position was serving as GLACUHO president as I entered the field. I saw other entry-level staff volunteering on committees and hosting student staff conferences. Mentors made it clear to me that identifying my talents and skills was important and, most important, was determining how I could use them to assist within my department, division, university, and professional organizations.

As I’ve grown in the field, I’ve been fortunate to have opportunities to serve that combined my skills, talent, and passion. Writing is an important piece of who I am; the opportunity to blog for ACUHO-I and several other professional blogs is an easy, fun way to contribute. I love social media; volunteering to teach people how to utilize Twitter at the conference was an engaging volunteer opportunity. Making connections and meeting new people is important to me; volunteering at registration was a good use of my time on Saturday morning.

Throughout the conference as I was thanked for things like those mentioned above, I noted that my reaction was almost always surprise. I’m surprised that people thank me for what I consider to be the opportunities given to me. I feel like I should be thanking them in turn (and often do) for what’s been given to me as a vehicle of professional and personal growth. I’m appreciative of these opportunities – they’ve helped me both expand and define who I am in our field.

I wrote last week about the 362 days a year that members of ACUHO-I aren’t at the Annual Conference and Exposition. I encouraged all of us – whether we attended ACE or not – to make the most of those 362 days and stay connected to our association. I’m taking my own challenge and intend to spend Day One demonstrating my gratitude by using time on the flight home from ACE to write thank you notes to the people who give me opportunities.

How will you spend Day One?

ACUHO-I is mentioned in this Cronk of Higher Education article about conference romances. If there’s anyone out there mourning an Annual Conference romance (or friendship, or fling), perhaps this piece will be soothing:

ACUHO-I Conference Romance Ends Abruptly

If you feel like you didn’t represent yourself well, this article may be helpful:

Blistex Executive Makes Fool of Himself at Lip-Balm Conference

This award recognizes an individual who is or is not directly related to ACUHO-I, but who has made a significant contribution to the body of research and publications related to the housing profession. Nominations may be submitted by a housing professional from a currently active ACUHO-I member institution. See a list of previous winners here.

The 2010 winner of the Research and Publication Award is Tony W. Cawthon, department chair of Leadership, Counselor Education, Human and Organizational Development at Clemson University in South Carolina. Cawthon’s teaching, research, association and administrative work make him very deserving of this award.

Prior to his faculty career, Cawthon served as a student affairs administrator at Clemson University, Mississippi State University and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, in the area of student housing. He has written and presented scholarly work on student affairs in higher education, including work on careers and professional development and administrative issues. He has contributed to ACUHO-I’s Journal of College and University Student Housing, NASPA Journal, College Student Affairs Journal and the Journal of College Orientation and Transition.

Cawthon is ACUHO-I’s current Director of Knowledge Enhancement on the Executive Board. He is a past editor of the Journal of College and University Student Housing and served as a program chair as well. Within ACPA, he serves as a Senior Scholar and was recently a reviewer on The Journal of College Student Development. He is the former editor of the College Student Affairs Journal from SACSA. He is serving  n the editorial board as a reviewer for the Journal of the Professoriate and Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice.

The Talking Stick Article of the Year award is granted based on the quality of writing; organization of the article; use of supporting documentation, where appropriate; capacity of the article to provoke thought; usability of the article to student housing programs or staff, and contribution to the student housing field. See previous winners here.

Vickie Hawkins and Kathy Bush Hobgood win the 2010 Robert P. Cook award for their Talking Stick article “Growing Season” that discussed the importance of mentorship. The article, which can be read here, states that the benefits of such a relationship are not only for the mentee: “Being a facilitative partner is not only an enormous responsibility-it is an honor. Witnessing and knowingly contributing to another housing professional’s personal and professional success is quite an accomplishment…There are many other benefits to serving as a mentor. [Adrienne] Frame enjoys the feeling of being energized, commenting that she ‘loves to see [her mentees] grow and mature, and make mistakes, as well as learn from them.’”

Hawkins is the director of university housing at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. Her thirty years at Georgia Southern started when she served as a Residence Hall Director there. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Appalachian State University. Hawkins has presented many times at ACUHO-I conferences and served on national and SEAHO committees. In 2008, she received SEAHO’s Founder’s Award.

Hobgood is the director of residential life at Clemson University. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and her master’s degree from Western Illinois University. She worked at the University of Florida and Albion College before moving to Clemson. Hobgood has been involved with ACUHO-I in many ways. She served as the Executive Board’s Publications Coordinator, was on the NHTI Host Committee, on the 2002 Annual Conference Host Committee, as the chair of the Talking Stick Committee and on the Talking Stick Advisory Board. She has also been involved in SEAHO activities, as state representative, executive board secretary and host committee member. Hobgood is SEAHO’s current historian and archivist.

This award recognizes corporate individuals who contribute to our association and our profession. Many companies have a sincere interest in ACUHO-I beyond a profit motive. They help sponsor events, contribute to the Foundation, become sustaining affiliate members, and offer valuable insights and feedback on the direction of ACUHO-I and its activities. See previous award winners here.

