“The Human and Organizational Resources competency area includes knowledge, skills, and attitudes used in the selection, supervision, motivation, and formal evaluation of staff; conflict resolution; management of the politics of organizational discourse; and the effective application of strategies and techniques associated with financial resources, facilities management, fundraising, technology use, crisis management, risk management, and sustainable resources.”

Working in residence life at BGSU has provided me with the opportunity to gather experience in the many different responsibilities that the competency area of human and organizational resources covers. Specifically, I believe I have reached a level of exemplary competence in this area because of my responsibilities in supervision, recruitment, selection, crisis management, evaluation, financial stewardship, and facilities management.

Over the past two years I have continued to grow as a supervisor, This semester I have expanded beyond student supervision and am currently supervising a fellow graduate student in a student conduct practicum role. I directly supervise 17 Resident Advisors (RAs) and a Student Administrative Assistant (SAA), and co-supervise a staff of 22. I have also supervised the Administrative Resident Advisor (ARA) who supervises the front desk of the hall. For the 17 RAs I directly supervise, I met with them for 45 minutes on a biweekly basis (and as needed between weeks) to discuss job expectations, personal, academic, and professional goals, feedback from myself to them and vice versa, and formal evaluations at the end of each semester.  To ensure I am staying up to date with staff members I request that each week they submit a weekly report form, included in the artifact list, which asks them about their academics, social interactions, and their relationships with staff members and residents. As a supervisor, I am invested in the holistic development my student staff but my main objective is to ensure each staff member is meeting expectations. I also ask staff members to fill out a supervisor continuum which assesses what staff members prefer in a supervisor/supervisee relationship; this activity allows me to determine how best to supervise each staff member as an individual, this document is included in my artifact list. For group supervision, I have planned and led staff meetings each week, creating meeting agendas, providing needed university and department information, as well as provide time for student staff to be recognized and bond with one another.

As holding student staff accountable for job expectations is one of my main foci as a supervisor I often must utilize a level of confrontation with staff members. Having difficult dialogues with student staff members about their decision making process, administrative tardiness, or missed protocol actions is part of being a strong supervisor. By holding student staff accountable it is my hope that they will develop and hold themselves accountable for meeting job expectations. Throughout the past two years I have learned the importance of documenting conversations with students and following the department’s job action trajectory of warning, probation, and termination, depending on the incident. Once meeting with a staff member to discuss the incident and expectation that have not been met a formal letter is written to the individual according to a department template, this letter not only outline the decision of job action and the expectation that have not been met but also an action plan for improvement. 

Evaluation of staff members is another aspect of this competency that I believe demonstrates my exemplary level. Throughout the semester during one on one meetings I provide feedback for staff members to help them continuously evaluate their job performance. It is my belief, and the desire of the Department of Residence Life, that nothing on an evaluation be a surprise. The current evaluations completed for RAs allow me and the RA to evaluate the job performance of the semester, a formal rating is done and then there is an opportunity for myself to identify areas for improvement and strengths and set specific future goals. The RA is asked to do the same for themself. I enjoy evaluating staff members and receiving their feedback of me as a supervisor, I believe I enjoy this because of my continuous communication with staff members about job performance throughout the semester. To demonstrate my competence in evaluating others I have included a redacted copy of an RA evaluation from the fall of 2012. 

Recognition and motivation are also central roles to me as a supervisor. I have learned to ask students how they prefer to be recognized in an effort to better myself as a supervisor. I also believe that it is important to establish a means by which student staff members can recognize each other. Learning what motivates staff members also allows me to assist them in their goals outside of the position. I have student staff members fill out a questionnaire several times throughout the year to assess how they like to be recognized and what motivates them. I have found that recognizing staff members has led to a greater sense of commitment and confidence in the job as well as strengthens the community support of the staff. 



I had the opportunity to serve on the Resident Advisor Recruitment and Selection (RARS) action team for the 2011-2012 academic year. During which the team and myself evaluated interview questions and changed our first year RA interview process to reflect the current needs of students and residence halls, as well as, introduced a returning RA interview process for current RAs who wished to return to the position, which required writing a new job description for returning RAs. We reviewed interview questions for consistency and inclusiveness, and ensured our recruitment and selection process was in line with Human Resources’ policies, as well as Ohio laws. I had the opportunity to train current RAs on proper interviewing procedures and behaviors  as they would be assisting in the first year RA selection process. In working with RARS I was able to gain understanding for selection and recruitment strategies, including thinking about holistic team and staff patterns, and how to appropriately recruit and select populations that were typically minorities in the selection pool in the past, including students of color and men. I have included my end of the year report from this action team in my artifact list to demonstrate my efforts in this area.  

Overseeing the daily operations of a residence hall, I have worked to develop relationships with the facilities and custodial staff, which is essential when it comes to communicating issues about the building; ranging from daily cleaning to damaged property. At times students have expressed health concerns with certain aspects of facilities procedures or products used, I have worked to determine reasonable accommodations and appropriately communicated requests to custodial and facilities staff. Conducting monthly building walks with the custodial supervisor has allowed me to advocate for painting projects, as well as furniture repair and replacement. At times I have reallocated the operation budget of the building in effort to upgrade items in student lounges and common areas. The opportunity to manage both the operations and programmatic budge of the building has been a very valuable experience. The operations budget is used for student payroll and building supplies. The operations budget is $68,900.00. The programming budget funds supplies for resident advisor programming efforts, this budget is $4,150.00. Additionally the hall council has a $2,500.00 which is allocated as part of student fees. RAs and hall council executive board members are tasked with filling out purchasing forms to request funds, to assist students in filling out forms correctly I created a flow chart, which is included in my artifact list.  In total, I am responsible for the proper use and fiscal planning of $75,550.00 budget. My experiences with facilities and the budget has allowed me to develop a general understanding of liability and risk management which I have then been able to explain to student staff about programming purchases and facilities staff about reasonable accommodations and ensuring safety in the facilities we provide to the students and guests of the building.