Interest in Canada's Student Housing Market Growing Rapidly

Only 16% of undergraduate students live in on-campus housing according to the 2011 Canadian University Survey Consortium (see Table 8). Twice that number live in rental housing off-campus. How would you describe the type of off-campus housing that undergrads live in? After my experience today at the Canadian Student Housing Symposium I can guarantee that a decade from now student housing off-campus will be described in a very different way.


The symposium was hosted by Derek Lobo and his company Rock Apartment Advisors.  In the morning we received insight into the Canadian rental market over the past half century, heard about how to finance student housing and heard from Campus Living Centres (CLC), American Campus Communities (ACC) and Domus Student Housing on management of student housing. The second half had us travel to three ACC properties at the University of Buffalo in Amherst, New York.

Student Housing has been changing over the past decade and in the next decade the change will become bigger and much more noticeable. Hot tubs, large game rooms, indoor basketball courts, model suites available year round to attract new residents, in-unit laundry, a bathroom inside each bedroom and walk-in closets are just some of the features now included. 

About 100 people attended today's symposium with the vast majority looking to or already investing in purpose built student housing properties. The days of student's renting basement apartments is about to become a thing of the past. For-profit student housing providers are learning, adjusting and offering impressive properties for reasonable rates.

How do you feel about these changes to the Canadian student housing market?



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The Animal House teachable moment

Earlier in my career I would hear references made to how living in residence was like the 1978 movie Animal House.These references faded over time until recently when I heard it again. Having never seen the movie I decided it was time I sat down and watched it. Turns out I will never get those two hours back!

Animal House was awful! Aside from being a comedy with little humour and no plot line the story has virtually no resemblance to what it is actually like to live in residence aside from the fact that accommodations were "provided" on a college campus. For instance, residence is not a frat house, alcohol consumption is greatly exaggerated (see social norms study) and accommodations are hardly a dump (see most beautiful residences).

Should you encounter someone who uses Animal House as an analogy for living in residence stop them immediately and counter them with points like these:

• “Powerful learning occurs in situations where people come to know each other as friends”  (Chickering & Reisser, p. 399). -- see Persuasion for more evidence
• Students who live on campus are more likely to persist in higher education
• You can start a company and make millions or billions

What poor analogies have you heard someone make about a student's experience or the supports in place to help students be successful?

Persuading my colleagues outside student affairs

In an increasingly interdependent world where many points of view must be weaved together for any initiative to achieve success being persuasive is an important skill. Different strategies can be used to be persuasive.   

One strategy you can use to persuade someone is to relate your point to your audience's experience. To that end, I have recently started to explain to colleagues how our lives, in general, have seen a blurring of the lines between personal and professional in an effort to convey that our students learn inside and outside the classroom. I believe that institutions who understand this phenomenon, and leverage it, can greatly enhance learning and development opportunities for students. 

Using evidence to make a point is another obvious strategy that can be used to persuade someone. When it comes to the power of living on campus I have found myself going back to the 2007 submission I made to Ryerson's Master Planning exercise where I opened with the following:

“Powerful learning occurs in situations where people come to know each other as friends”  (Chickering & Reisser, p. 399).  On a university campus these friendships can form in many places, but one of the best locations for friendships to form is in a residence hall.  Living in residence has been proven to enhance the student experience.  The following points from Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) summarize some of the key findings of research on residence living. When compared to students living off-campus, students living on-campus are:

• more likely to participate in extracurricular activities
• report more positive perceptions of the campus social climate
• tend to be more satisfied with their college experience and report more personal growth and development
• engage in more frequent interactions with peers and faculty members
• more likely to persist to graduation

What is your favourite persuasive technique? 


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Re:educating Higher Education

Are we on the precipice of major change to higher education? The internet has dramatically altered the way we listen to music, access news, read books, view movies, buy products and much more. The way we learn has, so far, remained largely unchanged while other industries have been turned upside down and inside out. 

