If you've worked in Housing and Res Life as a student or staff member you've undoubtedly heard this debate at least once. Those in Res Life bleed residence hall but does anyone outside of Res Life care?
Wellllll let me rewind and say this: YOU SHOULD CARE.
For me to say that this is an issue, or at least a topic worthy of debate, is huge. I've had two cracks at Res Life, technically three if you count my time as an Office Assistant as a young undergrad, but I've been met with many hardships in these cases. For me personally, the model of Housing and Res Life was extremely different in the two universities I attended. At one, Res Life was at the forefront of students' lives. Half of the university's students lived on campus and even more students lived in nearby neighborhoods. At my second university maybe 15% of students who attended classes lived on campus yet a rigorous business model was applied to the Res Life office. When Xs and Os are considered more important than PEOPLE, then I feel like Res Life has moved away from it's true purpose.
It may sound like I've digressed but let me connect things for you. The purpose of Res Life should be to create an environment where students can live, learn, and grow. That's it. No need to overcomplicate the matter. When students and staff members working in Res Life do not consider this a main concern then what exists is disconnect between theory and practice.
But to the main point...is it a dorm or a residence hall that students live in while away at college? Best answer: it depends. It's up to those who work in Res Life to determine whether or not their students stay at dorms or stay in residence halls. Sure, ideally we would all forget the term dorm and just move on with residence halls but that would only serve to discredit the universities out there with excellent residence life programs and those universities who need some work.
Dorms DO exist. Residence halls exist TOO.
Again, it's up to those who work in Housing and Residence Life to make the determination. No, not on leaflets and informational packets but by working side by side with student workers and plain ole' residents. You, anyone in Res Life, needs to create programming that appeals to students. You need to make students feel like their cared about...scratch that, you need to actually care about students. This debate is one that will take place individually from campus to campus.
If students and staff can successfully create an environment where students can live, learn, and grow then the goal of establishing a residence hall has been met. Until that is true then, sadly, the term dorms will terrorize Housing and Residence Life forever.
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