1. Were they outgoing?
2. Did they have a ton of leadership experience?
3. Were they confident?
4. Did they have energy (could they be a cheerleader)?
5. Were they involved?

Now – this was a good list mind you.  But very short sighted on my part.  You see – as a supervisor –this sort of made things really easy in the beginning.  These were the people who would get to know all their residents, plan great programs, lead the staff, etc.  I am not knocking these qualities.  But what I found over the years is that these were not good measurements or predictors of whether the person would be a successful Resident Advisor.  In fact, I couldn’t predict at ALL given these questions that the staff member would do well or quit midyear.  But I have seen what makes a successful RA over the years.

If you are interested in becoming a Resident Advisor – consider what I am about to tell you carefully.  If you are a Resident Director – consider this in choosing your staff. It is just one man’s opinion – and I would LOVE for folks to include THEIR list in the comments below. Here is what I believe ARE the biggest predictors of a successful staff member:

1. Kindness
2. Passion
3. Positive Attitude
4. Humility/Not insisting in their own way
5. Academic Success

Allow me to expand:

1. Kindness – As a person choosing a staff – I consider the things I can train folks on, and the things I cannot.  No amount of training will make an RA kind.  They either care more about others than they do themselves (within reason), or they are, at the core, selfish.   Kindness permeates the issues with deal with – whether it is social justice issues, caring that a student is struggling, buying into being a part of the team, being kind will help a staff member understand, that at the core, the RA job is about caring for people.
2. Passion – Now for some of you, Passion means they are outgoing.  But if I see a student who is shy – but LOVES collecting figurines – or has a passion for community service – or a passion to become a doctor – that will do for me.  Because I believe in what we do – and I believe someone with passion will ultimately develop a passion for their residents – and their staff team.  Being kick-back is one thing – but if there isn’t anything you are passionate about –that gets you excited, you’re not going to have a good time in this position.  Again – it is more difficult with some of our shy candidates to find their passion.  Sometimes we discard a candidate because in group process they don’t say a WORD.  But I’ll be honest – if the group is awful – and two folks are dominating the group and talk all the time – sometimes keeping quiet is a positive thing in my book.  As long as I know they are passionate, they will be pushed through.  When I was an RD, there were some candidates I knew would be good – but because colleagues didn’t see them be outgoing, they weren’t given the chance.  When I was a young RD, I did the same.  As Assistant Director, I have a little more weight, and sometimes RDs are surprised when I push a candidate out there – they wonder how they could be an RA because they are shy.  And most of the times (I am not perfect by any means) once that person gets on staff – others see their passion – and it is a beautiful thing to behold.  Besides – it adds diversity to the staff. Not everyone can be the outgoing cheerleader!
3. Positive Attitude –If I were to list attributes in order, this MIGHT be the top of the list.  Once again, I cannot train someone to have a positive attitude.  You either have it, or you don’t.  When things don’t go your way, do you make lemonade out of lemons, or do you become a sour puss?  I have witnessed a negative attitude DESTROY a staff.  It is like a cancer.  As a supervisor, if I have a staff member with a bad attitude, I have three choices – sit back and let it spread, bend over backwards trying to make an unhappy person happy (usually alienating the other staff members with a positive attitude) or start the paper trail where either they are able to change or not.  Being able to handle change positively, dealing with things beyond your control are attributes that are like GOLD.
4. Humility/Not insisting on your own way – Ok – so you are probably starting to sense a theme here- once again – choose folks who have qualities you can’t train on.  Confidence is good, but cockiness is no good on an RA staff.  Insisting your way is correct and being unable to see any other way to do it is problematic.  Yes, I struggle with this – but again –you aren’t going to find perfection (usually).  But having a humble staff vs. staff who think they are “too cool for school”, I have found has resulted in a better experience.
5. Academic Success – So – a good friend of mine once said “I have NEVER had to fire someone with a 4.0 GPA.”  And this is so true.  I wasn’t a big believer in academic success early on.  I mean – if they were doing amazing programs, getting to know their residents, etc, but they had a 2.0 or 2.5 GPA – what is the big deal?  Well…the big deal is…even in housing, if you have a great hall, that is having fun, but your students are struggling and dropping out of school – you aren’t supporting the educational mission of the University.  And if you have staff who can’t do school, they aren’t going to be good role models for the students.  Now hear me – I am not saying that staff can’t be successful if they are getting 2.5s – I am merely saying that a staff member coming in with academic success already a part of their lives has demonstrated an ability to “jump through hoops” and tackle the administrative side of the job.  One more thing about Academic success.  One of  the WORST moments in my career was being told by my boss I needed to fire a staff member because they didn’t make grades.  I hated it.  But basically if I didn’t, I was told I would lose my job.  So, I did it.  I REALLY struggled with it.  But I have learned, that by placing a priority for our staff to keep their grades in a positive realm (at least above a 2.5) it does make a difference with the students.  I have actual data that shows there is correlation between the GPA of the staff, and the residents GPA.  As the GPA of my staff has improved overall, so has the GPa of the residents.  Again, this probably isn’t causal, but there is correlative data, at least for some of the institutions I have been at.