The signs that major change is coming to those of us in higher education are all around us. Consider these developments:

• Government debt levels are so high that public funding that has been available to higher education for the past half century will diminish significantly or even end altogether
• Knowledge and information is accumulating more rapidly, requiring people to learn and develop almost constantly to remain relevant in the workforce
• For-profit education institutions are much more active in the education field - The University of Phoenix is a high profile example
• Online education has been growing more rapidly than traditional forms of education - MOOCs, such as Coursera, are the latest evolution in online education

Shrinking resources are often a catalyst for change in an organization. When growing demand, increased competition and new methods to deliver services are added to the mix, change expands beyond an organization to a whole industry. 

Ironically, we are about to learn a whole lot about the higher learning industry in the coming years. In an effort to kick start the dialogue "the Globe and Mail will introduce Re:education [tomorrow], an ongoing series that explores the legacy of Canada's university system and identifies new opportunities to thrive in the 21st century. Re:education examines several threads of our current model from the evolution of the lecture hall to digital learning and the role of the private sector in overcoming financial strains. The series has been shaped with commentary and insights from industry influencers and thought leaders from Canada and abroad." 

Check out more here: www.ourtimetolead.ca and be sure to join the discussion beginning tomorrow (Saturday, October 6).
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Networking Beyond PSE: Chambers of Commerce

To work in student affairs is to collaborate with others. Our partnerships on campus go from physical resources to faculty and everyone in between. Extending partnerships beyond our institution's borders to businesses, community groups and local leaders is not as common, or at least not done in as consistent a manner.


The Canadian Chamber of Commerce just released a report, Canada's Skills Crisis: What we heard (found here), which states one of four key priorities for the chamber is "Improving the connections between educators and employers to balance supply with demand for skilled trades and highly skilled occupations."

Countless opportunities exist for collaboration between educators and business, especially when one considers: collectively student affairs professionals have access to over 1 million students who are enrolled in post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada and the chamber represents "192,000 businesses of all sizes in all sectors of the economy and in all regions"

Getting a job is the main reasons students enrol in PSE today (CUSC, p27). Expanding our network beyond our campus community will help us better meet the most important need our student's express. Tapping into an established network, like your local chamber, will be one of the fastest and most efficient ways to do this. The Canada's Skills Crisis: What we heard report indicates we have a willing partner who can facilitate connections between us and businesses.

Lifelong learning requires Lifelong learning advisors

The best sales people stay in contact with their clients long after the initial sale. In my experience, I rarely hear from a sales person again after I buy a product or service. If I do hear from a sales person it will typically be to sell me more of the same; never to follow up on the previous sale or simply to grow our relationship.

Sadly, colleges and universities are poor at sales. A significant amount of resources are put into marketing higher education to traditional students - those coming directly from high school. An excellent example of this is the Ontario University Affairs. Marketing and sales are not the same though. Marketing makes (potential) clients aware of a product or service whereas sales secures a commitment from clients to generate revenue.  

Any good problems present good opportunities and learning is no exception. Consider that
the amount of knowledge that exists is doubling as fast as every year and future job needs are nearly impossible to predict. This situation presents an infinite number of opportunities to "sell" learning. In other words, people will need to continually be learning to keep up with new knowledge and skills required to remain relevant and effective in the employment market.

As the need to learn continues increasing in importance the opportunities to guide learners how to learn efficiently and effectively will grow. This guidance will be supplied best from someone who knows you, your background and the previous knowledge you've gained. Who better to fill this role then colleges or universities. We have the expertise, data and relationships to be lifelong learning advisors to our students. All we need is the system to bring these factors into alignment. Career centres are well positioned to leverage this opportunity. A website like Linkedin or job listing sites like Workopolis or Monster could also fulfill this need. All that's left now is to see who will capitalize on this emerging opportunity.



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Name Tags for Everyone!

Have you ever been introduced to someone only to forget their name 10 seconds later? I have on many occasions. Coming into my new role in housing at uWaterloo where I would be responsible for 100 full-time staff and 200+ student staff I'll admit I was a little concerned with how I was going to remember everyone. Fortunately a solution was already in place.

Long before I arrived one of the housing staff, I believe one of the cleaning staff, suggested all of the full-time staff should wear name tags. Obviously a simple solution. Smart too. Yet few staff in higher education have adopted name tags. The result is missed opportunities.

