AIMHO Angle November 2018

THE

AIMHO Angle November 2018

Pictured: Brigham Young University - Idaho Campus

OVERVIEW The AIMHO Angle is the official publication of the Association of Intermountain Housing Officers (AIMHO).

The AIMHO Angle is published on a quarterly basis throughout each year and includes submissions and articles by staff and students of the region.

The AIMHO Angle is compiled and distributed by the AIMHO Marketing Committee.

The purpose of the AIMHO Angle is to provide additional, year-round, outof-conference opportunities for associated members to share information and learn. All members of AIMHO are encouraged to write for and submit articles to the AIMHO Angle about topics such as passion areas, research, hot topics in housing, projects happening on their campus, and best practices in the field.

If you are interested in submitting to the AIMHO Angle, learn how to on AIMHO Angle website at http://www.aimho.org/?page=SubmitAnArtlcle. You will also find previous issues of the AIMHO Angle on the website for your reference and to download. If you have any questions, please email aimhoangle@gmail.com We look forward to receiving your submissions!

MARKETING COMMITTEE Cathering LaRoche (Chair) - Arizona State University Megan Letchworth (Co-Chair) - Prescott College Sue Belatti - Northern Arizona University James Bradley - Arizona State University Matthew Linton - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Anthony Pegg - Arizona State University Shirl Portillos - Colorado State University

CONTENTS 4-7...................President’s Corner (Brad Shade - AIMHO President, University of Northern Colorado) 8-10................Exec Committee Nominations (Richard Clark - AIMHO Past President, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) 11-12...............AIMHO Foundation (Barb Remsburg - AIMHO ACUHO-I Foundation Cabinet Representative, University of Utah) 13-16...............SHO Institute (Jeff Bondy, Montana State University) 17.....................RAppin 2020 Bids (Richard Clark - AIMHO Past President, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) 18-20..............AIMHO Career Center (Jediah Cummins - AIMHO Technology Coordinator, University of Northern Colorado) 21-27...............Featured Articles • 21-22 There's no "I" in "Team," but there is a "U in "Volunteer" (Maureen Ward - AIMHO President Elect, Carroll College) • 22-24 Supporting Students, One Beartalk at a Time (Glen Eggers, University of Northern Colorado) • 25-27 A Case for Sympathy (Emilie Waggoner, Colorado School of Mines) 28....................Farewell, AIMHO (Matthew Linton, AIMHO Marketing Committee Member) 29....................Southwest Contract Advertisement

PRESIDENT'S CORNER Tribute to Our Friend - Lamon Oviatt By: Brad Shade - AIMHO President, University of Northern Colorado While at the AIMHO Summer Business Meeting in June 2018 we were made aware of the passing of Lamon Oviatt, one of our dear colleagues who served at BYU for 35 years. He was a significant contributor to AIMHO and ACUHO-I and served as AIMHO President in 1988-89. In 1990, he led the effort to develop the Articles of Incorporation for AIMHO to become tax exempt, which was achieved in 1991. He served as Parliamentarian for the Annual Conference Business Meeting in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 & 2005 and he did that with absolute grace. He and BYU served as AIMHO Annual Conference Host 1987 & 1996. He was our 1999 AIMHO Inaugural Sage Recipient and was also on the AIMHO Finance Committee that year. In 2008 he served as AIMHO Senior Housing Officer Institute Faculty. (Thanks to Barb Remsburg for compiling this history!)

Barb also graciously shared the following thoughts that came from Lamon himself after requesting some stories when preparing for the 50th Anniversary Conference: - I will never forget the time we hosted the RMTI at Snowbird ski resort.

We knew an attendee had serious allergies to shell fish. The hotel staff assured us that the meal had none. Wrong! The salad had some. Life flight made its first ever flight into that canyon in the dark! We all prayed that night.

- At another RMTI in Idaho, the presenter was so bad we paid him, asked him to stop and leave, he would not go, we all pitched in and had a good conference.

PRESIDENT'S CORNER - Still one more RMTI hosted by Colo. St. At their mountain campus, it snowed so hard the school had to bring up 4-wheel drive trucks with chains to get us down. We were all for spending the winter. The school said we had to get down.

- UA planned a great meal in the wild where Greg promised we would see many wild pigs. Instead it rained and then it rained a lot more. We were almost stuck in the mud.