Jason Wills, senior vice president of American Campus Communities, is 2010′s Outstanding Corporate Friend. Wills was a resident assistant at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1993. In 1997, he joined American Campus Communities, and was promoted to senior vice president of development in the on-campus development business segment. American Campus Communities is the largest developer, owner and manager of student housing in the United States, and the first such company to go public. Wills is a regular speaker on student housing trends. Wills has served the Association on the ACUHO-I Foundation board and as founding member of the 21st Century Project.

ACUHO-I is appreciative of Wills and American Campus Communities for their contributions to the profession and the Association.

This award was created to honor the contributions of a dedicated housing professional that mentored many staff and students throughout her involvement with NACURH and ACUHO-I. Also, Judy Spain’s unique personal journey is a source of pride for all Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) individuals and their allies. The nominees should have contributed to the GLBT community through activities and interventions that promote positive growth, development, and education of GLBT individuals and their allies. See the previous winners here.

David Vaillancourt is the 2010 Judy Spain Award recipient. Vaillancourt earned his master’s degree in college student personnel at Western Illinois University, where he served as a Residence Hall Director. He was a complex director at Bowling Green University where he also advised the Resident Student Association and served as President of the Graduate Student Senate. He became Assistant Director for Residence Life at Northeastern University and finished his doctoral work there. In 1999, he moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he remains today. He has served as an adjunct professor in that institution’s higher education program with a focus on college student development. Vaillancourt is now associate director for assignments and administration. He has been involved with the campus faculty and staff GLBT network on their coordinating committee.

Vaillancourt has presented a number of times at ACUHO-I conferences, as this seems to be an acceptable outlet for the “gift of gab” that got him in trouble with the nuns in middle school. He has been actively involved with ACUHO-I for almost 15 years, and is Administration Chair for this year’s ACUHO-I Annual Conference Program Committee. He is honored to receive the Judy Spain Award, and had the pleasure of meeting its namesake several times at NACURH conferences.

I’ve sat down to write a blog post about the Annual Conference and Exposition no fewer than five times. It’s difficult to find a few minutes alone at the conference and, for me, harder to switch gears from active learning to written reflection. I’ve snagged a few minutes at the hotel coffee shop this morning before sessions start to jot some notes (in true ACUHO-I ACE fashion, as soon as I typed that sentence, my former supervisor sat down with me and started chatting).

You’ve probably heard the analogy that ACE is like a family reunion. This does not do justice to the enthusiastic, emotional reunions taking place all over the hotels and convention centers. Former classmates, staff members, supervisors all converging in one location lends itself to lots of reunions, many of them involving two or more people rushing at each other across a room to hug. Just like a family reunion, there are the loud uncles, the crazy aunts, the wound-up cousins… and you love them all for the character they bring to the event.

We all have a residence life and housing family. If we’re lucky, they have stayed in the field and are at conferences with us. They are the people who know our professional history and hold pieces of our stories. They reflect back to us how much we have grown as people and as professionals. They are invaluable to our own journey and development.

During her keynote speech, Dr. Bertice Berry said, “Everybody in this room is not your competition. They are the only people who understand what you do.”

As we grow in this profession, our families should, too. By introducing friends and colleagues to other friends and colleagues, we expand our networks and tighten our bonds. We create overlapping support systems for one another and ourselves. I smile every time I overhear someone say, “Have you met…” because I know a new connection was sparked.

It’s an incredible feeling to feel so supported by people whom I only met this week. With every story of a challenge or problem I’m facing, people are quick to offer not only suggestions, but support. Business cards are stuffed in the back of my name badge from new connections and there are notes jotted in my program book of presenters with whom to follow up.

It’s an amazing thing, this network of support we’ve created, and more amazing to see it in action in Austin this week.

This award recognizes individual(s) who have assisted ACUHO-I with dedicated service and outstanding leadership, and devoted their professional time and effort to strengthening the goals and objectives of the Association. See previous winners here.

Cindy Felice is the 2010 James C. Grimm Leadership and Service Award recipient. Felice earned her bachelor’s in history from Gettysburg College and her master’s in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University. She worked for 14 years at Syracuse University starting there as a residence hall director.

In 1997 she began as Assistant Director for Resident Life at the University of Maryland supervising an area of campus comprising 3500 students in traditional, suite and apartment style residence halls.   In 1999 she became Associate Director of Resident Life and her scope of responsibility was expanded to include, over time, 2500 additional students living in public private partnership apartment housing and most recently, off campus housing services.  She also co-chairs the Division of Student Affairs Sustainability Committee.

Felice has been a longtime member and volunteer with ACUHO-I, growing familiar with the organization by serving it in various capacities. She served on the program committee for seven years, ending as program committee chair at the 1997 Annual Conference in Minneapolis. She has been heavily involved in the National Housing Training Institute, as a faculty member and co-director. Felice has also served as the MACUHO regional trustee, chair-elect, chair, and now, past chair on the Foundation Board. During her leadership, she oversaw the restructuring of the Foundation Board.