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FEB 2013

#OACUHO360

> CAMPUS/COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS - 2

> ALUMNI CORNER - 6

The Campus/

Community

Partnership Issue

> OACUHO SPRING CONFERENCE - 4

President’s Message Greetings OACUHO! This month’s edition of the Pulse focuses on the campus and community partnerships essential to our work in housing. Partnerships are crucial to our work. On campus ex-perts provide support to our work in critical functional areas such as facilities and admissions. Com-munity partners provide broader learning opportunities for our students and at times even our own development as student housing officers. In my 2nd year as a housing professional, I participated in a service learning trip over reading week called Project Serve Canada at the University of Calgary. 15 University of Guelph students joined 15 University of Calgary students to learn about urban poverty, access to higher education and aboriginal issues. The project combined volunteering in the community with critical reflection, lec-tures from expert faculty researching the topic, and community building including billeting with stu-dents living in residence. Two student affairs professionals at University of Calgary named Alyson Woloshyn and Camille McFarlane were responsible for planning our project. The consummate professionals, Alyson and Camille were expert organizers making the project run seamlessly. They took the time to ask me questions about my own development, helped me learn new facilitation techniques, and modeled what it meant to be an engaging, passionate, and committed Student Affairs professional.

Prior to departure I knew I would help to support our students’ experience during our trip. I also hoped to develop professional skills in group dynamics and facilitation. In fact, I gained 2 professional colleagues whose conversations helped me realize that a career in Student Affairs and education was for me. As a bonus I gained a professional curiosity in understanding how service learning pedagogy helped support student learning and development. This short project set the stage for my choosing to explore service learning and teacher education as my Masters thesis topic. I often thought of Alyson and Camille as I completed my research and the great impact they had made in my life. Though our time together was short, the effects were lasting. In May 2012, I was saddened to hear of Alyson’s passing after a dignified battle with cancer. The first thing I thought of was the important impact Alyson had made on my career. Her role as a community partner in my work as a housing professional was criti-cal to furthering my path in student affairs. As we consider the important nature of our partnerships, let us remember to always give thanks for those who help support our work. This month I say thanks to both Camille and Alyson for their lasting contributions to my success.

Wishing you all the best as always,

Jen Gonzales

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NIAGARA COLLEGE

Niagara is getting involved in the Open House this year as well as remedying our tour situations for the remain-der of the year:

Niagara Residence and the Niagara College Recruitment office have teamed up together to create a tour pro-gram that will welcome interested students from all of the world to tour our Residence and Campuses. I, Sheena the Residence Life Coordinator, and Carly, the Recruitment Coordinator, have worked closely to form a schedule of events for the Open House happening on March 23rd, 2013 from 10am till 4pm. These include a Services Fair, a pancake breakfast, a scavenger hunt, a quiz with a cash prize for the winner as well as tea and coffee throughout the day for visiting groups to enjoy. Visitors are encouraged to experience Residence Life through events, student/staff interactions and of course a tour of the building and suite. Visitors will then have the opportunity to apply to the Residence Lottery in the privacy of a secure Computer lab on Campus to secure their place in Residence. After a Residence Tour, visitors are brought through the Institution and are invited to join in on a welcome session held by department chairs. It’s going to be a day filled with excitement and inspi-ration for new and returning students! I am excited to work collaboratively with the College on such an exciting project that will welcome students to Niagara College for the 2013-2014 Academic Year.

Sheena Erhardt Residence Life Coordinator

Campus/Community

Partnerships

In this issue, we look at relationships and partnerships with departments on our campuses and the greater

community where our campuses reside

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TRENT UNIVERSITY

Trent University's Housing Services and Health Services work closely together to provide for the adjusting needs of students. Health Services tracks what specific trends they see occurring within the Trent student population throughout the year and provide awareness campaigns and programming in response to these trends.

Once a month, Health Services attends a Housing Services meeting and presents on the new campaign for that month. They provide packages of posters and education materials for each of our Residence Life Student Staff to use within their residence communities. Each package is based on a theme and are meant to be both engaging and educational. The goal is to use Housing's front-line student leaders to promote important initiatives. Topics have ranged from Sexual Awareness (safe-sex, STIs education) to Alcohol Awareness (financial costs, academic performance) to Mental Health (counselling services, self-care). Health Services does an amazing job of tracking what students needs are at any given time of the year and really help Housing Services by providing ready made (and full of chocolate!) packages. Not to mention our student staff appreciate new educational bulletin board material at the beginning of every month!

