Drawing Connections: Academic Advising in Housing & Residence Life

Drawing Connections: Academic Advising in Housing & Residence Life

One of the most significant things we as higher education professionals can do to make the student experience more holistic is to stop dividing student affairs and academic affairs. During my tenure as a residence life professional, I have found myself time and time again, student after student, coaching the academic experience as much as I support my students’ co-curricular development. When we talk to students about balancing their coursework with the other activities they engage in on campus, we encourage them (whether intentional or otherwise) to think carefully about the trajectory of their coursework. This is significant to the way that our students experience the collegiate environment in that it determines not only how they map their courses, but also how likely they are to persist with the activities they need to engage in to complete schooling with those they want  to engage as their course loads intensify.

At Georgia Tech, for instance, students consistently think about ways they can matriculate as quickly as they prefer while managing to avoid several semesters of intensive courses. This has led me to have several conversations with students about how they can manage courses, internships, and effectively utilize summer semesters to their advantage. I know for a fact that there are others of us in residence life that do the same thing in other institutions. It can be something as simple as letting your student staff members know that it may not be in their best interest, for example, to take four writing intensive courses and research within one semester. Or that they should consider a lighter course load while preparing for the LSAT or MCAT exams. When we have these educational conversations we may focus heavily on the co-curricular, such as the ways in which their fellow engaged students may suffer due to their decisions, but at the crux of our conversations remain student academic success.

Our students leaders are just that, students. So while we encourage them to remain active across campus, we must always do so bearing in mind their course loads. Instead of continuing conversations on how the work we do as student affairs professionals are different from those in academic affairs, we would all get more done by focusing on the totality of our students experiences. This work is not ours alone, but I wholeheartedly believe residence life professionals offer a unique positionality between both entities. This is due to the intrinsic nature of the residence hall as a space where the academics and co-curricular activities meet. Living learning communities, study lounges, meeting groups, finals break, etc, all center academics within the residence halls. If students already experience these things in conjunction with one another, why do we insist on separating them?

So what does this mean for residence life professionals? It means creating tangible solutions for our students to move forward in a seamless manner. Below are three tangible ways residence life professionals can support student persistence as it relates to academic support, but the onus is not on housing professionals alone. Academic support professionals must also recognize the enormous opportunities they have by collaborating with housing professionals, as students are more likely to spend greater portions of their time, in the residence halls than anywhere else on campus.

Three tactics Residence Life professionals can employ:

1. Build Intentional Relationships: I know most res life people are going, “duh” while reading this but I do mean really get to know your students. Figuring out students who may be first generation, low income, those who come from legacy families, etc. may allow you to guide students toward resources they are not aware they’ll need. Students are under a tremendous amount of pressure in today’s fast pace higher education climate, and though a different type of pressure, so are students whose parents attended the same college before them. Making sure your students are aware of counseling, academic support, and career preparation resources on campus may be critical to preventing that big break down or quarter-life crisis.

2. Use Passive Campaigns: Most residence life departments are serious about their bulletin boards. Finding ways to meet students where they are while also getting information out can be critical. Engaging popular culture, parlance, engaging artists, or even tagging well respected students to have them speak out or become part of passive poster campaigns can have a tremendous impact on whether students seek services.  

3. Bring Advisors to the Halls: Creating space where students can interact with academic professionals, be they TA’s, advisors, coaches, or professors is critical to student success. Though many students can and will do it alone, carving out space for students interact with the professionals critical to their success a few feet from where they sleep can make all the difference. Just think about those students who are working multiple jobs to afford their campus experience, students who are overloaded on classes, etc.

Many campuses are already doing the work to better merge academics and residence life through residential learning communities, built in academic advising office space, etc. For those institutions where this process is not practiced as heavily, the three tactics above may be helpful in student academic persistence, retention, and success.  

Brittany M. Williams

Georgia Institute of Technology

@Ms_BMWilliams