The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 57

Leadership and Alumni

are often called upon to represent their peers, speaking as the voice for all students or advocating for programs and initiatives that they believe contribute to a greater good, which can often spur not only positive community change but also individual development and maturity (Chambers & Phelps, 1994). Involvement within a residential student government may serve to combine the benefits of participating in campus activities in general with the developmental benefits of participating in student governance. In these organizations, students become involved where they reside and spend significant amounts of their unstructured time. Moreover, they are called upon to serve as representatives of their peers whom they see and interact with on a consistent basis. This rigorous version of representation might similarly encourage a student’s development of their leadership, decision-making, and communication skills, as well as their sense of competence and efficacy (Tucker, 2006). The purpose of this research was to explore individual perceptions from alumni about their leadership development within residential governance groups. This study focused on the experiences of alumni, a population seldom used in the field of student development, who were interviewed regarding their experiences as student residence hall leaders. Past research on this population showed that alumni perceptions of their learning yielded “a more holistic portrait” (Baxter Magolda, 2001, p. xvii) of their experiences as students than could have been gained studying only current students. Moreover, the meaning that alumni often make of their experiences can be deeper and more complex than that of participants who are current students, due both to the time

. . . the meaning that alumni often make of their experiences can be deeper and more complex than that of participants who are current students, due both to the time that alumni have away from college and their respective ability to put those experiences in the context of their post-college life .

that alumni have away from college and their respective ability to put those experiences in the context of their post-college life (Baxter Magolda, 2001). Currently, no research has been conducted on alumni of residential governance groups in terms of investigating their perceptions of their involvement experiences and outcomes related to their professional environments and communities. Through this research, we hope to better understand the experiences of former residence hall student leaders and how those experiences impacted their lives beyond graduation.

METHOD
Data Collection and Analysis
As this study was exploratory in nature and designed to better understand the individual experience a student had in residential governance organizations from his or her own perspective, a qualitative research methodology was used (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998). Data for this study were obtained using individual interV o l u m e 3 7 , No. 2 • 2 0 1 1

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

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