residence life + housing

FAMILYNEWSLETTERfall 2012

Dear Families,On behalf of more than 225 student leaders and 35 administrators in Emory University’s Office of Residence Life and Housing, I welcome you to our community. We have a long-standing tradition of partnering with families to support residents living on campus. We realize that working together will provide students the highest probability of maximizing the opportunities inherent with a liberal arts education in a residential college setting. As the department’s vision statement states, Residence Life and Housing strives to serves as “a student-focused resource committed to innovation, education, and development in a diverse community comprised of exemplary staff, facilities, programs, and services.”

After assessing the needs of Emory families as it relates to support students’ residential experiences, we have gathered information on the topics that emerged from these assessment

efforts. The newsletter outlines the basic functions of the Office of Residence Life and Housing to provide context for how you might better understand our organizational semantics and structure. Also, the newsletter provides insight into the programs and events occurring directed as first-year, second-year, third-year, and fourth-year residential experiences. Finally, we provide information related to working together should an emergency occur.

We look forward to partnering with families. We know that you have long supported your loved one, and we ask that you engage with us to maximize the support we provide residential students. Please feel free to reach out to us at (404) 727-4144 or housing@emory.edu.

Sincerely,

Andrew Wilson, PhDAssistant Dean for Campus LifeDirector of Residence Life

TABLEofCONTENTS

welcome

about residence life & housing

our programs staffing alphabet soup “on call”...what’s that?

around reslife...

first year at emory second year at emory junior year at emory senior year at emory

campus life partnerprogram spotlightstudent spotlightdon’t miss!

The Office of Residence life & Housing, through collaboration with students, faculty, staff, and the community, provides multifaceted living-learning

campus environments designed to promote year-round personal growth and development.

OURMISSION

FOLLOWUS !

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www.facebook.com/LIVEATEMORY

www.twitter.com/EMORYHOUSING

[or @emoryhousing ]

LIVING-LEARNING COMMUNITIES – Residential students, by virtue of living on campus, participate in one of our “class-level” living-learning communities: First Year at Emory (FYE), Second Year at Emory (SYE), and the new Junior Year and Senior Year at Emory programs at Clairmont Campus. . Each of these communities identified appropriate learning outcomes with associated milestones to help students achieve the outcomes. Signature Events, such as Songfest (for FYE) or Sophomore Pinning (SYE) are designed to help with achieving the associated learning outcomes.FIRST YEAR at EMORY (FYE) – All first-year students are a part of FYE. Within FYE, we have five themed living-learning communities: Citizenship: Your Passport to Emory; Living Green: Sustainability in the 21st Century; Global Cultures: Bringing the World to Emory; Leadership at Emory; and Creativity & Innovation. Students are encouraged to attend class-wide FYE programs to help them connect with their class and Emory as an institution. Students participating in themed LLCs have opportunities to attend programs that connects their first-year residential experience to one of the themes (citizenship, sustainability, global cultures, leadership, and creativity.) Additionally, residents of the Citizenship and Creativity & Innovation LLCs are given preference to enroll in the following freshmen seminars: Citizenship (through the Institute for the Liberal Arts) and ORDER: On Recent Discoveries by Emory Researchers (through the Laney Graduate School). SECOND YEAR at EMORY (SYE) – Second-year students are required to register with SYE prior to submitting their housing applications. The registration form allows SYE staff members to better provide intentional, targeted programming for their residents in order to help them achieve second-year milestones, such as declaring a major or making connections with faculty members outside the classroom. JUNIOR YEAR at EMORY – Junior Year at Emory is a nascent initiative to support third-year students in their transition into their majors, adjustment to apartment living, and reflection upon study abroad and internship experiences.CLAIRMONT SENIOR INITIATIVE – Th Clairmont Senior Initiative is a collaboration with the Emory Alumni Association that supports students in post-graduation preparation, both professionally and socially. CLAIRMONT CAMPUS – Nearly all juniors and seniors who live on campus reside at Clairmont Campus. Clairmont Campus refers to the Undergraduate Residential Center (600 students), Clairmont Residential Center (476 students), Clairmont Tower Apartments (412 students), and Student Activity & Academic Center. Clairmont Campus is also home to 4 Faculty in Residence (see below). FACULTY IN RESIDENCE (FIR) – After restructuring the FIR program in 2006, Emory currently has four faculty members residing at Clairmont Campus. Two of the FIRs oversee theme halls at Clairmont (Bridging Academics, Science and Ethics; Center for International Living), while the other two provide programming for the entire campus within a theme of their choosing. Each FIR sponsors events at least once a month to help residents connect their in-class learning with their out-of-class living environment. They also regularly attend campus events to allow for further resident interaction.