One obvious missed opportunity is the barrier to strike up a conversation with a colleague. Another is making higher education a little easier for our students. Staff or students who can identify (other) staff and then address them by name will be that much more comfortable and more likely to engage in conversation. For new students this can be invaluable. I've been stopped by random people - students, parents and staff - walking round the uW campus over the past couple of weeks likely in large part because I'm wearing a name tag.  While I have not always had the answer people have engaged with me at a time they needed assistance. Student affairs staff are known to be helpful and often identify strongly with qualities related to helping others. Wearing name tags will help us help others even more.

Does your boss prefer to read or listen? It is important to find out.

 

Finding out if your boss prefers to listen or read could provide a big piece of the puzzle to making your boss happy. Peter Drucker identified this dynamic many years ago.

“Peter Drucker divides bosses into “listeners” and “readers.” Some bosses like to get information in report form so they can read and study it. Others work better with information and reports presented in person so they can ask questions. As Drucker points out, the implications are obvious. If your boss is a listener, you brief him or her in person, then follow it up with a memo. If your boss is a reader, you cover important items or proposals in a memo or report, then discuss them.” -- Gerald Heralds Blog


While listening to the Manager Tools podcast series on creating a 90 day new job plan the hosts highlighted another one of their podcasts which expanded on the listener vs reader phenomenon.

At work the single most important one to one relationship you have is between you and your boss and you will be best served by adapting your approach to meet your supervisor's style. Knowing if your boss prefers to read or listen to an issue is much more likely to set you up for success, especially when new information is being presented to your supervisor.

Knowing your preference is important too. Do you prefer to read or listen to (new) information at work?



Image source: http://wishtank.org/peter-drucker-the-man-who-hated-the-word-guru/

Manager Tools 90 Day New Job Plan

If you are a manager or wish to be a manager then you should use manager-tools.com. Chad Nuttall has been a long time fan and he brought the site to my attention. Last month I decided to become a member and I'm considering a membership for the spin off Career Tools as well to gain access to additional resources, such as podcasts. 

The Career Tools resources include three podcasts dedicated to a 90 Day New Job Plan to help with someone who is onboarding into a new job. Perfect for me given that I'm in a new job. Here is a link to each podcast with a few key points I've taken from each podcast:

1. 90 Day New Job Plan - The Overview
•  The main message is "fit in, fit in, fit in." The hosts, Mike & Mark, say that the first 90 days is about creating relationships and not about getting results. Trying to get results may negatively impact your future ability to get results.
2. 90 Day New Job Plan - Relationships
•  Asking questions to get to know people is a very important skill to use early in a new job. At the start of a new job someone will be given a lot of freedom to ask questions. Areas to focus on include getting to know about people's personal lives, company history and people's strengths.
3. 90 Day New Job Plan - Bosses
•  Mike & Mark suggest that the single most important individual relationship you have at work is between you and your boss. Early in a new job is the time to get to know the names of your supervisor's peers, get this know his/her strengths and challenges, if s/he is a reader or a listener etc.

Two weeks in - Time to check-in with myself

"The beginning of a new venture is a very important time." - Plato

This concept is simple to understand but can be very difficult to act on successfully. I'm now two weeks into my new role of Director of Housing at uWaterloo and the mantra I created for myself for the first 90 days is to "Meet, Read and Observe."

Over the first two weeks I would say the bulk of my time has been spent meeting people. I have had some great conversations where I have learned a great deal. My colleagues inside the department and across campus have been very supportive and welcoming. Given that uWaterloo houses over 5,000 students, has over 100 full-time staff and around 250 part-time staff in housing and a total enrollment over more than 31,000 students relationship building will be a key component of my role.
 
If I was to critique myself I would say I need to dedicate more time to reading and observing. Staff have pulled together a number of documents for me which I have yet to review or review in any great depth. As for observing the housing marketing staff had set up a series of video shoots, inspired by Undercover Boss, which has given me a chance to introduce myself and interact with a variety of staff as they were going about their work. This approach has helped me make some early connections and reminded me of the many tasks we undertake in campus housing.

To help me organize my approach for the coming week or two I am focused on getting through an extended weekly review - which is a key concept in the GTD model. It had been weeks since I have gone through a weekly review so I was feeling a little unorganized.

If you have started a new job recently what actions, in hindsight, do you feel you would have spent more time on in your first 90 days? 


Image Source: http://nabolister.com/title/34759/cast/add

Campus housing now delivered in many ways

Up to 20 years ago campus housing was provided using one model: institution-owned-and-managed. The past two decades has seen new models being used and we can expect campus housing models to continue to diversify in the coming years.

In my my Our great-grandchildren's view of our work blog post I highlighted some of the macro factors that are now greatly influencing higher education and campus housing. The list included government debt, politics, more scrutiny of and interest in the campus housing model and emerging changes in enrollment patterns. Technology such as mobile computers and social networking are dramatically changing our society, not just higher education, so it should be included in the list of macro factors as well.

The macro factors formed the basis of a presentation I made at the OACUHO conference last month where I shared some of the themes that are emerging in the campus housing models that are available to institutions:  

• Public-private-partnerships are a viable option
• New models focus more on undergrad housing
• Models are becoming more complex – design to agreements
• Mix of models at more institutions
• On or near campus remains important
• Management of student life remains important
• Emerging model is partnering with properties that have been around for years

Would you add, subtract anything from the list or stress any particular theme as being especially important in all models? 

Here is the full presentation:

The changing student housing ...

More PowerPoint presentations from Glen

Finding the proper balance in campus food service

"Sports teams are increasingly turning to sponsorship deals with big-name food brands, rather than lower-profile offerings from standard catering companies."

Its not hard to imagine this quote reading "[Universities and colleges] are increasingly turning to sponsorship deals with big-name food brands, rather than lower-profile offerings from standard catering companies." This Toronto Star article was highlighting a new deal reached by the Toronto Blue Jays and Tim Hortons last year and being a sports fan the article caught my attention.

For years Canadian post-secondary institutions have been integrating brands like Tim Hortons into campus operations, but usually under the management of one of the big three catering companies - Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group (Chartwells).  With food being one of the most commonly used techniques to bring students together at events student affairs staff have a stake in how an institution manages food service.

Anyone who has been at a conference knows that food can make or break a participant's experience. We also know that staff and students are not shy voicing their opinions about campus food outlets especially if they are displeased.Working directly with a brand like Tim Hortons could allow food choices to be tailored more specifically to the needs of students, staff and faculty on a campus.

This past week I had an opportunity to sit down with the director of food service at uWaterloo for first time and earlier in the week I sat in on my first food service advisory committee meeting. I learned that food service is run by the university rather than through a contractor and purchases are done largely through the WatCard which can be used in a number of places off-campus using "flex dollars." Nutrition and choice were two of the prominent topics raised by students along with learning to work with food by those who live in residence but do not have a meal plan. Food plays a large role in a  student's residence experience so I'm keen to hear how food is managed at other institutions.


How is the food operation set up on your campus, what are some of the prominent issues raised and what are some of the innovations food service staff have introduced to enhance the service? 


Image source: http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=12019&p=1290

Our great-grandchildren's view of our work

In 100 years when our grandchildren and great-grandchildren describe the early 21st century what major factors will they identify as having the greatest influence on our professional world? Looking at our world through that lens will help us strip away many minor factors and day to day influences so we can focus on the big picture which can help with long-term planning.

At the OACUHO conference earlier this summer at McMaster I shared the macro factors I see having the greatest influence on higher education in the coming years and how these factors are influencing the model we have used to deliver housing to students for the past half century. My list of macro factors included the following:

• Government finances & politics, specifically debt and how it is being managed
• Greater influence of groups such as student unions and developers
• Enrollment pattern changes which broadly indicates a leveling off of enrollment nationally

In short, student affairs and higher education can expect to see less money, less students (generally) and more scrutiny. The result will no doubt be that our work will be accomplished in different ways in the future. At the ACUHO-I International Symposium pre-conference workshop earlier this summer one of our colleagues from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland shared with us that one of his residence buildings was initially built in 1680! I'm pretty confident that student affairs as a field had not yet developed 350 years ago.

