TrenchWork

There's a pretty common metaphor within Housing and Residence Life.  We train our RAs and our Grad staff for an inexplicable amount of time and then we say, "You're the first line of defense.  You're working in the trenches everyday." This metaphor is odd, and frankly, incorrect.

Here comes some knowledge --> The front line and the trenches aren't the same thing.  Either you're on the front line or you're in the trenches.  You would know the difference. But it's not just that, it creates a barrier that one can cross when they move up in the organization.  How far do you have to go to move from the front line to the trenches?  And is one more "safe" than the other?

Sure.  RAs and Graduate Hall Directors (or whatever the title for grads is) are on the front line.  They're dealing with student situations on a day to day basis.  But it is the central HRL office that is in the trenches.  This includes your AVP for Student Affairs, Director of ResLife and Housing, and Associate and Assitant Directors, and Area Directors.  This is Central Housing and ResLife (Central HRL - This includs your Housing office or any area offices).  These people are doing a lot of the work to make the organization function.

But this leaves out one key person.  The New Professional.  The Residential Learning Coordinator/Area Director/Community Director/Resident Director.  Whatever their title is, they play an important part.  They live both in the trenches and the front line.  They are an information and support carrier, they build the team, make it stronger, they redirect people to and from the medic and they discharge those that are no longer necessary.  This is where the line is drawn.

This is not to say that administrators in the central office do not come out of the trenches to assist on the front line.  How many of you have seen your Director of Residence Life and Housing dancing at a training session? Or seen your Area Director handle a judicial meeting?  There are many occasions where they have to be there for support or to handle things.  But if the organization is more hierarchical than flat these tasks will be handled by the appropriate professional.  If the organization is more flat then any number of professionals may take part in the situation.

Here's why this makes since to me.  During the school year I am a graduate hall director (not my official title, but essentially).  I work in the front line, and occasionally the trenches.  Pause.  As I graduate student I am allowed to see what is happening on the front line and the trenches.  This is called professional development.  Unpause. I don't see "TrenchWork" everyday.  I couldn't really tell you the specifics of what the Central HRL staff at Virginia Tech does everyday.  So when I chose my summer internship I picked carefully.  I needed a medium-sized private university, and I needed an experience that was less involved with students but more involved with Central HRL.

That's exactly what I got.  I work in the central office here at Tulane.  I see the same people everyday.  I am apart of their conversations, I see them at lunch, and I assist with any "other duties as assigned".  I know what situations they are dealing with and how carefully it goes down the pike...if it has to leave the central office at all.  I know information that is kept in central, and information that is free to leave whenever it would like.  I've even seen the organizational climate shift to accommodate newly hired professionals.  But Central HRL and TrenchWork isn't for everyone.

TrenchWork is strategic.  TrenchWork is delicate. But, most importantly, TrenchWork is hard.  Most people that move up into the Central HRL or the Area Offices have been in ResLife/Housing for a while.  They have made the bulletins and door decs, they've created point systems for their programming wheel, they've dealt with student issues all throughout their tenure.  And now they sit in central dealing with a number of different things from day to day.  TrenchWork is not for the faint of heart, because EVERYTHING...LITERALLY EVERYTHING comes through Central HRL.

One of the many things I have learned this summer is that Central HRL offices are a hotbed for parent interactions, student complaints, facilities issues, eager mentors, counseling techniques, and mutual understanding.  A lot of negative can walk into Central HRL anytime during the day, but more positive interactions are likely.  So as an RA, Grad Staff, or New Professional find your way into the trenches as often as possible.  The more you understand the trench culture the better prepared you are potential situations.

I guess my last bit of advice is this...you don't know the power of the Drop-In Hello.  These professionals in the trenches came into this field to work with students. However, as you move up in this field you see less and less of them.  Drop-In every once in a while and say two things.
 1. Hello.  and 2. What's happening in Central today?  I guarantee the conversation you start will lead to an indelible professional relationship.


This post is long, but I just want to say Thanks to all the TrenchWorkers at Francis Marion University, College of Charleston, Virginia Tech, & Tulane University.  You're all rockstars in my book!

Peace.

PTJ