Vladimir Smiljanic College Residence Life Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA

I would like to tell you about a great organization that we have been in partnership with for several years. The Canadian Centre For Diversity is a national educational charity whose mission is to “inform and educate Canadian society about the value of diversity, difference and inclusion.” What I like best about working with the Canadian Centre For Diversity is the skills training our students receive. Not only do our students learn about diversity, but also learn to lead activities and conversations to promote learning in others. We accomplish this through participation in the Teaching Peers to Lead workshops. After completing the training, students are invited to co-facilitate workshops for youths at the Peer Leaders Forum, an annual con-ference for high school students to share and discuss ideas and issues related to diversity. This provides an opportunity for our students to practice their newly acquired skills, all the while promoting and role modeling the value of diversity, difference, and in-clusion to Canadian youth. Through partnership with the Canadian Centre For Diversity, our students gain valuable skills useful in their residence communities, and feel confident knowing they contribute to the learning of future generations. Learn about the pro-grams, and hear what students have to say by going to the Canadian Centre For Diversity’s website.

Greg Hum Coordinator of Residential Transition Programs

RYERSON UNIVERSITY

Ryerson decided to partner with Places4Students.com for a number of reasons. Our pre-existing off-campus listing website was dated and was not able to provide the functions and service they were looking for. Many students had stopped using our site and were relying on other websites such as craigslist or viewit.ca.

Places4Students.com’s website offers great features that we believed our students would benefit from; such as photo uploading capability, Google maps to identify the exact address and surrounding area and a team of staff to answers questions from landlords and students a-like. They are always adding new features and constant updates which helped provide us the time to focus on sup-porting the students through programming on finding their first apartment, and educating them on the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

Places4students completes target demographic marketing and additional programming’s available for landlords to ensure new and current landlords are happy and likely to re-post a listing year after year. They also help cater the individual school system to your institutions needs including free listings for students and limited the capability of viewing listings to current students. We have in-vited them on campus to promote the system with our students and continue to market them as a great service.

Partnering with Places4Students has provided us the capability to put more time and focus towards the programming side of off-campus housing while knowing we are keep up-to date with the needs and wants of our students.

Valerie Bruce

Communication and Residence Service Desk Facilitator

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Bobbie Crawford Alumni Corner

withwith

L ast month I had the pleasure of participating in question and answer panel at the University of Wa-terloo, as part of their Community Coordinator (para-professional position) professional development. The purpose of the panel was for the current Community Coordinators (CCs) to connect with and ask ques-tions to four pervious people in the position. The panel was comprised of 2 current Residence Life Profes-sionals and 2 people who transitioned out of Residence Life into other careers. I am one of two who tran-sitioned out of Residence after being involved in the community for 5 years, 3 of which I was full time. I were asked to be part of the discussion to share my experiences in transitioning from para-professional to professional roles in Res Life (from UBC as a Resident Coordinator to Waterloo as an RLC), and my tran-sitions from Res Life into teaching. It was really nice to be back on campus at Waterloo and to connect with the current CCs. They, like others finishing a one-year contract, had many questions about transition into the next stages of their careers and wondered if they were making the right choices. I encouraged them to find what it is that is right for them. I suggested for them to start by looking at their current jobs and to write down everything they liked about it. This process will help them get a true picture of what they are really passionate about and can bring to the surface some of the aspects of the current job they do not like. Second, I encouraged them to brainstorm a list of all jobs that share some of the same aspects. There are a lot of different jobs out there. After going through this process, they can begin exploring all of those fields and narrowing down a few that they are truly interested in. This can be done by doing informational interviews (talking informally to someone in that position) or actually volunteering and doing that job for a few days or weeks. There was also a discussion around the process of applying and interviewing for jobs. I remember being very nervous about this step in the past, and being overwhelmed about the stress about having the perfect resume, or using all the appropriate buzz words when answering an interview question. I believe that this step is much easier for Res-lifers who have been through the hiring process of student staff many times. The interviewing process from the other side of the table allows them to reflect on the resumes and interviews that stood out to them, and most of all, reminded them of what not to do/say. I also reminded them be that after one or more years in Residence Life, most of them have gained many transferrable skills, which will be beneficial in any future job. The organizational, time management, listening and effec-tive communications are applicable in almost every job, and will be a skill set to highlight when applying. Do not underestimate the power of the soft skills gained, including empathy, kindness and inclusion. I have heard before that hard skills (knowledge, tools, techniques) get people interviews, but soft skills (interpersonal skills) get people jobs. Be sure to use both to their fullest potential. Another theme of the discussion was the fear of doing the wrong thing, choosing the wrong school, or the wrong career path. To me, this is not the end of the world. Sometimes the best experiences we have as young adults are ones that were not right. There is something to be learned in every situation, and even if people end up in a job they dislike, they can reflect on what it is they don’t like about that job and then search for something else. It is less realistic for our generation to do one job for the rest of our lives, so finding something one doesn’t like can help him/her in the future when looking for that next step in his/her career. In closing, whatever the next step in one’s career, know that one’s experience and skills gained in residence life will be the stepping stones to success in any future job!