- Little Cochise College hosted a great conference. The entire school pitched in and helped. It was great except for the hotel. We stayed at the old, very old, Gadston hotel. It had lots of charm and history but not much else. There was a clock above the elevator that was stopped. The "joke" was, "what time is it at the Gadston". The answer was always five.

Thanks for sharing these thoughts with us Barb.

After word of Lamon’s passing was sent, without requesting a single story or thought from his colleagues, they started flowing anyway and I wish I had space to share them all, but below is a sampling: • Lamon’s influence on me as a housing professional was huge and I am so very grateful that I was able to interact with him over the years. He will be missed. - Sue Belatti, NAU • Lamon was a pioneer – such a profound coach – friend, supporter, listener, and mentor to me and I know many of you as well. – Deb Coffin, CU Boulder • I have such warm memories of Lamon – especially his presence and friendship during the year I was president of AIMHO – my heart is heavy. – Rachel Harris, U of St. Thomas

• I have so so many fond memories of times with Lamon, serving on the Exec Board together, many talks, visits to BYU. – Rich Payne, NAU

PRESIDENT'S CORNER • This is truly sad news and I am grateful for his gargantuan effort to attend the reunion in Tucson so that we could all have the opportunity to experience his wit, charm, and overall genuine and kind personality. He was a real gem and I feel honored and privileged to have known him. – Ginny Racette, Retired • I will never forget Lamon. I was so thankful that I attended a session of his at AIMHO – talking about how we CAN become millionaires in the field of housing. I used so many of his tips on how to save money as live-in staff.

Stuff like - how not to live pay check to paycheck, and that every time I eat out (I am paying for it twice). I went and bought a house (while living in) to get used to having a mortgage and let other people pay my house down.

Now (because of him) I have 3 houses. I still to this day live-in. I am working hard with his advice on how to become a millionaire. He is a hero of mine. I appreciate him so much. I will be mourning him and praying for his family. – Dave Wilcox, Tropicana Student Living

• Lamon’s funeral was a beautiful tribute. His children all spoke and shared some of Lamon’s corny jokes, some fun and heartwarming stories and many of their tender memories. He was a good colleague and an even better husband and father. The floral arrangement [from AIMHO] was absolutely lovely. I hope it makes you smile to know that Lamon’s coffin was blue and there was a “Y” insignia on the top. His institutional loyalties went with him into death! – Julie Franklin, BYU To me, Lamon was a gentle spirit that spoke with such wisdom. I loved to hear him tell a story as it always had tremendous detail, wisdom and care laced into each thought. I too will forever remember Lamon and am so glad that I had the opportunity to get to know him and learn from him.

This highly accomplished colleague was clearly beloved by all and the idea of developing the Lamon Oviatt scholarship was suggested immediately by

PRESIDENT'S CORNER one of our corporate partners, Lyle Morse, a large number of our colleagues eagerly agreed.

We have been working to identify the most effective way to create a sustainable scholarship that will truly be a lasting legacy to Lamon and not a one-time scholarship. We plan to utilize a Community Foundation and will be working on a recruitment strategy to build this endowment. All this to say that more scholarship funds will be created through this effort to benefit AIMHO Professionals. This effort is still in progress and will be a focal point for early spring 2019. Thank you for indulging me in my attempt to honor our friend and colleague – Lamon Oviatt, he will be missed, but never forgotten.

2008 Photo with Laman Oviatt and Whitney Milligan

EXEC COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS Executive Committee Nominations By: Richard Clark, AIMHO Past President - University of Nevada, Las Vegas Serving the region as an AIMHO Executive Board member may be one of the highlights of your professional career. We engage students on our campus to be involved in order to help ensure their success through to graduation and beyond. The same is true for your professional career. The connections that you will make through serving the association will be lifelong.

Just as we all took our own path to work in Student Affairs, so too are there a variety of paths to being involved in AIMHO. There is no one right path.

EVERYONE is welcome to engage, be involved, and connect with others in the region.

The 2018 Annual AIMHO Conference will showcase election of Executive Officers at the Business Meeting. Now, more than ever, our association needs brave and creative individuals to step up, work hard, and make a difference. Nominations are now open for leadership roles. Think about those around you, think about those in the region, and think about yourself...Place a nomination today.

TIMELINE Applications Close for Positions: November 7, 2018 Application Requirements: Candidates for Executive Board Positions must complete the following by the noted deadline: - Submit a letter of interest (no more than 500 words) that describes your interest in the Executive Board Position, any experiences relevant to the position, and what you hope to accomplish during your term.

