A note from the associate vice president and senior director of University Housing and Dining

Happy 2024, RA alumni!

I’m happy to write to you as we've begun a new semester and new year. Our fall semester was busy and I want to share with you what has been happening in housing and dining at the University of Iowa.

We welcomed 5,064 first year students to the university in the fall of 2023, with 94.2% of them living in the residence halls. While the first-year class size was smaller than the previous year, we retained a larger number of returning students, which increased our fall occupancy to 70 more residents than last year. After experiencing the third-largest first year class in the fall of 2022, we anticipated another large class and prepared for more students by tripling more rooms in Stanley and Burge Halls, increasing capacity in Stanley by 82 students and Burge by 73 students. This was also necessary due to capacity reduction in Hillcrest due to phase 3 of the building renovation (more on that later).

This fall, we partnered with the College of Engineering to construct and open a new “makerspace” in the lower level of Burge Hall for the People in Engineering (PIE) Living Learning Community.  The makerspace provides worktables, a “wetworks” room, three 3D printers, a Cricut® and a sewing machine, tools and other supplies to provide creativity and learning opportunities for first-year engineering students. The ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house brought together students, faculty, and staff to visit the space and see how students will use the amenities. We are thrilled with this partnership and hope it will increase interest for students to be part of the PIE Living Learning Community.

In November we administered our bi-annual resident satisfaction survey, a nationally benchmarked product we have used since 2004. A 31% response rate (1,917 responses) is providing us a lot of useful data and recommendations. The survey is organized into 20 factors regarding customer service, community, programming, and learning—among others. Without getting into the weeds, I can share that our scores were, for the most part, the highest in the past decade. Our biggest improvement was in the programming area, where students are craving opportunities to get together and attend programs coming off the pandemic. Our customer service scores are our strength, and the scores bear that out. Satisfaction with the custodial staff, RAs, desk operations, dining staff, and maintenance staff all improved their scores, with many at historically high levels. We are thrilled to note that learning and academic success in the residence halls continues to climb, and dramatically over the past two years. Dining also experienced increasing satisfaction, with each of seven questions showing improvement, with variety and value of meal plans noting all-time satisfaction. We will analyze the data further and provide information and recommendations to the students during the spring semester.

Last year, we announced our intent to sell Mayflower Hall. However, when the housing application process for 2024-25 opened, it became clear the space would be needed next fall. You can read more about this in Iowa Now.

This issue of the RA Alumni newsletter will cover a variety of topics, highlighting our Living Learning Community and residence education model program, an article highlighting an RA alumna, facilities updates, and a short note about the Iowa Board of Regents recommendations for DEI at the three state universities in Iowa. If there is anything you want to see in future newsletters, please contact me. We want to hear from you. 

Take care and have a great 2024!

Von Stange

von-stange@uiowa.edu

Milestone anniversaries

When you lived and worked in the residence halls, you may have developed a relationship with your custodian, maintenance staff, or dining team members.  Some staff who you engaged with during your time as a student might still be working on our teams.  Take a stroll down memory lane as we note milestone anniversaries that were reached by some our team members in 2023 (minimum 15 years):

• Terry Endreshak – 15 years – food service coordinator (Food for Thought, Library)
• Jonna Eiffert – 15 years – director of University Catering (previously Sales Coordinator)
• Crystal Bounds-Howard – 15 years – chef/assistant manager, Burge Market Place
• Lyle Mahan – 15 years – custodian 1, Burge Hall
• Bob James – 15 years – assistant director, dining retail operations (previously Burge Market Place)
• Justy Bernardy – 15 years – office administrator (hall secretary), Daum Hall
• Lloyd Sojka – 20 years – custodian 1, Hillcrest Hall
• Kimberly Cutler – 25 years – custodian 1, Currier Hall
• Jeff Landes – 25 years – facilities mechanic, mostly west campus
• Michael Gilson – 25 years – kitchen helper, Hillcrest Market Place
• Lisa Aldeman – 30 years – custodian 1, Rienow Hall most recently
• John Moloney – 30 years – chef, catering and retail operations
• Greg Reisner – 30 years – kitchen helper, Hillcrest Market Place
• John Beelner – 30 years – cook, River Room (previously Burge Market Place)

Engagement in the residence halls through our Living Learning Communities

All residence hall staff engage with students individually through the Residence Education Model (REM). Our model is composed of three themes:

• Inquire...about your academic growth
• Reflect...on your personal development
• Expand...your perspectives and community

Academic growth supports students developing sustainable academic habits. Personal development supports students sustaining habits that contribute to their holistic wellbeing. Expanding perspectives and community guides students to examine identities and experiences of self and others to foster personal and community development. In the fall of 2023, RA staff completed 2,221 roommate agreements for 4,667 students, 339 community activities with an average of 20 students at each event, and 5,223 one-on-one “Hawk Talk” conversations related to academics, campus resources, and identity. 