So there it is.  I DO want to make a special note of two things I also believe are predictive of RA success, but unfortunately are hard to gauge in an RA interview process -mainly Judgment and Integrity.  How do you measure integrity in a process?  The best I have seen is asking a candidate to define integrity and to share a story with the team that demonstrates their commitment to integrity.  But alas – someone WITHOUT integrity could completely make something up, and there is no way to know.  Also – Judgment.  A staff member who displays good judgment will be successful, but the best way I have found to measure that in an RA process is by doing case studies.  But again, seeing it on paper is one thing -  but actually making good judgments is another.

One final note: rarely have I found someone who possesses ALL of the qualities above.  It HAS happened – but I merely give the list above to give you something to think about as you start on the journey of picking your next staff.  What do you think?  Agree?  Disagree?  What are OTHER qualities you look for in a candidate?

Last week, I watched “The Dark Knight Returns Part 1.”  If you haven’t watched Warner Brothers’ adaptation of Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns Part 1, you are really missing out.  These are probably some of the finest animated Batman movies ever made.  Ever.  Seriously.  They do an amazing job at adapting Frank Miller’s classic graphic novel, and it comes perfectly on the heels of the Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s fine wrap up of his trilogy.   Dark Knight Returns is rated PG-13, so it is not for children.  For those of you who may not know the story, it basically is what happens after Batman retires because he is too old.  It’s been ten years since Batman last appeared (Christopher Nolan anyone?) but the legend of Batman continues.  Things have gotten so bad, Batman struggles on whether to come out of retirement or not.   It is worth reading the graphic novel – and it certainly is worth watching the movie.

Recently, as an Assistant Director, I have had to struggle on whether to “come out” of retirement on different things.  There are things I miss about being an RD at times.  The closeness of relationship with residents and RAs, the “being in charge” of a program and seeing it run successfully.  You know – the parts of your job as an RD you LOVE doing.  The stuff you would volunteer for (as opposed to the stuff you realize why you are getting paid).

I have been removed as a live-in professional for over five years now.  As Assistant Director, my focus is on the development of the Resident Directors and Assistant Resident Directors (and the professional staff).  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE developing up and coming staff.  I wouldn’t go back for the world.  But sometimes –  sometimes – I miss the programs, the day to day stuff.

There are times I “want” to come out of retirement.  I see someone struggling with a program and I know if I just jumped in, I could make it happen, and make it happen well.  You see, I am a fairly decent event/program planner.  I love involving others in planning my programs.  As an RA, I ALWAYS had residents help me plan programs out.  I think this is where I developed my desire to work collaboratively instead of by myself.  But that’s another blog for another time.  But now, I need to step aside and let OTHERS shine in their programming efforts.  But I debate myself constantly as to when is the time to jump in, and when is the time to let the “new” Batmen make some mistakes that could help them learn.

You see, I am no longer “Batman: Year one.”  I made many mistakes as a young Res Life Professional – the time I forced an RA to choose the job over her family early on in my career (ugh), the times I “blurred” the line between professional and para-professional (double ugh).  The times I forgot to confirm with the presenter of the program and they didn’t show up.  The times I forgot to reserve the room I advertised my program in, only to get there and realize someone else was using it.  I have made my share of mistakes.  But I have learned dearly from them.