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Spring Conference, FBM, RLC, MLTI

Oh My! It’s almost that time of year again…our spring conference is fast approaching! More info will be coming out in the near future about all upcoming conferences, but please save the dates – we’d love to see you

there!

OACUHO Annual Spring Conference

May 13th – 16

th, 2013

Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario

OACUHO Mid-Level Training Institute

July 9th – 12

th, 2013

by King’s University College in London, Ontario

OACUHO Fall Business Meeting

October 25th, 2013

Brock University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario

OACHUO Residence Life Conference

January 24th – 26

th, 2014

University of Toronto Mississauga in Mississauga, Ontario

With amazing conference hosts secured for the next year, we can now look ahead to future conference hosting opportunities.

At this time, we are seeking bids for the 2014 Annual Spring Conference, 2014 New Professional Train-

ing Institute, and 2014 Fall Business Meeting. Hosting a conference is a rewarding experience that gives you an opportunity to showcase your institution! If you are interested in placing a bid for any of

these conferences, please visit the "Resources" section on the OACUHO website, scroll down to "Official Documents" and review the "OACUHO Conference Bid Guidelines".

Also, feel free to contact the OACUHO Conference Director, Sunita Karir by email at

sunitakarir@trentu.ca if you have any additional questions about what a bid or conference hosting en-tails or upcoming conferences.

Our deadline for submitting these conference bids is Monday, April 1

st. Please submit bids to

sunitakarir@trentu.ca and info@oacuho.com. If you are unable to submit a full bid by that time, feel free to submit a letter of interest indicating your intent to place a bid.

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OACUHO BOARD ELECTIONS

Hello OACUHO, I am President-Elect of OACUHO and I am excited to be reaching out to you on behalf of the board to make you aware of the up-coming Election nomination period. OACUHO is tackling new challenges as an organization. OACUHO is facing increasing pres-sure to address the needs of our members across functional area (assignments/business operations, facilities, and residence life) as well our more experienced members. OACUHO is also embarking a number of important taskforces including a significant re-search study. As chair of the nominations committee I am seeking OACUHO members that can help us advance these organiza-tional objectives. The board of directors of OACUHO is a weekly commitment. We hold bi-weekly conference calls and meet face to face approxi-mately 6 times per year. We are seeking nominations for the following positions: - President-Elect and Finance Director (3 year presidential track)* - Professional Development Director - Membership Engagement Director - Conference Director (2 year term)* - Communications Director - Two (2) Members-at-Large* - Mid-Level Member-at-Large* Take a minute to review the election timeline outline below. Job descriptions for the positions outlined above will be available on the OACUHO website during the nomination period. Election Timeline: - Nominations Open: Monday February 25 - Nominations Close: Monday March 25 - Confirmation with nominee supervisors: Monday April 1 - Election Voting commences: Monday April 8 - Election Voting concludes: Monday April 15 If you have any questions about the positions, the board or anything else that will help make your decision please reach out to me at cnuttall@ryerson.ca or phone 416-979-5000 x7390. I look forward to speaking with you. Chad Nuttall President-Elect OACUHO * Pending Constitutional Amendments

ENOP NETWORK TWEET-CHAT 4 RECAP

On Tues. Feb 12, the fourth tweet-chat for the Engaging New OACUHO Professionals Network took place, this time with the topic of “Anatomy of a Student Leadership Conference”. (View report) We had four professionals join for this edition of the chat, with the conversation focusing on leadership development training in residence, primarily with student-staff. Highlights from the conversa-tion were identifying the value of involving campus partners in presenting as part of these programs, and how these forums serve as valuable networking opportunities for students. If you have further thoughts on this topic or resources/advice you can offer, please feel free to tweet (using #ENOP #oacuho360) or email me.

The next tweet-chat will take place on Tues. Mar 19 from 12-1pm EST. The topic and questions for the chat will be shared the week of March 4. In the meantime, folks are welcome to add their information to theENOP members’ document and participate with the Facebook group.

Best regards,

Dan Cantiller

e: dancan@ryerson.ca | t: @DanCanThinks

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