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Welcome to the WACUHO Spring 2011 Waves Newsletter! Just like WACUHO, the WAVES is always a work in progress! If you have suggestions for improvements, please e–mail me at editor@wacuho.org or call me at (909) 869–2239.

Hello WACUHO!

I can’t believe that it is May already! This year is going by way too fast and has been more than what I thought it was going to be, in a good way. I keep thinking about what I am going to volunteer for next year and keep going to the WACUHO website to see what my options are. Too many committees, too many choices, too little time!

The Executive Committee has been busy and you will shortly be seeing the outcomes. PMI was held at UCR and was very successful. I am not sure about the others, but I enjoyed meeting new members and connecting with seasoned members.

The WACUHO Annual Conference and Exposition (WACE) website is up and filled with information, check it out at http://www.wacuho.org/wace2011/. You will be able to register, review the schedule, see who our current Corporate Partners are, and so much more at the website. The date is June 19-22nd and the theme is Mission San Diego: Connect, Collaborate, Cultivate. Jessica Pettit will be the closing keynote speaker on June 22nd. The program committee is looking for program presenters from all areas of Housing and Dining so step up and present a program! The USD staff is gearing up and looks forward to hosting all of you on their beautiful campus! Watch for updates on the website and in the weekly e-mail updates. Registration is taking place right now with a May 14th “On Time Deadline” so if you have not registered please do so.

Strides have been made on the work of the WACUHO Strategic Planning Committee. This group has continued to fine tune the Association’s mission and purpose statements, following feedback received at the 2010 Annual Conference, and are putting together programs for the 2011 Annual Conference so everyone in attendance can give their feedback and ideas.

The nominations committee is currently collecting votes for our 2011-2012 Executive Committee and we have a slate of candidates that are talented and excited about working for WACUHO and its members.

The ACUHO-I 2012 Annual Conference and Exposition will be held in Anaheim on July 7-10, 2012. Our own John Capaccio, CSU Humboldt, will be the local arrangements committee chair. I look forward to working with John and the committee to showcase why California is a great place to live and visit!

See you next time,
Jeanette
WACUHO President

WACUHO recognizes the benefits derived from the inclusion of diversity in the Association. Significant contributions are made by members from all areas of higher education and at every level of responsibility. The quality of perspective and experience shared by our members, inclusive of ethnicity, age, gender, religious preference, sexual orientation, or differing abilities, adds a dynamic that enriches the character of the Association. WACUHO encourages all to actively participate in its programs, events and activities.

This is just a friendly reminder that the 2011 WACUHO Annual Conference & Exposition registration is LIVE and OPEN. The conference will be held in beautiful San Diego at the University of San Diego (http://www.sandiego.edu/)

To avoid a late fee and to be considered "on time" for registration, all attendees must register before May 14, 2011.

Registrants will be subject to a $50 late fee for any registrations processed after May 14, 2011.

For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.wacuho.org/wace2011//index.html

To register or for registration materials, please visit: http://www.wacuho.org/wace2011//c_registration.html

If you have any questions regarding registration, please email me Josh O’Connor at registration@wacuho.org

See you in June in San Diego!

Josh O’Connor & Kathi Spittel
WACE 2011 Host Co-Chairs

Programmed for Success

WACE 2011 Sessions Offer Something for Everyone

Navigating institutional politics. Saving to buy a home while living on campus. Embracing geeks. The impact of infrastructure on residents. What do these topics have in common? They’re all programs planned for this June’s 2011 WACUHO Annual Conference & Exposition (WACE) in San Diego. And, these are just a few of the 40-plus amazing presentations brought to you by university experts that will help you connect, collaborate and cultivate knowledge and experience.

Kicking off the four-day conference will be a lively discussion featuring panelists with experience working in residence halls, as well as colleagues in higher education who have seen how staff in college housing impacts the larger community. These panelists, all from the University of San Diego, are: Cynthia Avery, AVP for Student Life; Moises Baron, AVP for Wellness; Michael Catanzarro, Director of Sustainability; and Belinda Lum, Assistant Professor and Resident Faculty.