And now it’s time for me to let the next generation of Batmen have their turn.  For me to step aside.  I struggle constantly to not micro-manage.  I will often error on the side of too hands off than risk getting my hands on and micro managing something.  But there was something in “The Dark Knight Returns” that sparked within me a new tactic.  Maybe it isn’t an all or nothing proposition?  One of the main points of the Dark Knight Returns is the return of Robin.  Maybe instead of debating on whether I step in or let the Batmen run things, I might choose a few projects to lead, and allow someone to “shadow me” like Batman did with Robin.  I hadn’t considered THAT tactic before.  I don’t know if it has fully sunk in yet, but I think I may look for opportunities to bring along a Robin…

Thoughts?

Item #1 (Good news) – I was re-verified for Comic-Con as a professional.  Pretty excited about it, and I was pretty nervous because some folks have not received verification as a professional lately.  But got the news last week I am good for another three years.

Item #2 (Bad news) – I am not going to be able to attend San Diego Comic-Con this year.  The reason I won’t be in attendance is item #3:

Item #3 (Good news) – We are pregnant with child #4!!!  As I announced to my facebookian friends “iDaddy 4 G/B??? expected arrival May 2013”

The announcement of being pregnant is a happy day.  A little story though you might appreciate as fellow res lifers.  When Kari and I first found out we were pregnant, we thought the due date was going to be in June.  In the res life world, this is almost PERFECT timing.  We close our halls on May 17^th.  This gave us a two week cushion to have the baby and have it NOT conflict with the job.  So we went into our first appointment today and get our first look at the baby.  We were both expecting to see a little raison on the ultra sound.  But here it was – a head, little arms moving around.  Um.  This baby is MUCH further along than we had thought.  I will spare you the details.  So when the doctor announced “You are ACTUALLY 10 weeks and 4 days pregnant, with a due date of May 16^th,”  my wife smiled big.  If you’ve never been pregnant, telling my wife she was almost 11 weeks pregnant when she thought she was 7-8 weeks was like telling her she just won the lottery.  Of course, for me, the date of May 16^th was one day before we close the halls on May 17^th.  As dates for having a baby goes, not good.  The impact on my colleagues went from 1-2 on a scale of 10 (when we were expecting in June) to now 10 out of 10.  I work with good people – but I am going to owe them a LOT if this baby arrives on time.

So anyway – we are thrilled.  People are asking me if I want a boy.  You see, I have three girls already.  My response (which is totally res lifey):  I would LOVE some diversity in my family.  I’d like the “Fantastic 4” to have a male member to them, although I just want the “Fantastic 4” to happen.  A healthy baby is penultimate in terms of preference.  It’s too bad the Fantastic 4 movies weren’t all that great.  So yes, I WOULD like us to have a boy…but will be thrilled even IF it is a girl.  Although I may have to change my name to Tevye Miller.  (Google “Fiddler on the Roof” if you don’t get that reference).

Later this week, I will post my thoughts on recruitment – many of you are beginning  the process.  I’ll share my personal philosophy on recruitment, what I look for, and what I shy away from.  We all have them – what are those things we see in a candidate that we KNOW will make them a good staff member?

While living in Afghanistan, I have some strange amounts of downtime. What I mean by strange is that, I might be sitting in a terminal from 3:00 AM – 6:00 AM, waiting for a flight. I can’t sleep and I’m so tired that I can’t write or read (at least coherently.)

So I watch videos.

Now, I’ve been blazing through Doctor Who. He’s a time-traveler who brings a companion with him, to various places in time and space. One day he’s in World War 2 and the next day he’s in the year 1 billion watching our sun explode. And everywhere he lands, hijinx ensues.

It’s not the deepest show you’ll watch. It’s no Breaking Bad where after that show you need to look at cat videos for an hour or fall into an abyss of despair. It does explore humanity and issues of diversity (there are some where I think, I have to show these to my RAs and then I think I don’t have any RAs. I’m in Afghanistan.)

I’ve learned some valuable lessons from The Doctor and his companion and how they relate to the world I used to live in, but I’m million miles from: residential life.

Embrace Uncertainty. The Doctor never knows exactly when and where he’ll land. He will aim for tomorrow and land 15 years later. He might meet a friend, and know her well, but she hasn’t met him yet (due to time travel.) It gets complicated. But when The Doctor opens his TARDIS, he flings the door open and leaps through. He does not fear what’s on the other side. There is no plan. He wings it.

Sometimes in Residential Life, we have to wing it. We have to leap through the chaos. Sometimes it’s a flooded building or a fire, a riot or a scandal. Sometimes it’s a 5150 call and sometimes it’s a whole bunch of Resident Advisors being fired. But sometimes, the chaos is awesome. Once our power went out and we assembled the Resident Advisors to do a barbecue, slip and slide and when the students’ power died in their cell phones and they unplugged, we all had a great time.

Have a Companion. This companion (always female) is the conscience of The Doctor. She keeps him grounded in the quest for humanity, not the quest for judgement. She reminds him of who he is and where the “line” is.

I have been fortunate to make friends across many campuses through networking at conferences and committees. I have a select few I would check in with. I would give them a scenario whether a political minefield or a conduct meeting that just went south. I would call my “companion” and debrief on what went on. I would always have this be someone at another campus and use as much anonymity as possible. I needed to be reminded of many truths that get washed away from my heart from the waves and waves of disappointment or frustration.

I’d recommend making connections with your local organizations and find a mentor or a peer who can help see you through some rough times.

I was telling my friend about a conflict I was having with my supervisor. I explained the situation and all the parts I thought I’d gotten wrong and she looked at me and said:

“You know what the real problem is, Ryan?”

“No……what?”

“Your boss is a complete nutjob.”

I laughed hysterically and all the tension and burden lifted off my shoulders.

Enjoy the Ride. No matter what, The Doctor has fun.  There is something to smile about, something to find joy in. I think one of the reasons I burned out of my job is that I faced it like a list of problems to fix everyday, a list of tasks to complete. I didn’t get to see the joyful part of the job at times and that was entirely my fault. I just seemed to deal with the dredge and not the fruit of my labors. Make sure you are finding joy in your job, celebrating accomplishments and feeding your soul.

And if the Doctor ever shows up and offers to take you to a far away land—do it—send me a postcard.

Ryan McRae is the creator of Geek Week, a week on college campuses that celebrates the geek culture. He writes a blog called geekinafghanistan.com and has left the comfort of the United States to reboot his life in Afghanistan. He has written a book: A Quick and Easy Parent’s Guide to College and it premieres November 5th! Sign up today!

So – I had a long week of duty.  Most of us know about duty – but in case you don’t, basically I am the point person for when our staff has questions after hours.  Anytime a student goes to the hospital, any time a police officer comes to campus, I get called.  And at the beginning of the year, we get more calls because we are still working with new staff members to build their confidence.  The past week I was on call, I had a few nights where I was woken up every few hours.  Now, when I was 24-27, this didn’t bother me.  I could sleep in, the staff knew not to call me before 10am, so even if the calls were bad, they usually ended around 3-4am, which gave me 6-7 hours of sleep, waking up at 10am.  But lately, I am not 27 anymore (I hit the 40 year old mark this past year) and being woken up every few hours has a bigger impact on me.  Don’t mean to complain – this is what I signed up for – but it does get progressively more difficult.

Ok – so anyway, duty ended, and usually, the night after your duty week one can usually sleep in without getting any phone calls.  But now with three kids, I came to a very real epiphany.  Duty week is EVERY week.  The night after I ended duty, I was woken up by our 2 and a half year old (in the middle of potty training) having an accident in bed.  An hour later, my 5 year old had a bad dream.  An hour after that, my two and a half year old had to go potty.  Then an hour after that, my almost one year old woke up crying.

First a side note – usually on Friday night/Saturday mornings, I take full charge of the kids because my wife works HARD during the week raising them, she should at least get a night “off duty,” so if you are wondering where my wife was, she was sleeping in bed, cause she deserved it.  Again – not complaining.  So I came to the realization that has a parent, I am ALWAYS on-call.