ABOUTRESIDENCELIFE+HOUSINGThe Residence Life staff consists of over 20 professional staff members and nearly 200 student staff members who oversee the daily functions of our residential facilities and programming for the different communities. Our communities are built around students’ academic class and thematic living-learning communities.

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STAFFING First Year at Emory (FYE) kicks off with Move In on Saturday, August 25. With a week of activities planned to start the orientation process, these activities will include Songfest, a rich tradition at Emory where halls perform elaborate songs and dances. Throughout the fall, FYE sponsors programs to help ease the academic and social integration of first-year residents including academic advising, supplemental educational programs, and ample social engagement. In fact, FYE holds the Freshman Semiformal every fall. On Saturday, November 17, the Class of 2016 will take over the Fernbank Natural Science Museum for a night of dancing and fun. Tickets may be purchased on Move In day, or online at: www.housing.emory.edu/semiformal. Contact Ryan Roche for more information at rroche@emory.edu. Assistant Directors (formerly, Area

Directors) – ADs are full-time professionals who hold Master’s Degrees in student personnel (or a related field). They supervise both CDs and RHDs, and serve on the CLP emergency pager system.

Complex Directors – CDs are full-time professionals who hold Master’s Degrees

in student personnel (or a related field). They directly supervise the student staff (RAs, SAs) in their buildings/living-learning communities. CDs also serve on the CLP pager.Residence Hall Directors – RHDs supervise the student staff within their building, while simultaneously working in a fellowship capacity with a campus partner. Currently, we have 9 RHDs assigned to smaller residence halls and/or halls housing upper-division residents.

Fraternity House Directors – HDs are current graduate students of the University who

reside in the fraternity houses and serve as the on-site manager by providing administration and advisory support for the residents of their house.Resident Advisors – RAs are juniors or seniors, living on each residence hall floor or wing, who assist residents with personal and academic concerns and act as a resource/liaison between residents and the University. Sophomore Advisors – SAs are second-year students who live in first-year communities to assist first-year RAs in helping freshman adjust and transition to college life. SAs are unique in the residence life staffing structure in that their positions are unpaid.

House Managers – HMs are current Emory students and active members of their Greek

organization who help manage the day-to-day operations in their fraternity or sorority house. HMs report to their HD or to the OSFL-Fellow (Sorority Village).

Campus Life Professional – The CLP serves the university community as a front-line and live-on emergency responder. We have

someone serving as the CLP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

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Second Year at Emory (SYE) facilitates second-year students’ pursuits of personal, academic, and professional goals. Programs like the SYE Milestones challenge students to develop a vision for their college career through tasks like declaring a major or drafting a resume. And our strategic partnerships across campus serve to connect your student to Emory experts who can help your student take advantage of opportunities in and outside of the classroom. We get things going with the SYE Kickoff on August 25. Highlights include the Transfer Student Ice Cream Social (August 25), the Sophomore Summit presentations (August 27-28), the Sophomore Pinning Ceremony (August 30), and Sophomore Serves (September 1). A full schedule is online at: www.emory.edu/HOUSING/SYE. Contact Judith Pannell for more information at jpanne2@emory.edu.

