University of North Carolina-Greensboro Office of Housing & Residence Life is a featured program.
UNCG is all about changing the world, one student at a time. To accomplish this, individual connections with as many students as possible are made by staff. While our RA staff creates bulletin boards, programs, and complete other administrative tasks, their job is first and foremost to connect with students.
In 2011, a program titled, CONNECTIONS was implemented as a method for RAs to track interactions with students on their floor. While it’s certainly not possible for every interaction to be documented, the staff is expected to document a few interactions with each resident per semester. This ensures that all residents are being reached out to, that issues are being reported quickly, and that the intentional conversations are happening between an RA and their students.
While it was anticipated that this intentional effort would lead to students feeling more connected to the staff (and it has), UNCG did not anticipate how useful the collected data would be. Data is reviewed each year in a quantitative and qualitative manner, and the information has impacted many aspects of the program including staff training, programming, and the direction of the department through the conversations with students.
Submitted by Megan Delph, Assistant Director for Residence Life, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro