Professional Development Opportunities by Tera Lippert, University Hall Hall Director

Hi all! My name is Tera and I am a second year Hall Director at SIUC. I wanted to take some time to tell you a little bit about professional development in University Housing and some of the experiences that I’ve had.

As a professional Hall Director, we are allotted $500 per year to spend on our professional development. This can include conference registration fees, reading materials, or anything that you can show will contribute to your professional development and also help SIUC in the process.

Professional staff members also have 6 credit hours per semester of classes included in their compensation. This past semester, I enrolled in a class to further my professional and personal development. My graduate degree is in business, so I wanted to get a feel for Higher Education classes in preparation of one day completing a PhD program. I absolutely loved my class and I learned a ton! I also learned how to balance my class work with duty, committees, and any of those last minute surprises that we are so accustom to in Res Life.


In addition to taking a class this year, I also co-teach a Leadership course in collaboration with Student Development. This will be my second year teaching, and I am looking forward to my interactions with students outside of the residence halls. SIUC is great about encouraging collaboration and emphasizing that young professionals get involved on campus. We have professionals that advise Greek chapters, teach classes, advise NRHH, and assist with RHA.

As a young professional in this field, I truly feel that SIUC does a great job at helping us learn that professional development is what we make of it. University Housing has helped to lay my foundation, but it is up to me to point myself in the direction that I want to go. Between my class work last semester for my “Ethics and Social Justice in Education” course and supervising my own area office , I feel as though I learned more in one semester than I had in my previous six of supervising RA staffs.

SIUC provides many opportunities for professional development, from teaching, to supervising graduate students, advising student groups, serving on university committees, or running an area office. SIUC University Housing partners with their employees to help them develop and find their passions. I couldn’t have picked a better institution and department to start my professional career.