Every year COCM hosts an Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. In February, COCM’s Assistant Directors fly in from over 40 different sites for a week of learning, listening, sharing, and building community amongst fellow student housing professionals.
Being an Assistant Director of Housing can mean many things. Depending on the particular site, AD’s have a variety of roles, responsibilities, and challenges in facilities, maintenance, operations and res life. During one session at the 2019 Annual Meeting we sat down with four of our assistant directors to discuss their experiences and perspective from what they have learned at their own site.
Our panelists are from very different sites with different students – and with that we get some great insight from their unique perspectives. Learn about all that goes into running on-campus housing and the creative ways these individuals have approached their everyday work to create an environment for student success.
The Panel Participants:
Omar Mahmoud, Assistant Director for Operations at The Heights at Montclair State University
Chris Adams, Associate Director of Maintenance Operations at South Campus Commons at Univ. of Maryland
Lupita “Pete” Morales, Assistant Director for Housing Business Operations at Green River College
Ryan Rosevelt, Assistant Director of Residence Life, First Year Residence Halls at Marshall University
Topics Covered
How you explain what you do in your role as an assistant director to your friends and family
Perspectives on both operations responsibilities as well as facilities responsibilities
What issues they see most often in their site-specific role, and how they manage that issue
The importance of walking alongside students on their individual journey
Working with international students who are adapting to being away from home
Educating residence on how to use appliances as well as how to deal with maintenance issues
Looking at new things like technology that student are interested in having in their residence hall
Lessons learned through their years of experience
How to grow in your career through these lessons learned
How being valued as an employee changed perspective on worth
How student housing is so much more than just putting students in rooms
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