User:Charlie.Frankly.Writes/sandbox

Organization

Example reporting structures that could oversee an on-campus, institutionally owned, residence life operations are:

1) oversight of housing and residence life via the Vice President and/or Associate Vice-President of student affairs or student services.

2) oversight of housing and residence life via the Vice President and/or Associate Vice-President of finance, operations or administration.

3) dual oversight of the housing and residence life program. The housing operations (staffing, facilities, admissions etc.) are reported to the Vice-President Finance or an equivalent unit that oversees ancillary services. Residence life (staffing, education and programming) are reported to Vice President and/or Associate Vice-President of student affairs.

Institutions operate differently according to culture, location, organizational structure, and values- there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to manage residence life units.

Legal Implications
The relationship between residence life and the students that live within are different than a landlord/tenant relationship. In Ontario, Canada, the Residential Tenancies Act exempts accommodations provided by an educational institution. The reason for this exemption is that on campus student residences are often not full calendar year rentals (duration is typically September to April) and there are student advisory groups that provide regular feedback to the residence professional staff.

Benefits

Other accommodations for Residence Life and Housing are offered for family housing, Graduate/ Post-Graduate and upper-year accommodations. Traditionally, there is less traditional residence life aspects in these communities (residence assistants, programming) but residents are still offered a great deal of support from professional staff.

The services and support that residence life offers are impactful to the retention, academic engagement and graduation of students, more so of off-campus living or commuting.