Third-year students (juniors) living at Clairmont Campus will kick off their year at Welcome Back Barbeque on Friday, August 31. We’ve invited faculty, campus partners such as the Career Center and the Alumni Office, and alumni to provide opportunities for interaction for our students. This event is the start of the newly-created Junior Year Experience for our third-year residents. Throughout the year, juniors will have opportunities to complete eight milestones that we believe will help to prepare them for their senior year as well as their future graduate school or career plans. We are looking forward to a very successful year! Contact Frank Gaertner at fgaertn@emory.edu for more information.

Clairmont kicks off the year with a Welcome Back Barbeque on Friday, August 31. Seniors will be able to be to network with friends, alumni, faculty, and campus administrators. The event will be held at the Student Activity & Academic Center (SAAC) and is co-sponsored by the Emory Alumni Association. This barbeque kicks-off the inaugural year of the Clairmont Senior Initiative (CSI). The Clairmont Senior Initiative seeks to help senior residents prepare for a successful senior year and post-graduation transition through intentional residential programming. Contact Elizabeth Cox at elizabeth.cox@emory.edu for additional information.

WHAT’SHAPPENING?FYE

Here’s a quick roundup of events and happenings in our different communities this fall!

SYE

The residential community at Emory University serves to enhance the academic environment and provide students with a well-maintained, safe, and positive living experience. To support our students, our office requires an RA to be on-call in each building from 8pm to 8am daily. The RA On-Call serves as a resource for students in the hall. An on-call schedule is posted in each building.

Additionally, Campus Life Professionals serve as university representatives and as a resource for students, staff and parents in case of an emergency. The Campus Life staff members who serve as members of this group possess graduate degrees and completed advanced emergency response training.

If you have urgent concerns about the safety of a student, please access the Campus Life Professional on-call system by calling the Office of Residence Life and Housing from 9am-5pm on Monday-Friday at 404.727.7631, or by contacting the Emory Police Department at any time at 404.727.6111. For more information about the on-call process, email kayla.hamilton@emory.edu.

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AROUNDCAMPUS!Emory’s more than just academics. Here’s a quick glance...

In order to assist you in meeting other departments on campus; we thought we would take a moment to introduce you to Emory Dining.

Emory Dining provides eating options during your student’s campus experience at Emory. Emory Dining is the go-to department regarding meal plan options, dietary questions, and any other nutritional inquiries you or your student may have. The Emory Dining staff will work with you and your student to ensure you have a balanced diet experience.

Although the meal plan selection process remains a component of the housing application, Emory Dining operates separately from Residence Life and Housing. Our partnership with Emory Dining includes several programs including Sophomore Pinning, 1836 Dinners, Halfway to Graduation, and Late Night at Emory.

Contact Kenny Hemmer at dining@emory.edu for additional information.

EMORY DINING

CONTACTDINING

phone404.727.4015

emaildining@emory.edu

websitewww.emory.edu/dining

“Everybody do the Harris rumble!”

“Loooonnnnngstreet, street, street, street, street, street...Longstreet, street, street, street, McTYEIRE!”

These are just a couple of the chants that have bore themselves into the memories of students who lived in Emory’s first-year communities. Since the mid-1980s, Songfest has been a defining moment during the freshman year.

According to Oxford’s Dean of Campus Life, Joe Moon, the original goals of Songfest were “to build unity and cohesion among first-year students within each res hall, to create a new fun activity for orientation, to provide a venue for the SAs and RAs to work as a leadership team with their residents on a fun project, and to signal to first-year students that creativity, collaboration, and fun was part of the Emory experience.” Moon, who was the Director of Residence Life when Songfest started, also noted how well the RAs and SAs were at focusing attention toward community building and camaraderie rather than competition.

Now, anyone who has ever participated in a winning routine will be certain to remind his or her peers of that fact along with a short rendition of the winning lyrics. If you’re lucky, you may even get a sample of the formations along the way.

