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		A Comprehensive Approach to Tripling By Melinda O’Brien, Director of Residence Life Montclair State University Introduction Over the past few years, residence hall occupancies nationwide have grown more quickly than our physical facilities have been able to keep pace. As our institutions have striven to expand and as more students have found their way to our campuses, housing and residence life administrators have continued to try to meet the challenge. At times the institution’s desire to increase enrollment and housing’s inability to offer adequate housing have seemed to work at cross purposes, which is never a good place to be. The challenge of meeting rising occupancy needs is still with us, though, and the purpose of this article is to assist administrators and staff in looking at the tripling phenomenon from a comprehensive approach, which necessarily means emphasizing different perspectives on different campuses. The ACUHO-I/EBI Resident Study, while not specifically designed to address over occupancy, does an excellent job of capturing the perspectives that come into play when assessing the needs and strategies of tripling. The benchmarking factors, because they focus on factors influencing student satisfaction, can provide a functionally comprehensive template for residence life administrators and staff, as we endeavor to meet the challenges of rapidly increasing occupancy. The usefulness of the benchmarking factors can be enhanced as well, when utilized as weighted sums by campuses already subscribing to the ACUHO-I/EBI studies. Utilizing the ACUHO-I/EBI Resident Study to Respond to Tripling Needs and Community Development “Goodness of residential fit”, the quality of the match between an individual student and his or her neighborhood – whether the neighborhood is immediate (the student room) or extended (wing, floor or building) – is a determining factor with regard to a student’s level of residential satisfaction. We already know that residential satisfaction is a determining factor with regard to the student’s overall level of college or university satisfaction. The impact of that second – or third – roommate can be significant, and tends to be negative only when we haven’t done our jobs as well as we should. Beginning with student staff selection and training, resident assistants need to be sensitive and savvy to the needs of their crowded freshmen. When planning the initial RA selection process, consider introducing a line of questions into interviews regarding the RA applicant’s direct familiarity and perceptions of tripling. Placing initial emphasis on the importance of dealing with tripling not only structures a way in which selecting staff can assess sensitivity and ability in that particular area, but also communicates a message – to those selected and to those not selected – that the residence life staff realizes and responds intentionally to tripling as a community dynamic. RA training, with regard to the challenges of tripling, should include an emphasis on roommate mediation and small group dynamics. Additional boilerplate skill areas, such as assertiveness and communication, need to be applied within the context of tripled rooms where privacy is diminished from the standard two-roommate setting. Social interaction opportunities – participation in hall activities, meeting other people on the same or other floors, and general satisfaction with fellow residents (especially in the areas of academics and sensitivity to diversity) – are one of the most important aspects of residence hall life to freshmen, and provide one of the most presentable and low cost programming opportunities to student and professional staff alike. It’s ironic that our student staff are sometimes “pushed” to develop well-attended, educational programs when residents really want simple and abundant ways in which to meet each other. From study sessions to barbeques to community service opportunities, residents want to get to know each other. They want to feel welcome and at home when they walk through the front door of the building and they need to be known by name when they walk onto their floor. More people on the floor mean more names to get to know and more opportunities for friendships to form – and that’s work that can start during the summer before the freshmen move onto campus. Addresses, phone numbers and email addresses (including email communities among small groups of incoming freshmen with an orientation counselor or R.A. as facilitator) continue to be easy to access, quick and useful as an initial way of introducing freshmen to their new classmates. The rich, and often daunting, dynamics of diversity can both enhance and complicate the crowded community. Tripling methods based on date of application or acceptance can result in economically and ethnically stratified tripled populations. Extending priorities to specific geographic areas can, depending on the socio-economics of surrounding neighborhoods, stratify as well. The nuances of culture are many and varied, and students as well as professional staff need to be sensitive and savvy in their understanding and ability to relate to residents from significantly different backgrounds and values. Time and attention need to be spent in staff training, as RAs and Residence Directors in particular hone their diversity sensitivity skills to a refined level. Those of us with Freshman Year Experience programs need to remember the positive impact of FIGS and learning communities as a way of opening doors to freshman residents. Tripled residents (and their parents) can gain considerable comfort from knowing that others in their situation are also receiving the additional structure