National OTM Winner...Steven Yeagley!

SIU Residence Life has some great things going on, and we want to showcase some of our proud moments on our blog. We also hope people considering working in RA, graduate assistant, or full-time positions with our department will take a minute to learn more about the things we are doing. More information about our department, including position descriptions, application information, and graduate and full-time staff profiles can be found on our recruitment website.

We were very excited to return from winter break and learn Steven Yeagley, Assistant Director of Residence Life here at SIU Carbondale, won recognition as the NACURH Residence Life Faculty/Staff Member Of The Month. Congratulations Steven on this award, and thank you to Drew Donahoo, Hall Director of University Hall, for submitting the winning nomination.

"Throughout the hustle and bustle of fall, the month of November provides an opportunity for reflection and thanks to be shared with those who deserve it. In Residence Life at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, one staff member deserves endless thanks for the dedication they have showed the department throughout the month. Steven Yeagley, Assistant Director of Residence Life, has bent over backward to keep things running smoothly this month."

Read more of the OTM submission here.

To nominate a person or program for Of The Month recognition, go to otms.nrhh.org

Thankful for so much...

SIU Residence Life has some great things going on, and we want to showcase some of our proud moments on our blog. We also hope people considering working in RA, graduate assistant, or full-time positions with our department will take a minute to learn more about the things we are doing. More information about our department, including position descriptions, application information, and graduate and full-time staff profiles can be found on our recruitment website.

The past few weeks have been big ones in Residence Life, and we have much for which to be thankful. Besides the health and well-being of our residents and staff (and a much needed break, once we formally close the buildings today), members of our team have received some fantastic recognition recently.

Justin Schuch, Coordinator of Residential Leadership & Engagement, was awarded the Regional Advisor Of The Year award for the Great Lakes Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls (GLACURH). This award recognizes outstanding service by an individual advisor above and beyond their job description while serving in an advising role to their university community and their residence life community. As the regional winner of this award, Justin will now be considered for the Advisor Of The Year award with the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. Congratulations to Justin and the team, led by Ashley Stegall (Communications Coordinator for the Residence Hall Association), who created the winning bid.




November 17-19, a delegation from our department attended the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO) annual conference. Members of our team contributed to and participated in the conference in a variety of different ways: committee members, members of the Board of Directors, program presenters, GLACUHO Gives Back (service project) volunteers, case study judges and participants, and session moderators. Two programs presented by members of our team received recognition as Top Ten programs of the conference, and one of those two received the prestigious GLASS award as the top program of the conference. This program will go on to be presented at the Association of College and University Housing Officers - International (ACUHO-I) Annual Conference and Exposition this summer. Information about both award-winning programs is included.

GLACUHO GLASS award program
Intersectionality and Leading: Incorporating Intersectionality into Leadership Development
Presented by Tina Horvath, Justin Schuch, Travis Gibler, and Sara Holtzman

Program description: Intersectionality conversations are often viewed as the “next level” for diversity training, but can be difficult to develop with undergraduate and new professionals. This program will be an activities-based Intersectionality training, utilized for professional and student staff training at Southern Illinois University. The program will provide practical activities and opportunities to develop a firmer understanding of Intersectionality for group and personal development with both student leaders and professional staff. This extended program will allow attendees to experience an intersectionality training activity, learn to facilitate and debrief the activity, as well as to gain a theoretical background of intersectionality theory.

GLACUHO Top Ten Program award

Managing Parenthood: A Panel Discussion about Student Affairs Professionals' Experiences Balancing Full Time Careers and Families Within Student Affairs

Presented by: Tina Horvath, Stacey Mwilambwe (Illinois State University), and Steven Yeagley

Program description: Join us for a dynamic round table discussion to hear three parents' unique experiences balancing parenthood and careers within a demanding profession. During this round table, we will talk openly about our parental proud moments, time management triumphs and tragedies, difficult decisions, partner support, career advancement and the reality of parenting while working within an educational environment that does not always follow a traditional schedule. Come prepared to share your questions and thoughts so we can learn from one another.

Thank you to all our students and staff who represented our department in such positive ways. We are proud of you!

Professional Development Institute by Brian Gallagher

SIU Residence Life has some great things going on, and we want to showcase some of our proud moments on our blog. We also hope people considering working in RA, graduate assistant, or full-time positions with our department will take a minute to learn more about the things we are doing. More information about our department, including position descriptions, application information, and graduate and full-time staff profiles can be found on our recruitment website. Today's blog post was written by Brian Gallagher, Hall Director in Schneider Hall, about his experience attending the 2013 Professional Development Institute (PDI) presented by the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO).

Over the weekend of February 8-10 I was fortunate to be selected to be a member of the GLACUHO PDI class of 2013. PDI stands for Professional Development Institute and is run by the Programming and Development committee of the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers. This year was the 5th annual PDI.

PDI occurs each spring and was sponsored by Southwest Contract – so it was essentially free for me to attend. Thanks to Southwest Contract!