This year’s interest sessions cover a wide range of topics with the hope that every attendee will learn something new and innovative that they can take back to use at their campus or in their own lives. Some presentations will appeal to everyone and others are more specific to work areas. Here’s a look at a few of the great programs:

• Pa-pa-pa Poker Face: A Guide to Navigating Institutional Politics by Liz Miller, CSU Channel Islands — Inspired by challenges faced by new mid- and upper-level managers, this session will focus on small group discussions where participants can share their stories in a safe environment and receive feedback from peers facing the same obstacles.
• Mission Possible: Creating a Collaborative Student Leader Training by Briana T. Maturi, Loyola Marymount University — Traditionally, student affairs departments spend August training their student staff members in preparation for the new academic year. These trainings are time intensive and often have an overlap of topics. But what if departments worked together to create a unified student leadership experience?
• Cultivating the Money Tree: Creating a Student Housing Fundraising Program by Marty Takimoto and Tess Chandler, University of California, Berkeley — From concept to implementation, this session will review how Cal created a fundraising position and program to support student housing programs and services.
• Getting a Phd is 90% Persistence, 10% Intellect: Lessons learned from the First Year of Doctor School by Piya Bose, Cal Poly Pomona — If you’re considering an EdD or Phd, you won’t want to miss Bose’s tips and lessons she learned in her first 10 months of pursuing her degree.
• Can Your Building Handle It? The Impacts of Infrastructure by Brian Enriquez, Cassandra Morton and Brian Roundtree, University of Redlands — These three presenters share their experiences on how infrastructure influences community building, gender-blind housing and policy enforcement.
• How to Save and Buy a Home as a Live-in Professional by Dr. Dana Pysz, UCLA — This two-part session focuses on saving, building credit and getting your finances in order and then takes you through the process of purchasing a home.

Another integral component of this year’s conference is our roundtable discussions, meant to facilitate sharing of experiences and development of ideas. This year’s roundtables will include a midlevel managers’ discussion, in which managers will address how they have been successful in their position and what steps they’ve taken to enrich the experience for themselves and their staff. The technology roundtable will offer participants a chance to talk about what works and what doesn’t regarding their technological needs. This roundtable is a great chance to build a network of technology experts to reach out to when you return to your home campus!

Other session topics include:

• The New Public, Private Partnership: Connect, Collaborate, Cultivate
• UCSD New Campus Housing Tour
• Planning New Housing with Program in Mind
• It’s Not Always Physical: Intro to Mental Health First Aid
• Create Your Own Corporate Sponsor Program
• How to Not Allow Conflict to Ruin Your Day
• Do More, Be More, Learn More: A Sophomore Experience with More

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to connect with peers, collaborate on ideas and cultivate a whole new network of knowledge. To get more information and register for WACE 2011, go to www.wacuho.org/wace2011.

The Pacific Management Institute (PMI) was held on February 24-25, 2011 on the Campus of UC Riverside. This year’s Scholar in Residence was Alex Belisario who serves as the College Administrative Officer for Crown & Merrill Colleges at UC Santa Cruz and a past President of WACUHO. The conference was held over two-days with 23 participants from various institutions. The first day of the conference focused on “mindfulness” and working to achieve the potential of the self. There were a number of activities that allowed for reflection and sharing. The second day consisted of tips on supervising professionals in the millennial generation and how one can best use the skills from various generations to improve their organization. Overall, the conference was successful and brought out a number of folks from various departments across the housing spectrum.

The planning committee was small, but mighty and included: Tyler Miller (CSU Fresno); Jack Saxon (UC Riverside) Joshua Witbeck (UC Riverside) and Leslie Krafft (University of Redlands) who served as the Executive Committee Liaison. The PMI Co-Chairs James Smith (UC Riverside) and Mary Tregoning (UC Riverside) along with the rest of the committee would like to thank Alex Belisario for her dedication to making the conference a success. Additionally, the committee thanks UC Riverside Housing, Dining & Residential services for providing costs for rooms, food & parking.