So how does this relate to being a geek?  Well, the following night my wife and I watched The Avengers after the kids went to sleep.  You know who ELSE never gets a night off from duty?  Yeah – superheroes.  They are ALWAYS on call.  They drop everything to go and save the world.  The scene in the movie where Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are having a nice romantic celebration, Agent Coulson interrupts them because the world needs saving.  And even though Tony initially wants to shirk his responsibilities, Pepper brings him back to earth to tell him he needs to go.  Geesh – that stinks.  How many of us in res life has experienced something similar?  We are on duty – enjoying life, hanging with friends and significant others, trying to live our lives despite the duty phone hanging around our metaphorical necks, and all of a sudden that duty phone rings.  You know it’s a duty call, either because you’ve set the special ring tone or you have a special “batphone” used for emergencies only.  You know you don’t really want to answer it – but you do anyway.

And each time you answer that phone – you are a hero.  Because you are there to save the lives of those who are calling to rely on you for wisdom, resources, knowledge, or just a calming force in a stressful situation.  When you answer the duty call, you act in a manner that is indeed heroic.  The heroes in the Avengers don’t really get to go on vacation. They are always on call.  So – take heart, readers – the next time you (Judge) Dredd being on duty, remember – you are answering the call, putting on the mantle of the Bat, lacing up your sneakers, putting on the uniform, etc.  And you are indeed, a hero!  Don’t you forget!

PS.  If you ever want to be a parent, being on call is a perfect training opportunity to being “on call” at night when you kids sleep.  Embrace it for your future!

PPS.  Hope you enjoyed this.  Next week, our patron saint of reslifegeek.com, Ryan McRae will be here with a guest blog!  Stay tuned!

Whether it is checking in on staff with a simple “how are you doing?” at random.  Or “is there anything you need?” Or just coming into work on a labor day weekend to “be there” when you staff finds out what is happening, these things matter.  And reminding staff, they have what it takes to deal with these things is incredibly helpful.

A staff member asked a question “what do I do if a student comes to me about the situation?”  We started going through different scenarios and then we just reminded them – “remember you basic counseling skills.”  Active listening, empathy, silence, open ended questions, connecting them to resources, etc.  You already know what to do – just because a student has passed away, doesn’t change the basics. “And what if the media shows up?”  Remember our media protocols that we went over in training.  Ask them if they have contacted University Communications.  Ask them for a name.  Contact the RD on-call.  You’ve got this!  There is hope, staff!  It was a great reminder that although we never directly talked about a student passing away in our training, we’ve covered the basics to get you through.  Hope.  You’ve got this.  We’re here to help.  Sometimes, that is really all you can do.  Because I have no magic wand to take the pain away from losing a resident.  I’ve got no magic words that will help you grieve.  All I can say is “I’ll walk with you through this.”  Or “we’ll get through this as a team” or “we believe in you.”  All I can offer is hope.  So – as your year (and journey) begins, welcome to the “League of Extraordinary Hope Builders!”  Won’t you please let us know who you are?

http://www.moreloveletters.com/2012/08/25/a-love-letter-to-college-freshmen/

Last year, we did the “Game of Thrones” for our final activity prior to classes starting. We didn’t tell anyone what it was – including our res life staff. We thought the mystery component would help the “viral” factor. And it did. Basically, we played musical chairs – last year with 40 chairs. This year, for “Game of Thrones II,” we had 100 chairs set out. Now this isn’t any kind of record (a school in China played it with over 8,000 chairs) but for us – it was a pretty big deal. You couldn’t imagine the hype this game created. When we went from 100 students down to our final four, and three of the four areas were represented, it was awesome! A simple game like musical chairs – with over 350 college students cheering on four of their own to be declared the victor! It was amazing – and I think using “the game of thrones” as the Segway helped. And to hear our students calling it “epic” was a thing of beauty.