EXEC COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS - Additionally, submit a letter or e-mail of support from your supervisor - Submit a photo (headshot) to be included with your letter of interest.

Materials must be emailed to Richard Clark (richard.clark@unlv.edu) by Wednesday, November 7, 2018, by 5pm. Officers will be elected at the AIMHO Business Meeting.

President-Elect If the President is unable to perform the duties of the office, the Presidentelect shall complete the term of the President and then serve the nextsucceeding term as President, followed a final year as Past-President (3-year term). In addition, the President-Elect shall perform duties which include but are not limited to the following: - Serves as a member of the executive committee - Assumes duties of the President in the President's absence - Services as liaison to the Program and Awards and Recognition Committees - Updates and publishes a directory of all Association members - Recruits new members - Attends annual conference - Works with the Senior Level Member-at-Large to select State and Provincial Representatives - Coordinates orientation meeting of new executives and chairs

EXEC COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS Senior Member at Large The Senior Member-At-Large shall be elected for a two year term on alternating years from the New Member-At-Large. The Senior Member-AtLarge must have four years or more full-time campus housing experience in order to be eligible for the role.

- Services as a member of the executive committee - Assists with membership recruiting - Attends all executive committee meetings - Assists in the advertising, recruiting, and selection of recipient(s) for various AIMHO Conference Scholarships - Assists in the advertising, recruiting, and selection of recipients(s) of the ACUHO-I New Professionals Scholarships - Serves as liaison between the members and the executive committee - Fulfills all other duties and projects as assigned by the President or the Executive committee

AIMHO FOUNDATION Foundation Table: Information, Drawing, Donations, & Giving By: Barb Remsburg - AIMHO ACUHO-I Foundation Cabinet Representative, University of Utah Information: The ACUHO-I Foundation supports the future of the campus housing profession. They support research on who benefits from living on campus and why it matters. They also underwrite the cost for the STARS College and National Housing Training Institute. As a way to gather benchmarking data across institutions, they have helped to support the Campus Housing Index where departments upload their information for quick reference by other institutions (which just opened for data collection in mid-October).

Drawing: As a way to support the Foundation, there is a drawing at the annual conference. You can purchase tickets for the drawing and designate which drawing options you want to put your tickets in. The drawings will take place at the closing banquet.

Donations: In order to have some great prizes for the Drawing- we need your support in bringing a donation. Please drop it off at the Registration table or bring it to Barb Remsburg.

Suggested items: - A copy of a great book you just read - A gift card to a national chain available across our region - Re-gifts… something nice but not your style - Your art: photos, art pieces, pottery, ceramics - Coffee/Tea/Coca from your state

AIMHO FOUNDATION Giving: AIMHO is again striving to have 100% of registered attendees make a donation at the Annual Conference. I have a pretty snazzy new lapel pin for those who make a donation of $5 or more. This year you will be able to text to give, the $25 donation will be added to your personal cell phone bill.

Ongoing Pledge: If you able to give each month, please consider entering into a pledge.

Individuals can support the Foundation by making annual tax-deductible pledges that will help fund future-focused research and programs that support current and new members. This could be $5 a month up to the individual Major Donor level of $83.33 per month of $1,000 per year for 5 years. NOTE: Electronic Fund Transfer is available for monthly gifts of $5 or more.

Thank you for your consideration, Barb Remsburg ACUHO-I Regional Cabinet Representative for AIMHO BRemsburg@housing.utah.edu

SHO INSTITUTE You Are Not Too Late For S.H.O.!

Consider Participating in the 2018 Institute By: Jeff Bondy - SHO Representative, Montana State University I hope you will consider participating in the Senior Housing Officer Institute, November 11-13, prior to the AIMHO 2018 annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona. The Institute will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 11 and end on Tuesday, November 13 around noon.

Four topical sessions will be presented along with a joint session/discussion with the AIMHO College participants and the AIMHO 2018 keynote speaker, Dr. Stephanie Bannister, Associate Vice President for Student Life at Kansas State University. Dr. Bannister has conducted research on a variety of topics including: Adaptive Leadership, Change Management, Emotional Intelligence and Leading From the Middle.

SHO Institute Sessions: Facilities Management and New Construction - Jason Langston, EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University The vast majority of us have received formal education and training on the people and policy side of our profession, but when did you get a class on the building side? With growing enrollments and aging inventory, new construction is probably going to be a reality for you during your career.