James C. Smith and Mary Tregoning, UC Riverside

Imagine yourself in the Residential Life Office when one of your colleagues calls you the wrong name for the third time in a row. How do you respond?

You are in a one on one with a student staff member and they share with you that you are the first person of color that they have seen in a professional staff role. How does that make you feel?

You work in an environment where the majority of your colleagues dress in more casual attire. One day you decide to dress down and your supervisor makes a comment about how you’ve shown up to work. What do you do when you realize that your colleagues who dress casually are white and you are a person of color?

What if the above experiences were true for you or a close colleague? What does this mean for your department or campus? What roles do you or can you play? This article is based on a combination of our own truths and stories shared with us, and is not intended to represent all people of color who work at predominantly white institutions (PWI). This article is not about blaming a particular group or institution. Our hope is that this article will empower you to explore the impact of social identity in the work setting. After discussing our professional experiences at PWIs there were several similarities including receiving a “pass”, professional attire and the name game.

Growing up as women of color, we were taught to talk better, walk better and dress better than our white counterparts in order to be seen as equal. There is an internal pressure to come to work dressed professionally, based on the fear that we will not be taken seriously by students, staff and faculty. Take today for example; I questioned whether or not it would be professional to wear a hat to work. Based on societal expectations, I decided not to wear one. Professionalism is not always about attire, it is also about attitude and commitment. We have to constantly be conscious of our attitude, preparedness and timeliness. We call this receiving a “pass” which means having the choice to physically or mentally tune in or out. Most often this has been connected to race but can extend to other identities. We notice that there tends to be a higher expectation for people of color in contrast to our white counterparts. Is this something that you have noticed?

With regards to the name game, we talk with our Residential Life staff about how important it is to know an individual’s name. We devote a lot of time and effort to icebreakers, which focuses on learning names and getting to know people. In our conversations, we have both shared the sentiment of how important our names are to us. We both shared our stories of how our names are connected to our family history. The name game is when two or more people of color’s names are used interchangeably. This is problematic because it serves as a reminder of the stereotype that “we” all look alike. Sometimes this has led us to question whether or not we fit in.

Now, you may be wondering, what do I do with this information? First, be aware of who you are and how your most salient identities show up in the workspace. Also, know that it is important to establish cross cultural connections and meaningful relationships with your colleagues. Finally, don’t be afraid to ask questions and/or seek out resources to add to your social justice tool box.

Tiffany Gray, Residential Life Coordinator, Sonoma State University
Crystal White, Residential Life Coordinator, Sonoma State University

on behalf of the Equity & Diversity Awareness Committee

Southern RAP 2011 – It’s Coming!

Hello WACUHO and the Southern Region! It’s time to think about Southern RAP 2011 and to submit those bids for our host institution!

Attached you will find the Bid Form and the How to Host a RAP document. This will outline everything you need to know for hosting the upcoming Southern RAP conference, so please consider submitting one! Hosting is an incredible opportunity for you, your staff, and your institution! If you are considering hosting, please think about these few things:

• Do you have a space that can accommodate around 500 people (conference center, etc.)?
• Do you have a food service on campus that would be willing to cater the event?
• Do you have enough classrooms/meeting rooms that can host multiple programs/sessions at a time?
• Do you have a large number of student staff and volunteers that will be able to help host the event?
• Do you have a fabulous campus that you would like to feature?

While there are many things to consider when hosting a RAP, the above questions are some of the most important to keep in mind when submitting a bid, as we may select you!

If you would like to submit your bid, please email it to either Liz Hagen (elizabeth.hagen@ucr.edu) or to Allison Vail (allison_vail@redlands.edu). We would love to be able to have a large number of bids to submit to next year’s committee, so please get your forms in no later than June 1, 2011. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, we’re happy to help!

Thanks you all!
Liz and Allison

The Sustainability Committee is a new and exciting opportunity for professionals and institutions to learn about how to incorporate more sustainable practices into their day-to-day operations and interactions with students.

The purpose of this exciting addition to the WACUHO committee list is to provide cutting edge information about sustainability in today’s college and university housing programs. This committee will collaborate with other regional ACUHO-I sustainability committees to share information and best practices for programming while focusing on sustainability education.

