Student survey and Action Plan guide residence life policies

Published: June 26, 2023

Author: Dave Bell

When the Greenville University Residence Life staff circulated a “Living Area Satisfaction Survey” to the 650 students living in the residence halls during the spring semester, they really wanted to hear back.

And, to their satisfaction, nearly half of the students responded – many with glowing assessments of the role resident life staff played in their lives.

“Students said that ‘people know me’ and that ‘I’ve developed deep relationships’ as a result of living in the residence hall environment,” said Johnny Hinton, Director of Residence Life. “Another said that living in the residence hall system had helped them to get along with different types of people.”

Those affirmations are nice, Hinton said, but the survey also is a valuable source of feedback on ways the system can be improved.

“The goal of the survey is to create a structure of getting better and better at what we’re doing,” said Hinton, pictured at right. “By getting that feedback, we learn how we’re progressing toward our objectives.

"We’re continually assessing our progress because we want to see that the students’ experiences are improving over time,” Hinton added. “Are they becoming better people? Are they becoming more successful as students? Are they cultivating meaningful relationships?”

To make sure those positive things are happening, he said that the Residence Life mission statement was recently updated. It now reads: “Residence Life exists to facilitate Christ-centered communities that foster whole-student wellness. We collaborate within the University to provide immersive experiences for students to engage with the Greenville University Learning Outcomes. We believe living on campus is an integral part of the academic experience at Greenville University.”

Further, Hinton noted that Residence Life has two primary learning outcomes for students living in the residence halls:

• Development of Self – “We’re concerned with the development of the whole person – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual,” he said. “We want them to feel like they belong here and have a support system on campus.”
• Meaningful Connections – “We want students to learn to live well with other people – particularly with people who are different than them,” Hinton said. “That can be hard at times, but they can learn and grow by working through those experiences.”

Hinton said that Residence Life has intentionally aligned its goals with the major tenets of the University’s 1,000-day Action Plan that President Suzanne Davis introduced for the first three years of her term as president.

“It all comes back to that plan and the three ‘I’ words laid out in it – Immersive, Interconnected, and Innovative,” he said. “The innovative part is particularly important in the things we’re doing now. That attribute encourages us to re-think what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Our assessment puts us on the leading edge of most colleges. In fact, very few of the nation’s smaller schools are doing the assessment of their co-curricular area like we are.”

The Immersive goal is being accomplished by working alongside other campus offices and departments to create consistency across the university. Hinton said that consistency happens by continually asking “Why?” questions to make certain that policies and practices line up with the university’s core values.

And finally, the Interconnected goal is achieved when the Residence Life office and other offices work in concert to engage the whole student. “We want the students to feel connected to the University and to each other,” Hinton said.

So how does Residence Life accomplish those lofty goals? It has approximately 40 staffers who are living in the residence halls and have front-line experience with the way things are working and the policies that need to be tweaked. They also meet frequently to keep a steady flow of information coming to Hinton and his supervisor, Chief Student Experience Officer Ross Baker. During the school year, the RDs meet twice each week and then each RD meets weekly with the three to 10 RAs under their supervision.

“We do regular training throughout the year,” Hinton said, “and then we do a de-brief at the end of each academic year. It’s important to circle back to these guiding principles regularly, so we keep our primary objectives in mind. Then, when a problem comes up, we are quick to assess it and find a solution, so it doesn’t keep happening. It’s so much easier to handle the occasional problem when we keep our overarching principles in mind.”

Continuity among the residence life staff is one factor that helps the keep policies aligned with GU principles. In fact, during the 2022-2023 school year, all six of the resident directors (who each oversee one or more buildings) were GU alums. That team has been retained intact for the 2023-2024 school year and will be joined by another GU alum this fall. Most of the resident assistants (one of whom lives on each floor) are juniors and seniors who are familiar with the University and its culture.

“With all those leaders living in the residence halls, we’re very available and responsive to the students,” Hinton said. “And now, by using the results of the Living Area Satisfaction Survey, we hope to get better and better at creating a great living environment on campus.”

These was the GU resident life staff for the 2022-2023 academic year.