Talking Stick - November/December 2018 - 50

A

T ITS CORE - or,
perhaps, its most
coarse - campus
housing occupancy
boils down to placing students in
spaces in a way that maximizes space
and revenue. However, this "heads in
beds" mindset would seem to fly in
the face of a residence life mission that
looks to create an exceptional student
experience as well as to follow the
overall educational mission of the university. Can all these seemingly competing goals find a way to coexist like
so many disparate roommates?
It turns out that, when done well,
occupancy indeed is more than a place
for everything and everything in its
place. Campuses are exploring their
policies and practices and then measuring them against key institutional
priorities - such as experiential learning, faculty engagement, social justice,
and retention - to turn occupancy into
an opportunity.
Kirsten Kennedy, associate vice
president for student housing and
well-being at the University of South
Carolina in Columbia, notes how often
"there is a balancing act" between
an organization's business bottom
line and its educational priorities.
Meanwhile, Eric Luskin, senior vice
president emeritus for the Scion
Group, emphasizes how understanding institutional mission is one of the
most powerful tools for those leading
occupancy. "The business side is about
having a successful bottom line, and
having a quality residential experience
is going to be the single best thing you
can do to enhance your reputation and
enhance occupancy."

Strategic Planning
Connecting action to the larger picture
is nothing new for those involved in a
strategic planning process. A holistic
understanding of campus culture,
priorities, and data is one of the most

50

TALKING STICK

critical perspectives for effective occupancy management. For that to
work, though, those big picture ideals
need to be established, which means
that developing a strong occupancy
management strategy at an institution
changing its identity can be difficult.
"If you have a regional institution with
a high number of commuter students
and the institution wants to change
to a more national or international
institution, where will those students
live?" asks Luskin as an example. Once
that issue is addressed and residential
students arrive on campus, retention is
the next uncharted issue, he explains,
noting that there are dozens of other
scenarios equally as challenging. "Students admitted to our institutions have
many choices, and the living experience can have a big effect on matriculation and persistence."
Jessica Pagan Aello, an architect
and project manager at Design Collective, says that one tool her firm uses to
support the goal of strategic occupancy
management in changing institutional
climates is post-occupancy surveys.
These are sent to students, staff, and
partners to ensure that the facilities,
programmatic aspects, and all other
components of the housing operation
are functioning as designed. Pagan
Aello believes that these data analytics help housing leaders understand
current and even future student
perspectives and empower them to
make decisions - particularly in space
design and occupancy approach - that
are flexible and compatible with both.
In those times when there are competing and often evolving priorities
on a campus, it is valuable to zoom
out and focus on the things under the
control of occupancy managers. At
Radford University in Virginia, when
a high-level decision resulted in the
university leasing off-campus housing,
James Penven, assistant vice president
for student success, and his team influenced the accommodation type. Because the off-campus apartments used
all four-bedroom apartment units,

they were filled in less than a week.
He attributes this success to "knowing
the fundamentals of your operation,
listening to your [internal and external]
experts, and being solution oriented."
Luskin notes that while it is important for leaders to identify the role
housing can play in support of the
institution's strategic mission, it can
also be difficult to pinpoint. "Ask the
question, 'How should a graduate of
my institution be described?' Then,
find ways to contribute to that aspect
of the student experience."
Finally, assignments must also answer to the letter of the law, and today
this requires housing staff to think

CAMPUSES ARE
EXPLORING
THEIR POLICIES
AND PRACTICES
AND THEN
MEASURING THEM
AGAINST KEY
INSTITUTIONAL
PRIORITIES - SUCH
AS EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING,
FACULTY
ENGAGEMENT,
SOCIAL JUSTICE,
AND RETENTION
- TO TURN
OCCUPANCY INTO
AN OPPORTUNITY.
Talking Stick - November/December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - November/December 2018