You can expect a number of things from this committee that include educational articles in the WACUHO WAVES newsletter that will include educational tips, best practices and resources as well as collaborating with other WACUHO committees to develop sustainable practices. If you have a passion for sustainability and want to help shape the Sustainability Committee, please join in and help make a difference!

The Sustainability Committee

The Awards and Recognition Committee is excited to announce that nominations for the 2011 Charles L. Miller Leadership and Service Award are now being accepted for review. This award is in special recognition of a current member of the Association who has made significant contributions through dedicated service and outstanding leadership to the Western Association of College and University of Housing Officers.

All nomination materials must be received by May 27, 2011.

The Charles L. Miller Award is named in memory of Mr. Charles L. Miller, the 30th President of the Association. Throughout his career, Charles L. Miller, better known as “Charlie,” exemplified the highest level of dedication to our profession, provided outstanding leadership and role modeling for seasoned veterans and new professionals alike, and was known for his tremendous sense of humor. His death at a young age only served to accentuate the wonderful contributions, accomplishments, and valuable service he gave to our Association. In fond memory of him and respect to his family, this award has been bestowed on individuals who, like Charlie, have made a difference in our Association and in the lives of colleagues and the students we serve.

Below you will find a link to the nomination form for this prestigious award. The form contains the criteria, postmark dates, and process information. The Awards and Recognition Committee strongly encourages you and your staff to nominate a colleague who deserves our Association’s highest honor.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to contact Dana Pysz via email at danap@orl.ucla.edu or by telephone at (310) 206-7709. The Awards and Recognition Committee appreciates your input and assistance in honoring one of our own!

Past Charles L. Miller Leadership and Service Award Recipients:

• 1992: Joseph Risser
• 1993: Harland Harris
• 1994: Gary Little
• 1995: Rick Hagan
• 1996: Ali Mossaver-Rahmani
• 1997: Harry Le Grande
• 1998: Eddie Bankston
• 1999: Jim “JB” Brock
• 2000: Norma Armtrout
• 2001: Not Awarded
• 2002: Sue Matthews
• 2003: Jack Gibbons
• 2004: Andy Klingelhoefer
• 2005: Liz Simpson
• 2006: Alan Ogi
• 2007: Carol Robert-Corb
• 2008: Terry Campbell
• 2009: Jeffrey Urdahl
• 2010: Andy Plumley

The Awards and Recognition Committee is excited to announce that nominations for the 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award are now being accepted for review. This award is to give special recognition to a committee member of the Association who has made a significant contribution to the success of your committee and to the Western Association of College and University Housing Officers. The recipient of this award is typically someone with whom the committee would have had difficulties achieving their goals had the individual not been involved.

All nomination materials must be received by May 6, 2011.

Below you will find a link to the nomination form for this award. The form contains the criteria, postmark dates, and process information. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to contact Dana Pysz via email at danap@orl.ucla.edu or by telephone at (310) 206-7709. The Awards and Recognition Committee appreciates your input and assistance in recognizing one of our own!

Past Volunteer of the Year Award Recipients:

• 2002/03 - Liz Peterson (Occidental College)
• 2003/04 - Robert Stephens (UC Berkeley)
• 2004/05 - Joseph Martinez (Occidental College)
• 2005/06 - David Hong (Menlo College)
• 2006/07 - Gina Dixon (UC Riverside)
• 2007/08 - Kris McPeak (University of Redlands)
• 2008/09 – Kim Shimasaki (Vista del Campo at UC Irvine) and Miki Swik (UC Santa Barbara)
• 2009/10 – Kelly Cole (UC Davis)

They don’t care… or do they? This past winter quarter at Cal Poly Pomona, University Housing Services (UHS) developed a series of programs and workshops dedicated to increasing student knowledge about their personal safety practices. Understanding today’s college student, especially with the pervasive internet and social media culture, we wanted to try something different in reaching out to our student population instead of the traditional posters, word of mouth, email blasts, and last minute door-to-door grabbing of residents.

