Talking Stick - January/February 2011 - 41

University of Massachusetts, Amherst can be tailored to the needs of the department. Trainers determine the content and the testing required to meet competency requirements and then create a curriculum and place it online. While online training modules will never replace the learning that occurs on the job, they are a good alternative to traditional training sessions that can sometimes be too dominated by lectures. With a widespread audience almost always online, social media can be both awe-inspiring and intimidating. These media have changed the college and university housing profession more than any other form of technology and have shaped the expectations that today’s students have about the immediacy of knowledge and information gathering. Outlets such as Facebook and Twitter allow information to be gathered at break-neck speed. Students expect a constant flow of information to be at their fingertips, and many housing professionals are trying to meet those expectations. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, staff have taken a fresh approach to connecting with incoming students. “We’ll go where the students are,” states Dawn Bond, interim assistant director for housing assignments and administration. Part of that commitment has translated into hiring a social media consultant as a consistent presence on Facebook, available to answer questions from students in the classes of 2014 and 2015. The University of Florida has taken a similar approach, as Mian explains: “On the homepage, we have someone available to engage in a chat session during office hours. We share updates on Facebook and Twitter. We are using e-mail for letters, and we are currently working on sending text messages. By using people differently we can provide more face-to-face time and increase the level of service.” Several institutions have also

Communication Breakdown
How do housing professionals communicate in a technology-driven era?
It seems that the ways we communicate with students and fellow staff members change almost daily. Many of us have experienced the frustration of trying to communicate with students who don’t respond to e-mails or phone calls. Also, our technology-driven era has shaped the expectation that questions – whatever format they take – be answered almost immediately. There are now a multitude of options for communicating with students, staff, and colleagues around the world. Many housing offices have Facebook fan pages or a Twitter feed, and some even utilize text messages to communicate important information to students. Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, embraces a variety of digital communication formats. According to Sean Killion, assistant director of assignments and billing, the current generation of students expects more channels for information. “We use a lot of technology to enhance our room selection process,” Killion says, explaining that they use an external company to send targeted e-mails to specific groups (e.g. all upcoming applicants with a certain major) or to all residents. The staff at Temple integrate communication technology into all aspects of their work. “This helps our staff manage the various processes and forces us to keep up with a variety of forms of communication students utilize,” Killion says. After successfully implementing a Facebook fan page and Twitter feed, the University of Florida in Gainesville decided to design their own social network this fall. Called GatorSpace, it was originally designed as a communication tool for a specific living-learning program, but it quickly grew as the staff began to see all the opportunities they now had for communication. T.J. Logan, associate director of housing for administrative services, explains, “Once we selected a provider, we planned an enterprise-wide implementation that will hopefully benefit even our incoming population in the near future. Our hopes for GatorSpace are that it will reframe the way we do our work as housing professionals. In our daily work to challenge and serve our students, this is an opportunity for us to truly ‘meet them where they are.’” These are just a few examples of how housing professionals are utilizing technology in new and innovative ways to connect with students and staff. What are you doing at your institutions? Kathryn Magura, Oregon State University

january + february 2011

Talking Stick - January/February 2011

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