This session will discuss some of the ins and outs of new construction.

Focus will be placed on aligning your departmental and institutional goals/vision with new construction, trends in new hall construction, life cycles of new facilities, how to be an educated advisor in the process, and to-dos for opening a new hall.

SHO INSTITUTE Conducting a Program Review - Chip Thomas, Colorado Mountain College What do you know about the Professional Standards? Can you conduct an internal review of your area/department/division? This session will go into detail on the ACUHO-I Professional Standards and the process to conduct a housing review. We will explore the ACUHO-I Professional Standards and Ethical Principles and Self-Assessment Guides (SAG’s) and their role in planning, decision making, and evaluation that can take place within an area, or the department. We will understand the differences between a guideline and a standard within the ACUHO-I Professional Standards. We will also spend time immersing ourselves in the examples of housing program reviews to examine the processes involved, the time, effort, and experience of conducting internal (or external) housing reviews.

Legal Issues - Barb Remsburg, University of Utah The changing framework regarding legal issues on our campus can leave us scratching our heads when we consider if we are in compliance. The ACUHO-I Core Competencies identifies compliance with legal requirements in the Strategy and Policy Functional level of the various twelve domains. This usually shows up as “consistent with institutional practices and legal requirements” or “governmental regulations and standards.” This session will assist senior housing officers in enhancing their competency in the area of legal issues as you strive to achieve the goals of your department and university/college mission. This session will utilize small group discussion as the medium for engagement. This session will not be an avenue for legal advice.

SHO INSTITUTE Students of Concern – Support, Response and Welfare Management – Whit Milligan, Utah State University This session will assist senior housing officers in enhancing their competency in the area of working with students of concern and the intervention teams on campus. Participants will learn about response structures and how they function - taking into account ADA issues, accommodations, legal considerations related to “mandatory suspension” or “mandatory withdrawal”. This session will also explore different approaches to providing support to our RAs and other live-in staff who are the first on scene for sometimes very disturbing situations. Compassion fatigue is a real thing and it is taking a toll on our people. Ideas for addressing this will be introduced, followed by discussion to create a staff support plan for our own campuses.

The Senior Housing Officer (SHO) Institute is designed for Housing staff members who are currently in a senior housing officer role on their campus and those who have 3 or more years of professional experience at a mid-level position who are aspiring to become a senior housing officer. If you cannot attend, you may want to recommend an aspiring professional or another senior housing officer participate.

Applications for the 2018 SHO are available with the regular AIMHO 2018 Conference registration. Applicants must register for the SHO Institute on the AIMHO Conference website, and pay the additional SHO registration fee.

Come join us for some new ideas and information which will be helpful in your role as a senior housing officer! Meet and connect with senior housing officers from AIMHO. Develop networks for professional development and successful work efforts! See you in Phoenix!

SHO INSTITUTE 2018 Senior Housing Officer Institute November 11th thru November 13th Arizona State University Registration: Â Member Fee $130, Non-Member Fee $230 Questions in regards to the SHO can be sent to Jeff Bondy at: jbondy@montana.edu

RAppin 2020 BIDS RAppin 2020 Conference Host Bids Open By: Richard Clark, Past President - University of Nevada, Las Vegas AIMHO is now accepting bids from member schools who wish to host the 2020 RAppin Conference.

Complete bids are due by Wednesday, November 7, 2018. Please see photos of the bid below.

Please contact Richard Clark (richard.clark@unlv.edu), Past President, if you have questions about hosting or placing a bid.

Sincerely, Rich

AIMHO CAREER CENTER Finding Your Next Great Employee at AIMHO's New Career Center By: Jediah Cummins - AIMHO Technology Coordinator, University of Northern Colorado Hiring is hard. The search process often hits us at the worst time of the year - during opening, closing, breaks, return sign up, or other busy times (let’s face it, we’re always busy in the Housing.) Finding the right employee is also critical—a good fit for your institution can lead to greater productivity, less training time, a fantastic work culture, and happier students. Ultimately hiring is also a pricy process, the folks at Recruiterbox estimate the cost of hiring to be anywhere from $3000-$10,000 depending on their industry and who is running the process. (Recruiterbox, 2015). AIMHO can’t help with all aspects of hiring, but one thing we can help you post your job openings to the region’s website. This helps you access an engaged group of folks who already love the intermountain region and may be looking to take the next step in their career with you.

