Talking Stick - May/June 2017 - 33

sion on our campus by first discussing
what had occurred in the world. That
summer brought the start of Donald
Trump's presidential campaign, the
execution of nine African Americans
by a white supremacist, and the death
of our student affairs colleague, Sandra
Bland. We asked RAs to share some of
the events that had occurred since they
had left campus in May. They had no
problem identifying a plethora of them,
both positive and negative. RAs who
were unfamiliar with the incidents that
had occurred were able to learn about
them and reflect on how those events
might impact their ability to form relationships with their residents. It was
a rich discussion, and it acknowledged
that we live in a complex and diverse
world - and our campus is just a subset
of that.
Current events, politics, and social
movements affect our students, our
staff, and us as professionals. Though
it may be easier to ignore these events,
we must not only acknowledge that they
are occurring, but also integrate them
into our supervision and community
leadership in order to provide the most
support to students, student staff, and
each other. By doing this we better prepare our student staff to work with their
residents and better prepare ourselves
for moments when conflicts from differing viewpoints arise.
In our supervision meetings, we
zero in on the organizational and institutional topics at hand, such as critical
incidents and upcoming events. With
all that we have to do, when is there
time for talking about world events and
how they impact our campuses? As
educators, we have a responsibility to
not only pay attention to current events,
politics, and social movements, but to
go a step further by participating in civil
discourse with our students and staff.
Before you can integrate any of
these topics into your supervision, you
must first inform yourself. There's a

lot happening in the world, so it can
be difficult to keep up with everything
that may affect your students and staff.
However, there are a few ways to ensure
that you have at least a baseline of
knowledge on some of these topics:

IF WE'RE ONLY
PRESENTING ONE SIDE
OF AN ISSUE TO OUR
STUDENTS AND STAFF,
THEN PERHAPS WE ARE
REMOVING BOTH THEIR
CHOICE AND THEIR
VOICE.
●	

●	

●	

If you have a smartphone, sign up
for news alerts from your favorite
news source. Additionally, download an app from a local news outlet
so you can ensure that you are
aware of what is occurring in the
area surrounding your campus.
Listen to podcasts. NPR releases
an hourly news summary that lasts
about five minutes. This is a great
way to keep up with hourly news
highlights both nationally and internationally.
If you would prefer to get your news
in your inbox, the Skimm will send
you daily emails with a recap of the
news from the previous day. CNN
also will send out an e-newsletter,
"Five Things for Your New Day,"
that provides a quick and helpful
summary of five new stories.

The next step is integrating this knowledge into your role as a supervisor. As
you are educating yourself, you may feel
awkward at times when bringing some
of these topics up, and that's okay! As

with any supervisory skill, this takes
practice, and we have some strategies
to get you started when working with
your staff.
●	

Before discussing potentially difficult or controversial conversations
in the workplace, get to know the
individuals. What are their stories?
What are their pet peeves? How can
your supervision of them help them
achieve their goals?

●	

Build the ACUHO-I Standards &
Ethical Principles into your plan of
supervision. Specifically related to
this topic, ACUHO-I asserts that
residence life organizations should
"provide residence environments
which foster an appreciation of
differences including cultural differences, perspectives and ideas,
sexual identity, education, disability, ethnicity, gender, age, lifestyles,
spirituality and other forms of
diversity."

●	

Think about Maslow's hierarchy of
needs when determining whether
to engage in difficult or controversial conversations. Are your staff
members' basic individual and community needs met? They won't be
able to focus on talking about world
events if they're worried about a
suicidal student or a recent sexual
assault.

●	

Engage in conversation for the sake
of education, not resolution. The
issues you will be discussing are
very complex and can be deeply
personal. Don't expect a one-time
conversation to completely alter
another person's perspective.

●	

Your staff are likely already passionate about some sort of social
movement or current event, so give
them an opportunity to talk about it.
During every one-on-one meeting,
ask your staff member to bring in
an article, current event, or topic in
the world they're passionate about
and then engage in a conversation

MAY + JUNE 2017

33
Talking Stick - May/June 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - May/June 2017