What macro factors do you think our great-grandchildren will talk about when describing our work?


Image source: http://skillsfor21stcentury.wordpress.com/

Get your inbox to zero

On more than one occasion I've said "The size of my email inbox can dictate my mood." Fortunately for the past year my mood has not been dictated by my email inbox very often (other things have but that is for a different blog post ;-). A few colleagues recently mentioned to me that they had a few thousand emails sitting in their inbox. Not surprisingly it was affecting their approach to work so I thought I'd share my email management experience here.



Much of the credit for the progress I've made goes to the Getting Things Done approach developed by David Allen. (Audiobook) Given the complexities that come with working with people, which is what we do in student affairs, it is crucial that professionals improve their personal productivity skills, such as managing email. Failure to improve in this area will lead to frustration, such as having the size of your email inbox dictate your mood, and will decrease your chances of gaining more responsibilities in the future.

A key aspect of the GTD approach is "Get in to zero" which means emptying your inbox's regularly. Inbox is plural because GTD encourages you to have a number of places to capture material, paper in your office or home, a mobile inbox to capture your thoughts and ideas on the go etc. For this blog I'll focus on your email inbox. Allen says that keeping material in your inbox will feel like a psychological weight on your brain. For instance in the moments when you have gotten your inbox completely cleared out you've probably felt much better in that moment. With some commitment on your part GTD can help you to sustain that feeling every day.  

I won't describe how to get your email under control the first time as David Allen's company has done that here through a free download. You will need to set aside some time up front to clear out the few hundred (or few thousand!) emails and dedicate time each day on an ongoing basis to keep it working. It is worth it though. Some of the headings from the free download, which will give you a glimpse into the approach, include:

• Use the delete key
• File!
• Complete the less than 2-minute actions
• Organize emails that require action and follow-up

In the book Allen explains that he can get any email inbox down to zero in no more than five hours!

A few lessons learned from me over the past year include:

• Minimize the number of folders you move emails too - I have three
• Open emails once 
• Once you've read and acted on a message where needed IMMEDIATELY delete or move emails to a folder - Do NOT leave the email in your inbox

What are your email management success or horror stories?


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The Value of Campus Housing

The most popular topic to discuss further, by far, at both the Canadian Chief Housing Officer summit this past Novermber and the CAUBO student housing workshop in April was the value campus housing adds to post-secondary education.

At the CAUBO workshop Mike Porritt, McGill's ExecutiveDirector of Residences and Student Housing, did an excellent job of setting the stage to discuss the value added by campus housing by highlighting research as well as McGill data related to the residence life. With his permission here are the slides he used to kick start an hour long discussion:

More PowerPoint presentations from Glen

In broad terms Mike highlighted, on slide four, the biggest influence on retention rate shown by research comes from:

• Engagement with faculty
• Engagement with peers / residence life staff

More specifically, Mike highlighted, on slide five, that the retention rate for students at McGill is higher when they live in residence which his consistent with the broad research findings. At the most recent OACUHO conference Western University shared similar retention rate results and during my time at Ryerson we found similar retention rate results. With retention rate being one of the key performance indicators used to measure an institutions performance campus housing professionals have a prime opportunity to point these types of findings out to colleagues and decision makers.

What have you done to tell others about the value student housing adds to your institution?





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Tweet students or not?

 

"Stop marketing. Start engaging" is the tag line for Scott Stratten's Unmarketing book, blog, presentations and general philosophy. My first exposure to Scott came at the May 2011 PSEWeb conference where he as a keynote speaker. He has left quite an impression on me. Not only have I bought his book and audiobook but I track his blog through Google Reader and I have bought his audiobook for others.

While explaining his philosophy in his keynote he shared a number of tweets that people, typically students, shared about their university or college. He blocked any obvious content which would identify a particular school. One of his examples happened to be of a highly engaged student at my school where she posted a tweet about a major accomplishment. Scott was not shy in making the point that "this school" did not respond and, thus, missed an opportunity to engage this student by sending a simple congratulatory tweet.

