Assessing Our Work

Sense of belonging supports students’ overall success and retention at a University (Tinto, 1999). Sense of belonging centralizes feelings of connectedness, the experience of mattering/being cared about, and feeling accepted, valued, and important to a group (Strayhorn, 2012).

UD Residence Halls are run by both Residence Hall Coordinators (RHCs) and Graduate Hall Directors (GHDs). Our staff members provide a variety of services including supervising in-hall staff members, facilitating community building, overseeing the day-to-day operations, and supporting students throughout their time while living on campus. While living in our communities, Resident Assistants (RAs) are the first point of contact for students. RAs live on each floor of the community and are upper-division, undergraduate students who work towards supporting students and building community within their respective area. RAs work diligently to support student well-being and success both in and out of the residence halls.

RA Catch Ups is a program where students are offered an individual meeting with their Resident Assistant. At each meeting, RAs have prepared topics on student outcomes (goal setting, career development, etc.) and converse with each student about their experiences on campus. Often in these meetings, RAs will serve as a resource referral tailored to what is shared by the student.

RLH has learning outcomes for students to further their sense of belonging by feeling as though they have membership to their community. This is achieved through various strategies to give students a voice or role in the community and to make contributions. Students who feel connected to the campus community are more likely to feel a sense of belonging and be successful as a student. The Neighborhood Empowerment Team (NET) model is a floor-level governance program in RLH where students are encouraged and supported to serve in various roles (Captain, Floor Representative, etc.) and host programs for the floor to increase community contributions. Participants were asked to answer questions related to their NET and Community/Floor Meetings.

RLH has learning outcomes for first-year students that they can develop goal attainment from skills Participants were asked to answer questions related to SMART Goals, which were presented on by RAs in Floor/Community Meetings in first-year residence halls in Fall 2022. This question was only displayed to students living in first-year areas (n=2,026).

RLH has learning outcomes for upper division students that they increase their Career Identification in Sophomore Year and Upper Division. Participants were asked to answer questions related to Career Center resources, which were presented on by RAs in Floor/Community Meetings and in RA Catch Up agendas in upper division residence halls in Fall 2022. This question was only displayed to students living in upper division areas (n=566).