If you’d like to post a job with AIMHO, you can start either at https://www.aimho.org/car eer or by clicking on the “AIMHOME” link on the main page then clicking “AIMHO Job Postings”

AIMHO CAREER CENTER If you’re not logged in, you will only be able to view any existing postings, so make sure you login with your AIMHO membership (If you don’t have a login make sure to get one, it’s the best way to stay in touch and up to date with the region, learn more here: https://www.aimho.org/page/PersonJoin).

The jobs search tool is open to anyone who can visit the website, and job seekers can select from several categories from Internships and graduate assistantships, live in and live off roles, all the way up to the SHO level. Right now, it’s pretty quiet in there, which is one of the reasons we want to make sure everyone in AIMHO is knowledgeable about this feature and how to post a job opening!

AIMHO is online to serve the needs of our members and one thing we have heard repeatedly is we need a way to widely publicize job opportunities outside of Senior Housing Officers emailing one another to see who might be a good fit. So if you have an opening at your institution you want the region to know about, start by logging in at https://www.aimho.org/login.aspx. Then click to https://www.aimho.org/careers. From there, click/tap on “Submit an Opening.”

AIMHO CAREER CENTER In order to attract the best candidate, please be as thorough as possible with the job description. If you have a posting form your institution already, start from there as it will have most of the info you need. You can post the job for 30, 60, or 90 days. To keep things simple, we’d encourage you to tell folks how to contact you and apply through your main job posting with your institution. When finished describing the job, you’ll be asked to submit some basic information about yourself (Name, Email, Phone) and fill out a captcha. That personal submission information helps us find you in case we have any questions about the job or would like to highlight it on an upcoming AIMHO Angle or on social media. Then you’re done—you, and anyone one else, can find your job until it expires after the time you selected is up! It’s a simple process with a wide audience.

We hope that AIMHO’s Career Center will make it easier for you to hire from the grate group of folks in AIMHO, and prospective members who know that AIMHO is the region they’d like to call home. If you have any issues posting or searching for a job, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jed Cummins, the AIMHO Technology Coordinator to learn more https://www.aimho.org/general/?type=CONTACT. Works Cited Recruiterbox. (2015, May). The Cost of Hiring New Employees (Infographic). Retrieved from https://recruiterbox.com/blog/the-cost-ofhiring-new-employees-infographic

FEATURED ARTICLES There's no "I" in "Team," but there is a "U" in "Volunteer By: Maureen Ward - AIMHO President Elect, Carroll College Happy November, AIMHO! As the countdown to the annual conference has begun, it’s time to start thinking about how you might want to get involved this coming year in AIMHO. We have many opportunities for our members to get involved, and we need people at all levels to give their time back to the association to continue offering great annual conferences, and year-round professional development opportunities.

Why give your time?

If giving is caring, AIMHO has one of the biggest hearts of any association I know. Members who get involved not only get to feel good about giving back, but they also can gain “sweet skills” and have opportunities to grow in the profession. It can also be a great way to network with professionals across the region. Also, it can help beef up those resumes for when you embark on your next professional search.

How much time does it take?

That depends… depending on your role and which committee you serve on, the usual commitment is 1-2 hours per month. Some committees require attendance at the annual conference, and some you can do the work from the comfort of your own campus. Volunteers at higher levels (such as a CoChair or Chair, or a member of the Executive Committee) may also be required to travel to the Summer Business Meeting, so make sure to get the support of your supervisor before signing up. Volunteers serve for a calendar year, with onboarding beginning in December.

FEATURED ARTICLES What kinds of opportunities are there?

Great question! We need people to help with everything from helping to recognize our members on the Awards and Recognition Committee to collecting and measuring data on our Assessment and Information Committee. We need people to help with the professional development aspect of our association through the Programming and AIMHO 365 Committees, as well as the Diversity and Social Justice Committee. And don’t forget, we need people to get the word out for all of our great opportunities on the Marketing Committee. AIMHO College and the Senior Housing Institute need volunteers to help prepare the annual preconference fun, as well.

That sounds AWESOME, what do I need to do?

As the conference draws nearer, the volunteer sign up sheets will out over the AIMHO listserv, and will also be available in person at the annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona. So please consider volunteering this next year, and “elevating” your personal and professional experience in AIMHO!