Here’s another idea for you. We wanted to do it this year, but it was too much for the staff. We had the idea to do “Hunger Games.”  Things such as Oreo Cookie tournament. Pie Eating contest.  Games from “Minute to Win It” that involved food. Please feel free to take that idea – especially if you are thinking about a “geek week”

But the story I wanted to share with you is a little less geeky and more “res lifey.” So this year, we took a risk and put on four “awareness socials” during opening week. We worked with campus departments and had an LGBT+, Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, and African American awareness social.  Four different socials for our residents to attend. For some of our staff who are still in the “colorblind” stage of racial identity, this was difficult to understand why we’d do such activities, but fortunately we have some great RDs this year who helped explain the value. But these events were amazing – not necessarily for the numbers, but for what happened.

I tell this story, not to pat myself (or our staff on the back) but to remind us why we do what we do. At one of the socials in particular, I met a resident from one of our halls (a smaller suites building). She was quiet, shy, and didn’t speak very loud at all. I introduced myself, and connected her with one of the campus staff who was there. Then I met ANOTHER resident who was just as quiet, shy, and a little timid. When I asked her what hall she was from, it was the same hall from the woman I met earlier. I immediately asked her if she knew this other resident, and she said she did not. So I walked her over and introduced them to one another – telling them they lived in the same building. Then the magic happened. The rest of the event, the two of them were inseparable. And later on (4 hours later), when I was setting up “Game of Thrones” there were the two of them together – eating ice cream, sitting in the chairs about to participate in our musical chairs event.  That is why we do what we do.  More than how many people attended our events (we had record turn out this year) or the caliber of those events.  Our mission is to connect students to each other.  To help them feel like they belong.  And after the week I’ve had, I can say our staff has accomplished that mission, and this is a good feeling!  So now, after being down off that high, the memory of connecting two students brings me back up again, and I am ready for the year!

So what are you fun activities that other campuses can steal (er, borrow)?  What are some of you favorite moments opening your buildings?  Please share in the comments below!

Been trained for two weeks straight
No, we can’t go on a date
But you should get involved
Leadership, maybe?

Hey! I just met you…
And this is crazy…
So here’s your doortag
Let’s open, maybe?

And all the other folks
Are gettin’ lazy…
But you’re here now
At 8am baby!

Hey! I just met you…
And this is crazy…
So here’s your key card
Let’s open Baby!

I give you your handbook
Give your forms a look
Explained the policy…
And just how to find me…

Get to know your hall
I’m sure you’ll have a ball
Wing meeting at nine
Make sure you are on time…

Hey, I just met you..
And this is crazy…
So here’s your key card
Let’s open, bay bee!

And all the other folks
Are getting lazy
But you’re here now
At 8am baby!

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy…
So unload your stuff
It’s move in, baybee!

• Comic-Con– We did the geekEd. panel for a second year.  It was great, and we had a blast doing it.  The family stayed at the University of San Diego, so it was fun seeing conference services from a consumer end.  We really enjoyed our time!  Some things I took away from the conference:
  • Thinking globally, we had two professors from Sweden attend our panel who taught courses on Harry Potter and other geek culture ideas.  They did not get a lot of support from the Universities and were looking for support here in the states.  It is interesting to note – on this topic of “geek culture” there are different realities for each of us.  At schools like MIT or Carnegie Mellon, every week of programming is “geek week.”  For us at Fresno State, this is not the case.
  • More research is needed to legitimize this area of focus – it is my hope over the course of the next year, that you, fellow geekEd. folks, could incorporate some “geek questions” on your surveys that you ask residents.  Please look back at our data for the question we asked here in Fresno, it would be great if you could ask similar questions at your campus.
  • Alfred Day really challenged me this year at Comic-Con in how we spent our time there.  I usually LOVE the panels – seeing cast members from my favorite shows (Psych, Community, etc).  But Al made the point – “is it worth it?”  Is it worth the investment of time – the standing in line, the waiting through panels you don’t want to see…just to have a glimpse of your favorite star?  With three kids at Comic-Con for the first time, for our family, the answer was no.  we didn’t see a single panel – which was tough, I’ll admit, but it was the right choice.  And because of that – we were able to capture some cool moments with our kids:

• Training – once I got back from Comic-Con on July 17^th – it has been two final weeks of Resident Director training, straight into one week of Assistant Resident Director Training, and then BAM! right in to Res Life training for the past two weeks.  You know – that is one crazy time frame.
• Res Life Staff Recruitment, Interviews, Selection – So – it has been a summer of changes here at Fresno State.  When we started the summer, we thought we were going to need to close a building, fortunately by the end of summer we were basically full.  This meant we needed to hire more staff.  We originally hired extra staff “conditionally” telling them that if we opened full they would have a job, but if we needed to close a building they wouldn’t.  On top of this, we also had staff leave – because of grades, because of policy violations, etc.  So when I got back from Comic-Con we had not one, but TWO recruitment, interview, and hiring processes.  We had a staff member leave three days into ARD training.   We made our last hire 2 days right before training started.  It was a crazy time frame.  But if that wasn’t enough:
• Home Ownership issues – Before I begin – feel free to skip this next section.  It is more personal venting than anything else – but if you own a home, you’ll relate.  Now – for those of you reading this who have lived on campus for a long period of time and have yet to experience the joys of owning your own house, this is going to seem very strange to you.  As someone who lived on campus for 17 years, I understand how foreign this will seem to you.  I have no “Jack” (UCSB) or “Steve” (Chico State) or “Patrick” (Fresno State) that I can just call and have things “magically” repaired.  So, when, in the middle of RD/ARD/Res Life training I am at home and we smell gas, there is no easy fix.  So when we called PG&E to say they smelled gas, they sent someone out right away…TO DISCONNECT OUR GAS LINE!!!!  Yes, that’s right – they confirmed our suspicions – when the PG&E guy came to the door, and we opened it – his little “gas Geiger counter” as I like to call it basically went off the scale audibly.  His response?  “Um…you MAY want to get your wife and kids outside.”  But PG&E doesn’t FIX our gas line – they just tell us it’s broke and we have to get our gas line fixed.  Oh, and then have the city inspector come and sign off that it is fixed.  And then we will reattach your gas.
  • Ok – well, we don’t have a “Patrick” – but he DO have a home warranty!!!  They sent a plumber out (at a reduced cost to us) and he found two leaks.  But there’s a problem.  He said – there could easily be more leaks, and there could be problems with city inspector signing off – because our gas lines aren’t “up to code.”  So – our home warranty doesn’t cover “up to code” they only cover repairs.  So the plumber tells me – it’s going to cost you $1500 (of which the warranty will only cover $300) and I cannot guarantee you that the city inspector will sign off on it.  Greeeeat.  Meanwhile, in the middle of training, we are boiling water to wash dishes, give the kids baths, and we have to do laundry elsewhere (because we have a gas dryer).  And I am taking cold showers every day.  Needless to say – grump city.  So – here’s the positive in all of this.  I was lamenting to our “Patrick” and he put me in touch with a plumber he trusts.  This plumber came out and he looked and said – well, it’s going to cost you a lot more, but I can pretty much assure you I’ll fix it right and get the city to sign off – for $2800.  Now – $1500 without a guarantee is not as good as $2800 with a guarantee, so we gave him the bid.  Well, the two leaks originally found turned into five, and then 12, and then pretty much – the plumber had re-piped our entire gas system.  He then got it signed off with the city and fast tracked it to PG&E so they would get our gas line back up.  Two weeks and three days later, we had hot water again!  And, the plumber didn’t charge us extra, a good guy, recommended by our “Patrick.”
• The moral of this story?  Make friends with your maintenance folks – cause when you are a homeowner – they can help you out greatly.

So that has been my summer, and that is why there haven’t been any posts.  But today we are on the cusp of opening – and I am getting excited for the year to come.  Some things to look forward to in our blog:

• Power of positivity – exploring how “celebrating” even the most difficult situations can help morale.
• How we turned Hunger Games and Game of Thrones into mega training sessions and resident events.
• Exploring a potential “geek identity development model” – I am working on adapting the Cass model to look at the process of folks developing a geek identity.  It will be rough at first, but hopefully with some discussion here, we will develop something cool.,
• More research!  We are going to do our second study on geek identity with our residents.  We want to encourage you to do the same.  Just one or two questions at your campus could go a long way to reaching our students
• Guest bloggers!  If you want to write an article, let me know!  I’d ultimately like to get to a place where we have a guest blogger each week, and we can post twice.