From the
Senior Director
I hope your 2020 is starting off well and you are still able to keep at least some of your New Year’s Resolutions! Spring is a busy time in the housing and dining world. Though the students didn’t return until the second half of January, we were busy as soon as the calendar turned. With the departure of Associate VP Sarah Hansen, I was asked to take on oversight of the following areas within the Division of Student Life: Student Health Services, Student Wellness, University Counseling Services, Recreational Services, and Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP). It means that I have some additional meetings each month and I am responding to issues within those departments. It’s a great professional development opportunity for me, and it won’t come at the expense of UH&D. Also, we have set interviews for candidates for the new vice president for student life. Interviews will occur the first two weeks of February. We hope to have a new vp in place in March or April, depending on the time the successor needs to transition to the new role. The new semester brings the RA selection process, where prospective RAs will interview to see if they have the right stuff to be on staff next year. The role of RA has become more taxing over the years as student mental health has become a more prevalent issue. As students are more comfortable sharing their mental health concerns, RAs are presented with more responsibility to assist when the situations become acute. As our campus National College Health Assessment data shows (and our own experiences support), the number of students being diagnosed or treated for depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation has increased in recent years. And while many of our peer institutions are facing the same issues, we recognize this particular aspect of the RA position can be challenging both personally and professionally. The housing assignment process for our returning students also begins in spring. We’ve been successful in retaining more students in the halls in recent years. In the fall of 2019, we housed over 1230 returning students throughout the halls, which is a 35% increase since the fall of 2016. Some of this is due to our ability to offer more single rooms with more beds in the system and a first year class size that has been managed to around 5,000 first year students.
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