and support from membership in a nationwide approach to retention and academic performance. Room assignments staff are strongly encouraged to take a careful look at FYE assignments to make sure that they are used optimally with regard to their ability to respond to the community membership needs of students in triples. Facilities We know it from our everyday dealings with students in doubles and singles, so why wouldn’t we recognize the importance of facilities to students in triples. The quality of our facilities – whether things work, whether they’re clean, and whether they’re tended to during weekends and evening hours – is crucial to resident satisfaction with the living environment. If you have triples on a floor with community bathrooms, make arrangements for your custodial staff to clean those bathrooms twice daily (once before the morning rush, and a second time in the early afternoon). If you are tripling in suite-style arrangements, be mindful of the “person-to-potty” ratio. Tripling every other room, as opposed to tripling consecutive rooms along a corridor, can provide a more resident-friendly option, simply because five people can share a bathroom more easily than six. Repairs need to be done well and done on time. Delays need to be communicated directly to the students, and repairers need to be reasonably courteous with regard to the time of day, amount of noise and intrusion created by repairs. Lead-time does wonders for morale (both student and repairer). Professional repairers must be available for after-hours emergencies, and staffing schedules and peak work hours need to reflect the schedule of student life in any given building. The student is the customer, not just an inconvenience who must be tolerated. Meetings with facilities staff prior to the beginning of the fall semester can provide timely reminders of the importance of customer service, as well as offering a useful opportunity for RAs, repairers and housekeepers to meet each other as members of the same team. Try to set aside funds to enhance the common area facilities on floors with triples – new lounge furniture and welcoming social areas are especially helpful. Lounges in particular, need to be well kept with all facilities in working order. VCRs need to work; reading lights need to be provided and well lamped; pool tables need to be in good repair with equipment in usable condition. Hallways and study rooms will also need more attention, and the regular floor presence of housekeeping staff tells residents they are important enough to be well cared for. The quality of rapport between Residence Life staff and Housekeeping staff can also go a long way in terms of sharing information about community dynamics and special needs. Consider tripled rooms when shopping for furniture: bunkable beds are a must, and loft-style beds can fit that third desk underneath as a perfect solution to crowded rooms. Much of the newer furniture that is on the market emphasizes flexibility of arrangement, which is also welcomed by tripled residents. Look for furniture with locking drawer options, because they provide a little more of the privacy that is already at a premium. Because of the size of most resident rooms, tripled students will need to share at least some of their furniture, most likely closet space. Preliminary tips on packing light, sharing stereos and other appliances, and the importance of small study lamps tend to be much appreciated. When choosing which buildings to triple, be sure to assess the amenities of both personal and community space. Residents want to be able to study in their rooms and, when they do go to sleep, they prefer to sleep without interruption. They want privacy. They want to be able to regulate the temperature of their room, to access the Internet from their desk and they want a reasonable noise level on the floor around them. When you’re choosing the buildings and floors to triple, choose the ones that offer the most amenities! Services and Financial Impact Think carefully and creatively about the various services provided to your residents. Several of those services are critical and may be beyond Residence Life’s control, in terms of reporting structure. University Police, Dining Services, Facilities, and Information Technology are all examples of services that residents regard as essential, but are administratively situated as collegial, rather than direct, reports. They represent areas that have several campus priorities in addition to Residence Life and, with the exception of university police and to some extent facilities, are not truly accustomed to the 24/7 style of operation that residence life accepts as a given. You need to talk to the people in those service areas. You need to talk to the administrators for the purposes of effectuating policy and procedure, and you need to talk to the individuals who actually deliver the services, to understand the processes involved in meeting student needs. What do those services have to do with triples? Ask that question to the staff who deliver them and you may hear that dining hall hours need to be extended or that more late-night campus escorts need to be provided. Locations for quiet study may need to be increased and student parking allocations may need to be re-assessed. You may need to work out special arrangements with Information Technology to provide additional beginning-of-semester staffing for Ethernet access and for enhancing connectivity capacity. (You need to offer a port for every pillow. Don’t rationalize why you can’t do it or don’t need it, just do it!) The financial impact of tripling provides opportunities for both our residents and our budget. Students who live three to a room, even for a limited period of