From that moment on I have wrestled with whether I should use Twitter to only engage with my professional colleagues or to engage with students or both. Over the past few weeks I have made a concerted effort to increase my time on Twitter largely by making better use of how I use Hootsuite. In one of my feeds I track #uWaterloo tweets. Not surprisingly students will post comments and some relate specifically to residence or housing in general. On a few occasions I have decided to respond. 

In one case I surprised, and perhaps creeped out, a couple of students by sending them a tweet because I had never engaged with them before. Despite this challenge I have decided to persevere through the awkwardness that comes from "breaking the ice" so that I can continue to engage with students. One of the costs of gaining responsibilities that comes with moving up the staff hierarchy is less contact with students. I see Twitter as one way I can counteract this trade-off. 

When observing other higher education professionals on Twitter it seems that the social networking tool is largely used to engage with peers. While perfectly acceptable I am wondering how my peers feel about engaging students through Twitter.  

Do you deliberately choose to engage with your students on Twitter? If so, any tips on how to engage with students effectively?   


Image Source: http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/teaching/resources/twitter-best-practices-2012.html

Wepps' Weekly Wreads - week of July 16, 2012

First time I tried Wepps' Weekly Wreads I failed miserably. Thought I'd try again and this time I will focus the content on articles I found or shared on Twitter over the past week.

New student housing (at York University) moves one step closer

North Island College (on Vancouver Island, BC) looking into student housing

UofT signs on to startup offering online courses
"The University of Toronto is the first Canadian school to tap into the exploding interest in open online courses, signing on with a startup led by heavyweight U.S. schools such as Stanford and Princeton." 

A university degree's value is incontestable  Wepps' Fav of the Week
"So whether you measure by the rate of employment or income earned, going to university and graduating improves income and everything that accompanies higher income. Students and their parents understand this truism, which is why entrance demand for universities (and colleges) remains strong."

Study shows marketers still struggling with social media
"There’s no question marketers like Facebook and are all atwitter about other social media channels, but even as these media channels mature, measuring their ROI remains elusive for many."

Saskatchewan labour shortage 'worst in history'
"More than 80 per cent of Saskatchewan's non-union contractors believe the current labour shortage is the worst in the province's history, with nearly three out of four unable to hire a journeyperson within three months and four out of 10 unable to hire at all."

Meet, Read & Observe: 3 Primary New Job Actions

What to do when starting a job anew? Week one of my new job at uWaterloo is now complete. I have continued to ground my initial actions around three basic concepts that I first used in the interviews: Meet, Read and Observe. When describing this a little further in my conversations I've simply stated that I want to "meet as many people as I can inside and outside the department, read whatever material I can to give me a better understanding of what is happening and observe as many actions as possible so I know how things happen."

Actions related to meeting and reading are self-explanatory whereas observing could be interpreted in different ways. The most frequent example I've used to explain observing is: I would like to apply to residence. The marketing staff have also engaged me in an "Undercover boss" type video where I have been able to directly observe a variety of tasks across the department such as cleaning a washroom, working at a desk, inspecting a vacated unit, responding to email, live-chat and phone queries and updating the website. 

Onboarding is one of the major projects currently underway in the department given the turnover that happens in a large housing department, especially in the residence life roles. As one of the early staff through the program I have benefited from some of planning that happened prior to my arrival. The major benefit has been the number of meetings that were already scheduled when I started. Day one involved most of the day with my supervisor. Day two included one-on-one meeting with my direct reports. Other actions in my first week included meeting staff around campus, getting set up to be paid, getting my WatCard. I also had time to get my digital brain set up which included setting up my voicemail, Outlook, Evernote and my computer in general.

GTD will continue to serve as the foundation for organizing my work. To enhance my approach I have recently subscribed to Harvard Business Review as well as Manager-Tools. I also found this great resource (from my previous employer) at Ryerson University: A Leader's Guide to Onboarding

What have you learned about onboarding in a new job or helping others onboard into a job on your team?