As part of this week long initiative, we shared tips on practical ways for students to protect themselves and their communities. We wanted a fun way to assess how the students internalized these tips. The safety video contest was born!

Xtranormal was our inspiration for creative advertising. The website is based on the premise that if you can type you can make a movie. You have probably seen these animated videos that have characters with computer synthesized voices. There’s a video about a bear who wants an iPhone (http://goo.gl/wyOK6) and a video of a parent interacting with a Residence Life Professional on move-in day (http://goo.gl/WgpwQ). Going with this theme, we created our own parody humorously encouraging our students to care about their personal safety and submit their own videos (http://goo.gl/YOhn2). Students who created videos were required to incorporate the tips into their contest entry.

Videos were posted on our department’s Facebook page. The video that had the most “Likes” won a Flip HD Camera. The winning contestant was (Hector Quevedo [use name?]). His entry had a whopping 439 “Likes.” The contest, overall, increased the amount of people following the UHS page by almost 1000 students (http://facebook.com/calpolyhousing).

Though it took more time to write a funny script than it would to create a poster, it was definitely worth reaching our students in a new way. Now we are brainstorming more ways to utilize social media to engage our students. We learned that they do care!

Jason Lu and Charlyne Yue

In anticipation of a very busy season of summer hiring, training, conference planning and ultimately complaints from guests we wanted to provide a few stories that will hopefully keep you centered in busy times.

• Back in the day, when someone’s laundry was done drying, the person who wanted to use the dryer afterwards would take the laundry out of the dryer and fold it for the other person so they didn’t return to find a pile of their clothes laid out. A staff member was folding the laundry of another person’s when their colleagues walked by and from then on he was known as the underwear thief.
• A professional staff member was walking back from an off-campus trip towards her apartment when she looked up to see four foreign guests of a summer English Language program playing football in an alley in their birthday suits. One of the students approached her and asked if she wanted to join. Two questions entered her mind….omg I hope the family camps haven’t come back to their rooms yet….. and I wonder if all foreign games are played naked.

• A gentleman of about 35 years showed up to the building desk to check in for a conference he was attending in the nearby downtown. He presented an ID and announced his name in a rather thick accent. The desk staff silenced a giggle hoping not to show they had thought the accent was fake. He took his keys and bid the staff a goodnight.

  Ten minutes later he came back saying “Here’s looking at you kid” “wax on wax off” and “say hello to my little friend” all before asking for new sheets. The staff giggled without being able to contain their smirks at what was clearly a make-shift Russian accent. They provided him with the sheets and he bid them goodnight.

  Assuming they would not see the gentleman again the staff began talking about the movies they believed he had quoted and began a mini debate about what accent he spoke with. Out of nowhere the gentleman popped up at the desk and asked for a kettle. He took one step away, turned around and in an exaggerated head nod and exclaimed: “It’s Scandinavian and I’m a method actor…(dramatic pause) from Boston”

  The staff was shocked and in awe of the thickest east coast accent they had ever heard and of course another eccentric customer we have all come to know too well in conference services.

Have a great 2011 Conference Season! –The Conference Services Committee

Since last year, the Judicial Affairs committee has contemplated a name change and WACUHO’s Executive Committee approved their proposal! The committee is now known as Judicial Affairs & Student Conduct Committee. What prompted a name change you might ask? Well, as you may or may not know, the field of college and university conduct has been trying to more accurately describe the work they do on a daily basis. More and more, departments across the nation have been changing their names to reflect their focus on student conduct and behavior and not being a college and university legal office. One such example is the Association of Student Conduct Administrators (formerly, Association of Student Judicial Affairs) having made the ideological change in their name. However, the committee wants to recognize that there are several, perhaps infinite, possibilities for a department’s name and therefore maintained the two most prominent titles.

If you are interested in being involved with the Judicial Affairs and Student Conduct committee for 2011-12 please sign-up here!

Thank You,
Chris Williams
Executive Committee Liaison

A brand new committee for the 2011-2012 academic year will be having their first roundtable at WACE to introduce the committee goals and garner interest from the association.