time, deserve to see the reflection of their accommodations in their bill from the university. A triple room rent, on a pro rata basis, should be somewhat lower than a standard double, but should still generate additional revenue to the room. The setting of those rates should reflect the realistic budgetary impact of tripling. Buying re-configurable furniture, providing extra facilities staffing, lowering the RA/resident ratio, and addressing facilities wear-and-tear all cost money, and should be included into your room rent calculus. One additional angle concerning the financial aspects of tripling is to consider offering triples to upperclassmen. The lower room rate and ability to include a third roommate are frequently welcomed by upperclassmen – perhaps as a way of saving money for a deposit on an off-campus apartment (which, by decreasing occupancy, helps your predicament), or perhaps as a simple way of accommodating a friend whose own roommate plans fell through. Marketing Marketing tripled rooms is a process that should naturally present its own positive spin and that needs to involve everyone from incoming freshmen to the college or university president. The positive spin should be natural because we have no information indicating that the process of tripling is detrimental to students’ academic performance or other retention factors. There are times when it seems as though we may have been co-opted by negative perceptions of tripling that were, in themselves, not based on any experiences directly related to tripling. The process needs to include everyone involved because different levels of experience bring forth information that is credible to different audiences. A freshman that has just been tripled will share the frustrations and comforts s/he has already experienced (even before move-in) with friends and potential community members. When our freshmen sense that they are being well cared for, they sense that they are important to the campus and that university administrators see them as individuals, rather than faceless student ID numbers. Residence Life staff, especially student staff, enjoy a particular credibility in light of the “hands on” nature of their interactions. Once an RA reacts negatively to the news that someone has been tripled, the process of reversing that perception becomes difficult. University staff and faculty need to have accurate and up-to-date information about tripling: they need to be able to process it positively within the campus experience; they need to be aware of the programmatic efforts that support it; they need to understand the numbers involved; and they need to know the long-term plans for addressing it. To provide more structure, an action plan should be developed to address both marketing and programmatic needs. Communication, the essential component, needs to inform freshmen as early as possible whether they have been tripled, and should provide names and contact information for roommates. A “triples newsletter” can be written to share approaches to multiple roommates and space saving in addition to the standard information sent to incoming residents. Additional communication efforts should be geared to student affairs colleagues’ abilities to meet resulting special needs such as time management and providing opportunities to become familiar with campus resources. Faculty and upper administration should also be brought up to speed to prevent ungrounded negativity and/or the dissemination of inaccurate information about both tripling and detripling. Without a doubt, the most important component of marketing triples is successfully challenging the unsupported notion that tripling is inherently a bad thing. Four Strategies Remember that a positive attitude can carry you a long way. Take the initiative. Be up front with your residents, staff and colleagues. Put the “T” word out there as a way of letting people know that you are not trying to hide anything because there’s nothing to be hidden in the first place. Be honest. Triples are not the obstacle to student development that we once thought they were. Studies regarding resident satisfaction levels, academic performance and retention rates have shown that tripled residents do as well as, and in some cases better than, residents in traditional doubles. The difference between a double and a triple is just that: it’s a “difference” and not a “disadvantage.” Be creative. Focus some positive energy on those triples and be sure that your residents and their families see it! Setting different room rates, selecting accommodating furniture and tailoring the programmatic support will help you address different needs that may arise from tripling within different living communities. Be an educator. Remember your student development theory and put it to use1 Approach complaints and questions with a sensitive, listening ear, but remind students – and their parents – that the key to a successful college transition is a positive attitude. Remind parents that, while a tripled room is not a reflection on the quality of their parenting, their son or daughter’s ability to be flexible is such a reflection. And finally, remember that it’s the student – not the parent and not you, who will be living in the triple . . . has anyone asked how the student feels? S/he probably feels just fine. About the Author Melinda O'Brien is the Director of Residence Life at Montclair State University in northern New Jersey. Prior to accepting her current position at Montclair, she was the Director of Residential Life at San Francisco State University. Melinda earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received her doctorate in higher education administration from the University of San Francisco in 1985.