Image source: http://www.icims.com/blog/post/2009/09/17/Onboarding-at-Full-Throttle.aspx

Universal Traits of a Student Affairs Professional

Image Source: http://masterfulthoughts.com/self-love-and-helping-others/

A few years ago a colleague of mine, Tanya Lewis, commented that for someone to survive in student affairs he or she must have a deep desire to care for and help people. Someone who requires too much structure in their day-to-day work environment, is not patient or leaps to solutions without fully listening could harm one's ability to help and care for others. This is not to say that these are negative traits. In the right context structure, a willingness to move forward and an ability to rapidly assess a situation are crucial to being effective. However, traits such as these can pose a problem when caring and helping are high priority responsibilities.

As my first week at uWaterloo has progressed it is apparent to me that the housing staff care a great deal and have a strong desire to help. While one could argue that as a new director the staff are making a special effort when I am around I believe the care and helping is present even in my absence. I say this because of how I see staff interact, or the systems that have been put in place, or the questions I'm being asked or the innovations staff are excited to tell me about.

In my last post I highlighted that ACUHO-I has created the foundation which outlines what campus housing professionals "need to know, need to do and need to consider to be effective in our work."  In this post I am contemplating the types of characteristics or traits that a student affairs professional should posses to be effective in our work. I agree with Tanya that a deep desire to care for and help people are needed.

What traits do you feel a student affairs professional must posses to be effective in our work?  

Strengthening the Foundation of the Campus Housing Profession

It is well known among student affairs professionals that it is difficult to describe what we do day to day in our jobs to those outside of our field. We often rely on the powerful stories students share about the impact our work has had on their experience and development. With an increasing focus on accountability and dwindling resources we need more than stories to demonstrate the importance of our work and value we add to higher education.

ACUHO-I is creating a great foundation for campus housing professionals around the world to gain a deeper understanding of our work which gives us the tools to tell others what we do and the contributions we make. Consider these developments:

• More than 25 years ago the ACUHO-I Professional Standards and Ethical Principles were launched which have been updated six times and are about to go through another review in the coming year.
• Last month the ACUHO-I Core Competencies, or body of knowledge for campus housing professionals, was published. 
• At last week's ACUHO-I annual conference and exposition it was announced that in the coming year a six volume book set titled Campus Housing Management will be completed which contains more than 50 chapters on topics that campus housing professionals manage. In excess of 80 campus housing professionals contributed content.

Together these three foundational documents outline what campus housing professionals need to know, need to do and need to consider to be effective in our work. When the information contained in these documents is combined with our students' stories it would seem that we will be in a much better position to articulate what we do and the value we add to the student's experience and development.

I Challenge Myself

Source: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/08/why-i-blog.html

For a while I have been thinking about blogging more often. Chris Brogan, one of the top influencers in social media according to Forbes, gave me a bit of a kick from behind with this recent post: A Primer for Blogging. Given that I can check off the first two points in his list I really don't have much of an excuse for not moving on point three which is: Get writing.

My partner is providing a little inspiration as well as she has recently challenged herself to write a blog post every day for a year. Check out her Green Bits blog here. The challenge I'm giving myself is to write a blog post every day for the next month. I have saved up well over a hundred ideas I can blog about and with yesterday being my first day in a new job as Director of Housing at the University of Waterloo I have a fair amount of material to work with. I encourage you to read along and share your questions and comments on my ideas. Perhaps I'll inspire someone to blog too.

Comparing International and Domestic Students

International students tend to report less satisfaction and report less learning has taken place when compared to (US) domestic students. Furthermore, international students respond in a similar fashion as visible minority students when asked to report their feelings about campus climate (at US schools). These were two points two colleagues and I made in a presentation at the NASPA 2012 conference earlier this month.

Comparing International & Domestic Students: Understanding Key Differences was a presentation that Darlena Jones, Deb Boykin and I gave at the conference. The session had four parts: overview of international students studying around the globe, then data gathered by EBI was shared, then stories were shared from an ACUHO-I study tour of China and finally Ryerson International Student Services' history book was shared. Here is the presentation:

2012 NASPA Comparing Domestic...

More PowerPoint presentations from Glen

Some of the key points to take away from the session includes:

• More students are studying abroad and more institutions from more countries are trying to attract international students. 
• International students are, typically, less satisfied and report less learning has taken place than US domestic students
• Minority and International students perceive their environments similarly
• All institutions will continue to see an increase in International student enrollment; especially from China

[Correction: For those of you who attended our session at the NASPA conference I want to correct one comment I made regarding retention rates. I indicated that the retention rate for international students at my school was higher than the general student population. I was mistaken. The reverse is true. Sorry for any misunderstanding this may have caused.]