Another member of the original Residence Life team who helped make Songfest happen was Martha Wisbey. Wisbey remembers how the RAs and SAs she worked with looked at her like she was crazy when she suggested this idea to them. She knew there had to be some incentive to getting the staff and students to buy-in to this new idea so she created incentives that included “a new TV/VCR, a pizza party, and some other…external rewards.” Just like Dooley, we now know that pizza in a first-year student’s mind will live on forever.

Wisbey went on to describe the greatest lesson learned is that “a good idea can be hard to get

going at first, but persistence and support make the world of difference.” Nearly 30 years after this “good idea” first appeared, Songfest still reigns as one of the most anticipated events of the entire year.

SONGFEST2012

ThursdayAugust 308:30 pm

Woodruff PE CenterGymnasium

PROGRAMSPOTLIGHT

With contagious passion and energy, Jonathan (Jon) Yenni 13B, has led residentially-based initiatives since he arrived at Emory in Fall 2009. Growing up in Scarsdale, NY, with dual citizenship in Turkey, Jon began his residential leadership engagement as the Vice President for Advocacy in Few and Evans Hall. During his term, he led several initiatives to address students concerns and built positive relationships with those who manage the residence halls. Since that initial role, he has remained deeply engaged in the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and Residence Life and Housing. During his sophomore year, Jon served as the RHA Vice President for Advocacy leading initiatives to enhance residents’ experiences and to build relationships with key partners.

As a junior, Jon served as RHA President as well as House Manager for the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. As a House Manager, he served as the liaison between his chapter and Residence Life and Housing. As RHA President, he led 10 Hall Council Presidents and 12 Executive Board members in offering programs and advocacy initiatives for residents to utilize. Using his signature brand of enthusiasm and creativity, he encouraged new programs and initiatives that would encourage students to unwind and have fun. Programs

included Candyland, where students built gingerbread houses during finals, and Mardis Gras, a partnership with the Office of Religious Life. His initiatives included installing hammocks on campus for students to use near their residence halls. Jon’s passion for enhancing the residential experience both in residence halls and fraternity and sorority facilities remain unparalleled.

Jon, a student in the the Goizueta School of Business who is also majoring in psychology, currently serves as an intern for BMO Financial in New York City. After graduation, he plans to utilize his in-class learning and out-of-classroom experiences to become a leader in the financial industry after graduation. In the meantime, Jon will return to Emory in August where he will serve on the Residence Life Advisory Board and Campus Services Advisory Board.

STUDENTSPOTLIGHT

Jon Yenni, 13B

L KOUT!BE ON THE

Welcome to campus, from the Residence Life staff! Join us for a brief gathering where you will meet the professional and student staff who live and work in the community where your student will live during their first year at Emory. We will provide you with information that will be useful if you have questions regarding on-campus housing and how we can all work together to make this year successful.

SATURDAYAUGUST25hall meetings for first-year families

DOBBS

EVANS+FEW

HARRIS

HOLMES

LONGSTREET-MEANS

McTYEIRE

TURMAN

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1:45pm

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dobbs parlor

few multipurpose room

harris parlor

dobbs university center

longstreet-means lobby

few multipurpose room

woodruff health sciences administration building auditorium

FRIDAYOCTOBER26 family weekend / residence life panel

Join us for a panel discussion where students share what they have learned while living on campus. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions and see things from the students’ eyes. We will also talk about important dates, things to keep in mind, and tips. For more information, please email andy.wilson@emory.edu.

3pm harland cinema / dobbs university center

A regular video series launching this fall, ResLife Update with Ian Margol will serve as a medium to share the upcoming events in the residence halls as well as spotlight various students, programs, and processes. Posted online at housing.emory.edu and hosted by Emory College senior Ian Margol, this inaugural season will inform our community and support our students in how they can make the most of their residential experience.

Ian Margol, who hails from Cooper City, FL, currently serves as an intern for CBS News in New York City and possesses a wealth of knowledge as a journalism and sociology major.

RESLIFE UPDATE with ian margol

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Ian Margol, 13C

CAMPUS PARTNER