"It was a really good decision to join the LLC because it helped me transition to college and introduced me to a lot of new friends that I would not have otherwise found."

In the fall of 2023, nine living-learning communities (LLCs) were part of the housing system with 313 total participants, ranging from 13 to 100 residents each.  Occupancy in the living-learning communities has varied by community, with six academic-based (Arts, Connect2Biz, Iowa Writers, People in Engineering, Political Matters, Sport and Rec Management) and three interested-based communities (All In, Unidos, Young Gifted and Black). Adaptations to location and programs are made to provide an enriching co-curricular experience. All living-learning communities have an affiliation with an academic program or college. Many of the communities allow participants to take a course that ties with the community.

Research shows students who get involved in living-learning communities are more likely to stay in college, earn a higher GPA, and experience a greater degree of satisfaction with their overall college experience. A survey of our LLC students found that 83% of our LLC students reported that living in the LLC helped their sense of belonging at the University of Iowa. One of our students wrote that “it was a really good decision to join the LLC because it helped me transition to college and introduced me to a lot of new friends that I would not have otherwise found.”

Facilities updates

Hillcrest facelift: phase two updates

Hillcrest Hall is in the last phase of a 3-year, $21M renovation project that includes room walls repairs and replacement for flooring, doors, and ceilings in student rooms and hallways; as well as renovate restrooms to make them single-user (also called "pod-style") and create more study space within the building. This multi-year project will reduce capacity post-renovation by 73 beds. Because the work is being completed year-round during occupancy, rotating sections of the building have been temporarily off-line during the academic years, reducing operating capacity by about one-third each year. Renovations in Hillcrest Hall will be complete before the fall of 2024 and the building will re-open at its new full capacity of 750 beds. You may have seen before and after photos in a previous issue of the RA Alumni News.

A focus of the second phase renovation included lounge space adjacent to the steps to Hillcrest Market Place, outside of Grand Avenue Market. The pictures below of that lounge show a transformation, including a spectacular interactive digital display. 

In addition to student room and lounge renovations, this involved two new hall coordinator apartments on the fifth floor of the building.

Honors housing moves out of Daum Hall

Recently University Housing and Dining, in cooperation with the UI Honors Program, decided to relocate the Honors community from Daum Hall to Catlett Hall. We were struggling to fill the hall with honors students and many honors students were choosing to live in Catlett instead of Daum. Honors students will have two dedicated floors in Catlett to continue the immersive experience of living with other honors students. Daum will house first-year and returning students in single, double, and triple rooms.

Mayflower Hall open for 2024-25 

As we shared, the plan for 2024-25 is to operate Mayflower Hall. Our residence life staff received some notes and emails of fond memories from RA alumni about their experiences in Mayflower Hall. Most people who lived in Mayflower had a positive experience once they experienced the community there and we will continue to solicit student feedback on what they believe is needed to have a successful experience living in Mayflower.

Hawkeye Work Grant program

In the fall of 2022, University Housing and Dining was faced with shortage of full-time staff and a potential shortage of student staff, as students were choosing not to work during the pandemic. In an effort to get more students to work on campus, a partnership formed among dining facilities, the Office of the Provost, University College, Office of Financial Aid, and University Human Resources to identify students who had unmet financial need and were eligible for the federal work study program.

Together, we created an innovative grant program enabling students who worked in dining for a minimum of 8 hours a week to earn a $1,000 grant (in addition to pay for hours worked), payable in two installments during the academic year. The program, called the Hawkeye Work Grant (HWG), was funded in year one primarily by the Office of the Provost with additional dollars from University Housing and Dining. The goal was to award 100 scholarships, but response was so strong that we added 40 additional scholarship opportunities. Participants in the program were retained at five-percentage points higher than eligible students who didn’t participate.

We have expanded the program for the 2023-24 academic year for up to 200 students with unmet financial need, again funded through University Housing and Dining and the Office of the Provost. Participating students will be able to earn $3,500 in work study funds for hours worked and up to $1,000 in grant funds (in three disbursements). We are excited that the program has received interest from colleagues across the country as an excellent student success intervention. The Gazette newspaper covered this recently, if you'd like to read further here.