Supporting Students, One BearTalk at a Time By: Glen Eggers, University of Northern Colorado Earlier this year, MapWorks was cut from the Housing and Residential Education (HRE) budget at UNC as a sustainable cost saving measure. At UNC, MapWorks was used as an assessment for our students and their transition into the university. The program was supported almost exclusively by HRE on our campus and our outreach was limited, so many of the functions of MapWorks were left underutilized. However, MapWorks was still a backbone for much of the early outreach and programming we did; without it, our department had to reevaluate how we fundamentally support and interact with our students. For many, this was a stress-inducing decision due to the ambiguity of how this shift would affect our department.

FEATURED ARTICLES For our Academic Programs team, those tasked with assessing student transition, the shift from Mapworks created an opportunity to re-envision how we understand our students and their experience at UNC. We knew that building a residential curriculum was certainly the direction we would eventually like to move, but we needed an interim step.

MapWorks gave us a good start with information about what our students struggle with and therefor what our department should focus on: homesickness (55%), academic readiness (32%), social aspects (28%), and financial security (22%). We also consulted other similar institutions, institutions in our region, institutional learning outcomes and mission/vision, departmental values, and our team of professionals in HRE. From all this information, we felt that an intentional interaction model would be able to fill the holes left from MapWorks and be a good start to learning outcomes assessment and curriculum development in our department.

With all this information, student development theories, and willingness to embrace the unknown, our department got to work on what we would later endearingly call BearTalks. BearTalks are intentional guided dialogues that RAs have with each of their residents four times throughout the year. They are a way for our professional and student staff to get much of the information needed to support our students while also giving students a chance to reflect on their experience and define a belief system congruent with their values. BearTalks scaffold from conversation, focusing on many of the themes that came from looking at MapWorks. In order they are Academic Transition and Social Integration, Community and Civic Engagement, Identity, and Capstone.

Just a few weeks ago we finished our first of four BearTalks that we will be conducting this year. We are still cleaning and combing through the data and trying to find meaning in all the information we collected. Right away,Â

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we were impressed with the success of the program based on the sheer amount of time our students had contact with an RA: over 2100 BearTalks were completed for a total of approximately 850 hours, for an average of about 25 minutes per BearTalk. Our RAs met with 75% of our approximately 2800 residential students, engaging in dialogue and reflection about their transition to UNC. I am so proud of our staff and students!

We were also able to assess whether students reached our learning outcomes for the dialogues, but there is so much we still want to know. Did the BearTalk effect student success and what does that affect look like? How do our other programs support the mission/vision of the department and university? How can we better prepare staff to facilitate BearTalks in their halls?

As we move forward, we have many things to be excited for with this program. First is that a curriculum is primed for development. With an increased focus on student learning assessment, our department is starting to develop the tools to be able to effectively develop and implement a curriculum. The program has also opened collaboration opportunities with several other departments on campus. Eventually, this could lead to connecting our learning outcomes to other departments and tracking student learning throughout a student’s entire co-curricular experience.

Lastly, since we are obtaining a lot of good data, we will be able to open research opportunities to look at how this program affects student success outcomes such as retention, 6-year graduation, GPA, etc.

I want to recognize that this whole process, which only began in April of this year, has already been a journey of ups and downs. We fundamentally changed the way our RAs have interactions with their residents, so growing pains were expected. Continuous assessment, check-ins, and feedback have allowed us to grow immensely with this program in just a few short months.

I am excited to see where BearTalks and the amazing work our HRE staff does takes us. It is a great time to be a Bear!

FEATURED ARTICLES A Case for Sympathy By: Emilie Waggoner, Colorado School of Mines This past summer, I attended a three-day training on secondary trauma with three of my co-workers. I will admit, I was skeptical; the entire training was filled with people who held professions such as burn victim nurses, social workers, and even a hospital chaplain. Here I was, an entry-level housing professional, going into this training to learn more about what trauma, if any, I experienced in my role.

My skepticism changed when, after sharing some experiences in my role with a burn victim nurse, she looked at me and said, “Oh boy, I would never want your job”. I was pretty taken aback. A burn victim nurse, who has seen pain and suffering on a daily basis, was telling me she wouldn’t want to trade that for the work I do? Why? What had I said? It took all the way until the third day of the training for me to realize the true trauma of what I have dealt with, and the disturbing fact that these folks were trained to deal with this type of pain; I, on the other hand, had a master’s degree in higher education, no counseling training, and yet I was responding to crisis situations that even some of the triage nurses in the room hadn’t experienced in their work. I was frustrated. I now knew that I was dealing with some intense situations in my work, and those situations weren’t showing any sign of slowing down. So, now what?