Is it worth being linked in on LinkedIn?

You might think it would not be wise to take action that one of the top five most influential people in a field "doesn't get." I did it anyway. 

A few weeks ago Scott Stratten was invited to speak at Ryerson. Scott goes by @unmarketing on Twitter where he has nearly 120,000 followers, he has a best selling book and was recently identified as one of the top five most influential people in social media by Forbes. One comment he made in his talk was that he "didn't get" LinkedIn. It did not have have a simple and clear purpose in his mind whereas tools like Twitter or more recently Pinterest do. As a result, he felt LinkedIn will simply not be as successful and will not attract the rabid following of other tools.
 

Despite this anti-endorsement by an expert I decided my LinkedIn profile needed some attention (and had thought that for a while which won't surprise Scott). I had decided to put my name forward for staff representative of my institution's board and updating my LinkedIn profile was one way to convey my experience.
 

After less than an hour of internet searching I found a few suggestions (listed below) on how to improve my LinkedIn profile. Actions that I took which were not obvious to me before reading these tips included: making a powerful headline statement that was more than just my current job title, adding in as many specialties as well as skills and expertise to when others searching for qualified people and cleaning up the url that would direct others to my profile.
 

The basic LinkedIn stats show a significant increase in people viewing my profile over the past couple of weeks and some people outside of my network have discovered me as well. Furthermore, my profile has appeared in many more searches once the changes were made.
 

While it is too early to determine the overall effectiveness of these changes the initial feedback is encouraging. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

Sources Used:

5 Personal Branding Errors You Can Fix in 5 Minutes

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn 

HowTo LinkedIn #2: Write a killer headline

Use LinkedIn Effectively

Traveling Through Time to See the Differences in Student Housing

A student housing professional who traveled back in time 20 years would find a different set of circumstance affecting the profession. To examine the changes that have taken place the most senior Canadian student housing officers gathered in Toronto in late November. This was the first time such a gathering was held with chief housing officers from across Canada.

To set the stage at the gathering I had an opportunity to share the following points with the group:

• Student housing looks very different today than 20 years ago. Today public-private-partnerships is an established option, real estate developers are actively targeting student housing and several Canadian schools have adopted a "first year guarantee" to assist recruitment efforts.
• The campus housing model is being scrutinized. For instance, CAUBO launched a study into the student housing business model which will culminate in a two day workshop this April.
• The rise of the public sector debt paints an uncertain future for publicly funded colleges and universities. The federal debt and most provincial debts are at their highest levels ever and post-secondary education funding continues its downward trend. 
• Canada enjoys some of the highest post-secondary education participation rates in the world, but when this fact is combined with enrollment pattern fluctuations the impact will affect institutions differently across Canada. For instance, institutions in urban centres, such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, will benefit from larger populations in close proximity when it comes to enrollment but students who live nearby should have less of a demand for student housing. Conversely, institutions outside major cities may need to rely on student housing even more to help with recruitment. 
• The increasing focus on accountability has meant resource allocation and outcomes are monitored much more closely and work must be justified much more frequently. The introduction of the NSSE in the past decade demonstrates the new tools now in use to measure effectiveness in higher education. 

The changing landscape certainly presents new challenges for student housing professionals, but opportunities abound as well. Revenue generated from residence fees represent a significant revenue source at a time when traditional revenue sources are dwindling. Moreover, institution owned student housing has credibility with student and parents and there is a long history, especially in the US, of research that shows the benefits of living in a residence on-campus. It will be important for student housing professionals to work together to understand the changes taking place and leverage the opportunities that are presenting themselves now. Doing so will make for some great stories for the time traveler who visits from 20 years in the future.