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.