SEAHO Report - Spring 2018 - 32

SEAHO Features
University of Alabama at Birmingham
This year has been a phenomenal year of growth within Student Housing and Residence Life at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We have seen a 1.03%
growth in our on-campus student population from FY
16 to FY17. Most of that is attributed to the growth of
our freshmen population. With our recently implemented freshmen live-on requirement, we currently
house 81% of the freshmen class, a 1.08% growth from
FY 16 to FY 17.
As the University continues to increase enrollment
each year, we are seeing a rise in the number of second-year students who are being retained at the university. In the spring of 2015, the University participated in the Ruffalo Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction
Inventory. The survey administered every two years by
the University indicated that "sophomores were significantly less satisfied than freshmen on seven out of the
12 scales."
As a result of the assessment data on sophomore
students, a task force made up of representatives from
the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management was formed to take a closer look at current
literature and programmatic offerings for sophomore
students at UAB. Recognizing a gap, a Second Year
Experience initiative was developed and implemented
in the fall of 2017. Situated in Office of Student Housing and Residence Life, over the course of the academic year SYE has hosted and advertised 40 programs
geared towards the second-year student population
here at the University. A few of programs include a
Welcome Back Bash, an SYE End of the Year Social,
a Halfway There Celebration which will take place on
April 18, and a number of other developmental and
informational sessions. In the spring of 2018, we hired
Paton Roden as our Coordinator of Secord Year Experience. She's been busy working to provide additional
programmatic offerings to our second-year population
which includes the development of an SYE Council,
an SYE Marketing Street team, and the development of
an initiative focused of Global Learning in collaboration with the Office of Career and Professional Development. It should be noted that the Global Learning
initiative will be funded from a grant secured through

SEAHO Report Spring 2018

the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).
In the same vein of programming, we've hosted a number of programs for all of our on-campus students this
academic year. With the implementation of our residential curriculum in the fall of 2016, focusing on the
learning of self, relationships with others, and investing
positively in the community, this academic year in all
6 residence halls we have hosted 293 student programs
and events which totals 8616 student interactions and
connections.
In addition to hiring Paton Roden, we have a number
of new staff joined our department over the course of
the academic year:
Dennis Scott | Assistant Director of Residence Life
Emilie Shaver and Jerel McDaniel | Residence Life
Coordinators
Kayla Rosser | Graduate Assistant
Victoria Jackson | Freshmen Assignments Coordinator
Andrew Eaton | Facilities Coordinator
University of West Alabama
Tiffany Willis has been named the Graduate Hall
Director for Gilbert Hall. Undergraduate hall directors
for the upcoming year are Guadalupe Meza (Seldon Hall), DeJa Sumrall (Reed/Patterson Halls), Dri
Alston (Hoover Apartments), and Elizabeth McFeely
(Stickney Hall).
The UWA Board of Trustees has approved planning
to begin on a new residence hall to be built to be open
in Fall 2020. In addition, Seldon Hall, a traditional
residence hall on campus, will have minor renovations
completed this summer. Demand for on-campus
housing continues to grow as overall campus occupancy is expected to exceed capacity this fall.
Finally, Congratulations
to our Best of Alabama
presenter, Lerone
Joseph!

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Spring 2018