My experience at PDI actually started in November when I had a conversation with my supervisor about attending. He had previously attended and said it was a great idea for me to apply. The application process was a series of reflective essay questions and a résumé. The questions asked me what challenges I thought faced professionals when they hit the 3-5 year mark, what I thought I would be doing in 5-10 years, and then a series of questions about the five chosen topic areas that we would be learning about: Social Justice, Supervision, Facilities, Mental Health, and Advanced Budgeting.

Once accepted to PDI, we received some "homework" to prepare us for our sessions. I read a few articles, I was able to interview our Director of Housing about social justice and the budget, and filled out a leadership style assessment. I was also able to take some time to mentally prepare myself for PDI. Since I didn’t know what to expect at PDI, it was tough to prepare!

PDI itself was a whirlwind of presentation sessions, reflective personal thinking time, and 1:1 time with a mentor. I was challenged to think about Housing, who I am as a leader, and how we treat those around us. I met a great group of 18 other housing professionals with 3-5 years of experience. We had five excellent faculty members who were all senior housing officers at a variety of small and large institutions.

Without going into a ton of detail about each thing I learned or thought about it is hard to write a blog like this. However, as I think about myself as a professional, I learned a lot about telling my story and standing strong in saying “I have valuable experiences that I can share in a meaningful way.” I think so often we, as professionals, turn to those in the room who have been in the field longer than us or who have terminal degrees. When, in fact, we all have valuable experiences to bring to the table. I’m clearly still processing my time at PDI. I am very thankful to the housing professionals here at SIU for both enabling me to go and for covering my duties while I was gone. I value this team and I value how each of us can be encouraged to learn and develop both in our daily duties and at conference opportunities such as PDI.

GLACUHO Winter Meeting by Michelle Kinney

SIU Residence Life has some great things going on, and we want to showcase some of our proud moments on our blog. We also hope people considering working in RA, graduate assistant, or full-time positions with our department will take a minute to learn more about the things we are doing. More information about our department, including position descriptions, application information, and graduate and full-time staff profiles can be found on our recruitment website. Today's blog post was written by Michelle Kinney, Hall Director of Mae Smith Hall, about her experience attending the 2013 Winter Business Meeting for the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO).

It is one thing to be involved on your campus; it is another thing to have the opportunity to connect with people of the Student Affairs field on a larger spectrum. When applying for my first post-graduate Hall Director position, networking was something I made it a point to ask schools about. I did not just want the ability to network within my university, which is still important (and secret: you can ALWAYS do this!), I also wanted to know it was an option to network in larger areas as well. The first thing I did in order to help with this was look into ways to get involved with the GLACUHO region. After some research, I applied for a committee. I thought "hey I loved regional committees in graduate school, I’m sure I’ll love them here too." I was selected to be on the Health and Wellness Committee and I started working with my Chair as soon as possible, though something was still missing. SIU was able to fill the “hole” this month when I (along with other co-workers) had the chance to go to the GLACUHO Winter Meeting. This is held at Camp Tecumseh in Brookston, Indiana each year and is about a day and a half with travel. During this time, your main focus is on working with your committee while getting some social time with others during meals and in the evening. I was so pumped about this opportunity and before I knew it…. I was on my way to Brookston, Indiana...

Once we arrived, it was straight to work! After a quick welcome session and some chatting with old friends (it is awesome to see where everyone is!), we headed to committee meetings. Though my committee chair was not able to be at the conference, we hit the ground running with some ice breakers and brainstorming sessions. I have the unique experience to belong to a “baby” committee (we have only been around in the GLACUHO region for a couple of years) and the opportunities really are endless! This year we have decided to focus on the graduate students and professionals in our region. After a lot of brainstorming (and using a LOT of paper) we came up with some areas to focus on throughout the remainder of the year. Some areas we will be focusing on (all within the realm of Health and Wellness) are: crisis support, the what-ifs of student affairs, wellness in the job search, managing transitions, navigating unspoken expectations, and the challenges of living on campus. We will be creating some webinars, blogs, Trends (quarterly) articles, and so much more. We have set our eyes on the prize and have a lot planned! But a great quote, “Have high expectations and expect to have them met”!

If you are interested in the Health and Wellness committee's blog, you can always check them out here. I’m excited to have the chance to make a great name for myself in the GLACUHO region. It’s great to get to be a part of a topic that I genuinely really care about and take the lead on some great topics with both a Trends article and blog posts!

After a day and a half of brainstorming and drawing up plans, we all got back together as a large group and shared our ideas to all! This was the time to really get to see what we as a region were creating for the upcoming year…and just as you would expect at a Student Affairs Conference… there were lots of cheering, skits, songs, and more!

Overall, it has been nerve-wracking coming back to my home region, only this time as a professional. The pressure is on! However, GLACUHO has allowed me as a young professional to get my “feet wet” in the field and within the region. Ultimately I want to be a President of a university. With that goal, networking is always a good idea! This opportunity will only help me in my future endeavors as a Student Affairs Professional! It was a long day and a half, driving to and from Indiana, and spending my waking hours in meetings, but one heck of an experience! I made more connections with the region that will only help me and was able to help form a great plan for the year. There is even talk of a 5K at the annual conference in November 2013! (Get pumped!)