The purpose of this committee is to support the special challenges and opportunities which exist in our population of small colleges and universities and/or private colleges and universities. This committee would provide a venue for discussing issues, evaluating best practices, and sharing ideas and programs that have been successful in these unique institutions. If you are interested in finding out more about this committee, please consider attending the roundtable discussion at WACE.

The New Professionals Committee is hard at work selecting the scholarship award recipients for this year’s Annual Conference at the University of San Diego. We are really looking forward to a great year connecting New Professionals to one another at the conference. The committee is also working hard on the programs we plan to offer at the conference. The committee will host the New Professionals Orientation on Sunday from 4-5pm in the Student Life Pavilion Atrium, and the New Professionals Night on the Town on Monday evening. The committee is also excited to bring back the Mentor/Mentee breakfast which is planned for Monday morning during the normal breakfast time. The committee is working hard to make all of these programs a success. We hope to see you at WACE in June!!!

Noah Kaloostian & Crystal White
New Professionals Committee Co-Chairs

Are you amazed at how fast technology changes? Light weight Laundry Cards instead of pounds of quarters; E-book readers like the Kindle and Nook which have all but replaced the standard paperback; and let’s not forget the iPad and iPhone revolution – yes, there’s an app for that!

It’s tough to keep up, but that’s what the WACUHO Technology and Info. Systems committee strives to do. We are proud to announce some exciting initiatives that are nearly in place, and some others that are a bit further off, but with your help can become a reality much, much sooner. In short, we need your help!

• If you have, or have ever wanted to be tech savvy, join this committee!
• If you are graphically or artistically inclined and want to assist with the WACUHO website, join this committee!
• If you know, or have connections to someone who knows how to design an iPhone, Android, and/or other smart phone App, Join this committee!
• If you just want to get involved and you think that being on the Technology & Info. Systems Committee sounds cool, Join this committee!

We are committed to moving WACUHO forward and learning new skills along the way. Please contact Jacques Zalma, Technology & Info. Systems Chair (techandinfochair@wacuho.org), if you have any questions. We are excited to have you join this committee and help keep WACUHO and its members up to speed.

We are pleased to announce that Briana Enriquez and Cassandra Morton from University of Redlands will be receiving the award for the annual conference. Each award totals $650!

We are extending the deadline for the ACUHO-I Scholarship Award to May 13th. Please encourage folks to apply! Information can be found on the WACUHO website, www.wacuho.org!

WACUHO Joins Linkedin!

Get connected! Join the WACUHO social network…

• LINKED IN
• FACEBOOK GROUP: WACUHO Friends and Family Group

The Time and Place Committee is not fooling around – they want you to put yourselves out there. You can do this, you just don’t know it yet.

Us Inland Empire Girls put our heads together and decided we were ready to get WACE back to a hotel. Once we found a hotel, the rest of it was (somewhat) simple. Thanks to guidance from previous Annual Conference Chairs, Executive Committee members, and the Time and Place Committee, we are super excited to be hosting WACE 2012 at the Sheraton Fairplex in Pomona, CA.

There are really just five things you need to do to get your institution excited about hosting WACE 2013:

1. Share with your supervisor (or Director, Dean, VP) about the regional exposure that the university and housing program will get – and the FREE professional development that your staff will get from this experience (FREE meaning the participation on the committees – y’all still have to pay to register!).
2. Find a hotel with a staff you feel comfortable with – this will make negotiating your bid a much simpler and less stressful process.
3. Approach folks from your school (or immediate regional or metropolitan area) to be your advocates and possibly your co-chairs for the conference committees. Consider the strengths of your co-workers, employees, and supervisors and INVITE them to help you.


4. Ask questions, be flexible, and practice patience. Nothing happens overnight, but hard work and good research is rewarded!
5. There are little gems in your cities, neighborhoods, communities – FIND THEM. Who would have thought Pomona could be so interesting – but it IS!

Seriously – YOU CAN DO THIS. Just get a partner and go for it. We are super glad that we did!

Laura Dorfman – Cal-Poly Pomona
Kris McPeak – University of Redlands
WACE 2012 Annual Conference Co-Chairs