Search Reslife.net
		Collaborative Incentives for Small Colleges By Gretchen Dobson Director of Residence Life Wheelock College Most would argue "bigger is better." Having worked in large and small institutions, I know larger budgetary resources can reach a greater number of users such as staff and students. In my current role as a department head of a small college, I am often faced with limited resources to carry out a growing list of program goals and objectives. Professional resources and creative measures have helped me stretch the budget. The most significant asset, however, is my college's involvement in an ongoing alliance with other small schools. Our collaborative efforts build a "bigger" base of support from which to operate and, in turn, add value to our individual programs while at the same time offer joint benefits to participants. Background Notes Colleges of the Fenway (COF) is a five-year old consortium in the Fenway area of Boston. Member institutions which are located within 5 city blocks include: Emmanuel College, Massachusetts College of Art (the only public college), Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Simmons College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Wheelock College. The consortium was founded with three major goals in mind: to enhance the academic environment and academic opportunities for students and faculty, to slow escalating costs through joint purchasing and the sharing of resources, and to retain their identities as small private colleges while offering the advantage to all as a larger university (1). COF employs several different working committees across divisions, of which Residence Life is one. As our partnership strengthens, professional and student staffs realize a growing list of benefits. This article highlights some of the prominent "pay-offs" of our COF program. Enhanced Creativity and Flexibility Training programs at the start of fall and spring semesters can easily become routine and stale. Along with our individual campus training, COF schools sponsor a fall and winter training day for all Resident Assistants. We utilize each other's campuses and employ our professional staff members as presenters. This year, we've asked Resident Directors from the 6 schools to plan an interactive training day for RAs: a scavenger hunt around the city of Boston. One outcome of this brainstorming for professional staffs is assessing the success of the group effort; another goal is to produce a highly creative, motivating day for RAs. Our schools also belong to the Boston Area College Housing Association (BACHA), a regional housing organization that sponsors an annual RA Conference. Each year, we coordinate travel and participation among the COF staffs in hopes of encouraging greater representation and program participation. Sharing a coach bus ride to and from the conference also fosters social time between student staff members. COF schools afford the creativity and flexibility required by some to secure optional housing placements for students. Housing shortages were realized by many of our schools and COF campuses with vacancies offered both short and long-term solutions to our area students. For example, I will be entering my third summer of partnership with Emmanuel College to offer Wheelock graduate residents a local option for summer housing. Likewise, this year Simmons College houses Massachusetts College of Art students on their campus. With housing shortages - on and off campus - and rising off-campus rents, we value the opportunity to help each other meet two goals: to remedy occupancy issues and to provide a stronger service to our students. Learning from Each Other As our consortia strengthens, the COF functional staff levels (Directors, RDs, RAs) continue to experience the rewards of working together on projects and maintaining regular communication between meetings and programs. Directors are now retreating three times a year to review joint program goals, evaluate progress, and set the stages for future initiatives. We consider our work with each other an integral part of our professional experience. We often pass along an opportunity for joint learning. For example, when one of the COF schools purchases the rights to broadcast a satellite conference on their campus they will often invite COF staffs to share in the presentation and discussion. We are continually working to improve the professional experience for other professional staff. RDs are joining to plan training and are taking part in regular-scheduled professional development inservices planned by the Directors. This year's topics include: Personal and Professional Balance in the Workplace, Professional Ethics, and Supervision. On and off-campus networking time is built into each of these inservices. Directors encourage regular interaction as a way to role model to student staff the benefits of building relationships. Collegial efforts pay off! RA staffs have organized their own cohort and have co-sponsored educational (e.g., Alcohol Awareness) and social programs (e.g., a folk concert) this year. As with Directors and RDs, email distribution lists help RAs keep in touch with each other about a range of issues, from programming ideas to ways to handle difficult situations in the halls. Filling Our Internal Needs The COF partnership has positioned itself to take advantage of annual programs to help fill our recruitment and staffing needs. In the past, Directors shared tables at regional and national placement conferences. It was a process of "working smart." This initial screening process proved beneficial to our campuses as we help each other make appropriate referrals based on our needs (two of our campuses are all-female, two of our campuses employ part-time RDs). In turn, interested candidates learn about the benefits of working at each of the six colleges and within a consortium. Future COF staffing initiatives include developing a presentation for area higher education/student personnel/counseling programs with the goal of increasing our visibility within the graduate student/academic communities. Another project involving graduate students is the future application for an ACUHO-I Intern. As the COF Residence Life grows, we want to share our knowledge and support with an entering professional! Enhanced Community Relations The benefits of our work together reach several outside constituents. In the summer of 1999, the Directors coordinated efforts with area realtors and service agencies to provide the first Off-Campus Housing Fair for undergraduate and graduate students. A goal for this year is to consolidate our off-campus resources and offer a web-based profile of reputable agencies, realtors, roommate matching services, and private residential facilities. We want to bring our individual referral experiences together to create one service under the COF name. To complement our individual campus training for RAs in August, COF sponsored the first large-scale service project for the Fenway Community. As a continuing effort to bring our staffs together for fall training, the goal for the day was to combine staff community service programs in a mutually beneficial way to the students and the community at-large. In advance, students and staff self-selected one of six agency sites for the afternoon program. Over 100 student leaders from the COF community ventured out into our neighborhoods and worked for the afternoon on projects ranging from moving classroom furniture, painting hallways, weeding gardens, and conducting neighborhood surveys. With over 500 combined hours of service, the Community Service Day was a resounding success for all involved. We were all proud of our efforts and plan on incorporating combined service programs into this year's August training. In summary, these collective efforts supplement our residence life work at our home institutions. Because the benefits realized by our collaborative program continue to consistently prove relevant to our staff and campus needs, we are committed to the time and effort required by each initiative. We know from experience that "bigger is better." For more information, please contact Karen Murphy, Program Coordinator, College of the Fenway, at KMURPHY@masco.harvard.edu. Notes 1 - Baus, F. and Ramsbottom, C., "Sustaining and Starting a Consortium," NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION (106, Summer 1999). About the Author Gretchen Dobson is the Director of Residence Life at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. She has 7 years professional experience, and has also worked at Boston College, Regis College and Dean College. Gretchen has been active in professional organizations such as NEACUHO, where she served the Executive Board in the role of Co-Chair for the Training and Development Committee, and ACUHO-I, where she serves on the Professional Standards and the CHO Institute Committees. Gretchen is also involved in serving her alma mater Boston College, and has advised several campus chapters of Habitat for Humanity.