When I was a Resident Advisor (RA) at the University of Utah, I loved all three parts of Housing and Residential Education’s (HRE) slogan, “Love life. Love college. Love living on campus.”
Living on campus helped me and my residents get more out of college and form meaningful communities. The easy access to classes was convenient and living with other students helped us make friends with a diverse group of people. Being an RA also gave me insight into a part of housing that many incoming residents are not aware of ó the unadvertised mandatory residential curriculum. Living on campus can be great, but potential residents should be aware that there are strings attached.
Curriculum is the “education” part of HRE. There are four learning goals: civic engagement, personal development, collegiate success and culture of belonging. Every event that HRE sponsors is designed with at least one of these goals in mind.
The Mardi Gras party supports personal development by teaching residents about the dangers of drinking. The Blackout event encourages civic engagement by inviting residents to think about racial justice. The curriculum extends beyond optional events, however. The curriculum binder that RAs are given at the start of the school year tells RAs when they have to talk to their residents and instructs them to rate the interaction based on how residents are meeting the learning goals. Many RAs do well in balancing genuine personal interaction with mandated curriculum conversations, but for some residents, most discussions with their RAs were mandatory “community talks.”
HRE does not advertise this curriculum. With the exception of students in Living Learning Communities, many residents in “normal” dorms don’t know that their RAs are doing more than basic community management. I found only one reference to the curriculum on HRE’s undergraduate housing webpage: “By living on campus, you will be taking part in a program that will impact your life.”
This could mean anything and it doesn’t inform potential residents that living on campus is more than just having a room close to classes. Some residents who I encountered were unhappy with what they considered to be an intrusion into their lives. They didn’t want to have to talk to an RA about their academic performance or opinions on social justice issues. Some thought that RAs were disingenuous because they had ulterior motives for conversations due to the need to report these discussions to the curriculum team.
The learning goals of civic engagement, personal development, collegiate success and creating a culture of belonging are admirable in and of themselves. Many students would likely sign up for on-campus housing knowing that the RAs are there to help them become more successful students and citizens. It is duplicitous, however, for HRE to not advertise that every resident will take part in a learning community even if they don’t mean to sign up for one. HRE should be upfront about their educational purpose and let students decide for themselves whether they want to “Love life. Love college. Love living on campus.”