RA alumni spotlight: Anne Lingwall Odio

Anne Lingwall Odio graced the Iowa City campus from 2004-2009, and served as a resident assistant in Burge Hall for two years and her third year in Parklawn Hall. An interdepartmental studies with a health sciences emphasis major, Anne had a passion for Spanish. It’s that passion for Spanish that led her to the Dominican Republic, University of Florida for her masters in Hispanic Languages, Rutgers University for her Ph.D. in Bilingualism and Second language Acquisition before landing her current position as an assistant professor of Spanish and Associate Director of Projects and Partnerships, CEDAR Language Resource Center at the University of Cincinnati. Now with a family, Anne shared her Hawkeye experience with us.

Anne was effusive in her praise of the leadership she worked with during her time as a RA. She was surrounded by “really awesome, intentional people” who liked what they were doing. At the time, the Burge and Daum staffs met together, so Anne recalled going on rounds through the building and talking to her peers and other people, learning about them while they were on duty. There was plenty of humor and laughter, and she felt fortunate to be part of such a strong network, which included large, staff in-service events.

Programming was fun, but nerve-wracking because she never knew how many people would show up. The opportunity to share different programs and learning resources on campus were both fun and educational. Her most memorable programming effort occurred in 2006 during the tornado that hit Iowa City. She had a program scheduled and just before the event started, she saw the sky turning dark colors. While her floor program focused on making t-shirts and eating nachos, when the tornado siren went off the entire population of Burge crashed the event because it was being held in the Carnival Room in the basement. Anne recalled that all the food was gone in five minutes, and people made t-shirts saying “this is not a drill”—the language from the tornado alarm enunciator.

As we know, parts of the job are not glamorous. Anne mentioned that the grace of time provided good perspective on how great the position was. Maintenance issues also become RA issues, but she understood that was part of the job. She can still smell the vomit comet, cleaning up water from a broken water fountain that was flowing down the stairs, and calling the ambulance for student medical issues. One night she attended to an unresponsive individual while being the person on duty; she called it a stroke of coincidence, as she wasn’t sure they would have been found by anyone else. Anne was glad for the training and having a plan in place for the well-being of students.

Even with a difficult major and emphasis, balancing the RA role and academics wasn’t particularly difficult. Anne utilized her schedule, and it allowed her to work from room a lot, with the door open—what she called her “office hours”. This allowed her to study at her desk but was still able to be respond to students stopping by. The RA responsibilities didn’t deter her from going to class and participating in study groups and Res Ed leadership and other staff provided helpful guidance.

When asked what lessons from the RA position that she continues to use in her career, Anne highlighted the importance of establishing relationships with professional peers and colleagues, particularly being intentional about connections and being connected. As she is a non-tenure track faculty member who interacts with students, Anne learned to not being afraid to be a person: to show humanity while setting up and maintaining boundaries. Anne also said she learned how to be compassionate while working in a leadership position. As a faculty member, she strives to create an environment that provides the ability to bend a little with timelines based on student circumstances. She works to shepherd students to advocate for themselves through communication and accountability.  Anne asks herself, “Can I work with you within a boundary, perhaps 24-48 hours depending on the circumstance?” This allows her to teach life skills for organization and how to ask for help, while still emphasizing that learning needs to get done.

When asked for advice to current RAs, Anne reinforced some of the skills she honed as a RA and still uses today:

• Don’t be afraid to show humanity and experiences, but also have boundaries, as a professional and a person. Both can successfully exist.
• Lean into network of peers and your leaders. Use them as they have different and varied experiences; look to those people for the humanity.
• Get to know other important resources in the building: custodians, maintenance, food workers, and others. They make a difference so develop and maintain those connections. 

When asked about staff who influenced her experience, Anne shared that she always felt welcomed by staff members and supervisors to stop by their offices and talk about anything on her mind. Mary Coughlin-Julian, Lucas Christian, Jon Sexton, Kevin Hockett, and Amy Oswald Baccei were mentioned as great mentors and great people. Libby Spotts holds a special place in her heart as a leader and mentor. Libby was Anne’s RA as a first-year student and was her hall coordinator in Parklawn as a RA. Libby’s approach in advancing people’s skills and abilities is something Anne thinks about and emulates. Anne also wanted to recognize the kitchen staff in the Burge Market Place with food orders for programs, her Burge and Parklawn staffs, and the leadership in Residence Education who hired and mentored the staff.

Anne closed the conversation with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, “comparison is the thief of joy”. When people compare themselves to others they are robbed of their own happiness. Attempting to create authentic connections as a peer and RA is hard; but, if they don’t try, it will be a barrier to their happiness and success in the position.