That’s when I learned about sympathy.

I’ve spoken about burnout before and how it makes sense to me that entrylevel housing folks experience burnout. There are days where the duty phone never seems to stop ringing, days where my students come to me in crisis rather than just a quick check-in, and times where 80% of my job feels like “other duties as assigned”. In the past year, I’ve seen more traumatic things than I ever thought I would see, because again, they don’t really

FEATURED ARTICLES teach 90% of what we do in our graduate programs. However, I was trained (as I’m sure many of you were too) that empathy is the key in all this. When your student is in a dark sinkhole of stuff, you better strap on your boots and get in that sinkhole with them. I was told, time and time again, that empathy was how to truly do my job. Sympathy? Sympathy was surfacelevel. Sympathy was me not doing my job.

However, the psychiatrist leading this training brought up why sympathy, especially in our line of work, might be the way to save ourselves from burnout. He talked about how sympathy allows you to connect with someone, to understand their pain, and to help them get the resources and care they needed. According to him, the difference between sympathy and empathy was sympathy allowed you to save your emotional energy for your family, friends, and yourself. He talked about how we all have this emotional meter, and each time we empathize, we give a bit out of that tank. He mentioned how important it was to save some of that empathy for our own loved ones because if we keep giving and giving to our patients and students, we won’t have anything left for ourselves.

Now, I love Brene Brown, who talks a lot about empathy. I was on the “Empathy 100%” team for years. However, this talk struck a chord with me.

No wonder I went through a period of burnout - I was giving my entire emotional capacity to my students until there was nothing left for me to give to others in my life. Plus, if I was emotionally drained, what good was I really to my students?

It was time to climb out of the sinkhole.

I brought this up with a therapist, who shared that sympathy was a large part of what her coworkers talked about as well. She shared this STEM analogy with me: as a person, she has her own “particles” of emotion, swirling around her on a daily basis. When she is with a client, her particles

FEATURED ARTICLES can interact with that person’s particles. They can commingle, zip back and forth, and exist together in that shared time. However, she said at the end of that interaction, “you keep your particles and take them with you, and I take my particles with me”. I shared this analogy with my staff, because even just four weeks into the semester, I was seeing burnout festering in half of my team. After hearing this analogy and giving my staff the okay to not always be in the sinkhole with the students, I have seen a positive shift in how they are feeling and showing up in their role.

Since taking on this sympathy perspective, I’ve also noticed my own shift in my role. I no longer come home, frustrated because I’m still in the sinkhole with a student I just met with. I no longer feel emotionally drained going into the weekend. In the past, I would ignore calls from friends and family because the mere thought of dealing with another person’s needs at the end of the day was too much for me. Now, I come home and truly leave work at work (which is a win, since I live where I work). I show up in my follow-up meetings with students and work with them to understand their pain, recognize how it is showing up for them, and give them the right resources who can give them the long-term care they need to be successful. The difference is once that meeting ends, I am ready to go into the next meeting, instead of feeling like I need a long nap away from all other humans.

So, this is my call for sympathy to be brought back into consideration in the work we do. It has the backing of mental health professionals, it is being discussed in secondary trauma trainings, and it can give us a bit of relief in our work if we know we don’t have to be in the sinkhole all the time. I still love Brene Brown and this doesn’t mean I don’t use empathy. All this means is that I am more conscious of my emotional meter and my own ability to get into a sinkhole without sinking with the student.

If you would like to know more about the secondary trauma training I attended, I am happy to give out resources! ewaggoner@mines.edu.

FAREWELL, AIMHO Greetings AIMHO, Over the past two years, I have had the absolute pleasure to serve on the AIMHO Marketing committee, both as a member and most recently as the cochair. My professional journey may have taken me out of the Arizona and the AIMHO region, but my heart will remain. It truly has been an amazing opportunity to connect with so many of you all through compiling the quarterly AIMHO Angle for the region. I am happy that Catherine LaRoche allowed me to stay on to fulfill my responsibilities with the committee, especially since that meant I would stay that much more connected with the region in the meantime.

While this is my last issue to compile and send, I know my predecessor will continue to update the region through the AIMHO Angle and continue to enhance the publication in their own unique way! I hope you all have enjoyed the last two years of the AIMHO Angle and look forward to many more amazing editions to come!

Sincerely, Matthew Linton

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