NCHO Competencies

NCHO COMPETENCIES ADOPTED FROM THE ACUHO-I COMPETENCES

Ancillary Partnerships- Understanding ancillary partnerships, such as public-private partnerships, specialized housing like fraternity/sorority housing, or others, will assist in managing the overall housing and residence life operation.

Conference Services- Obtaining maximum efficiency and use of on-campus facilities is often achieved through repurposing spaces that become available in low student-use periods, including summer camps, institutes and other shorter-term experiences. Exploring issues of sales, contracting, resource allocation, and management and service delivery of these shorter-term educational experiences in on-campus facilities will enhance overall housing operation.

Dining Services– Providing high-quality meals for food services to residents and the campus community is inherent to the dining services competency. Focusing on the operational aspects of campus dining, this competency addresses the role of dining services in achieving the mission of housing and residence life operations.

Equity and Inclusion- Campus communities are microcosms of the large community and society as a whole. Campuses are filled with rich cultural differences that enhance the educational experiences of our students and professional staff. Understanding yourself and others as individuals, how those individuals exists in cultural groups of difference, and the concepts of power, oppression and social justice provides a framework for intercultural competency to be an effective housing and residence life professional.

Ethics- Understanding the principles that govern an individual’s behavior in making choices in their personal and professional lives. Involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong, decision making, and assessing matters of value and power.

Evaluation & Planning: Assessment- Understanding the impact our work has on our students, colleagues, and campus communities is important to our continued improvement. Program and Service Assessment, Student Outcomes and Outcomes Assessment, Benchmarking & External Standards allow us to generate new understanding of our programs and services and how we may make changes to have greater impact on our residents.

Evaluation & Planning: Research- Research, the more generalizable outcomes resulting from higher-level study of an issue, allows professionals to base the foundations of their decisions, programs and policy on tested models and beliefs. At its core, this competency focuses on being a good consumer of existing research, and the application of research to the policy and practice of housing and residence life.

Evaluation & Planning: Policy/Legal Issues- Policy is establishing principles, rules and guidelines formulated to allow an organization to address a persistent problem or achieve a long-term goal. This competency addresses the basic understanding of policy development, knowledge and awareness of legislative or judicial actions that influence policy, and analyzing the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions.

Evaluation & Planning: Policy/Legal Issues- Policy is establishing principles, rules and guidelines formulated to allow an organization to address a persistent problem or achieve a long-term goal. This competency addresses the basic understanding of policy development, knowledge and awareness of legislative or judicial actions that influence policy, and analyzing the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions.

Evaluation & Planning: Strategic Planning- Creating commonly held values and shared mission and vision of the organization is fundamental to intentional planning for the future. This core competency addresses ways to develop, implement and assess strategic plans and outcomes to strengthen housing and residence life operations.

Evaluation and Planning: Campus Politics- Higher education exists within a political environment, shaped by local, regional, state, and (inter)national forces and stakeholders. Being successful as a housing and residence life professional means fundamentally know how to navigate the political waters on-campus. This includes the historical development of politics, politics in decision making, political stakeholders and an individual as political.

Facilities Management- Managing our core facility infrastructure is essential for a successful housing and residence life operations. Facilities Management is a wide-ranging competency that addresses knowledge and skills from planning and building capital projects to the assessment and maintenance of existing facilities.

Facilities: Master Planning- Developing a comprehensive plan for future growth and renovation of the physical structures of a housing operations takes into consideration analyzing local markets, developing short and long-term goals for housing facilities, and establishing a plan to best meet the physical needs of tomorrow.

Facilities: Sustainability- Implementing policy and practice decisions in housing and residence life that promote being good stewards of our environment and resources.

Information Technology- Exploration of the use of technology to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data and information in the context of on-campus housing operations. Specific skills within information technology include security, network and systems administration, computer support, and applications selection.

Res Ed: Academic Initiatives- Initiatives that seamlessly integrate the academic experiences of students with their on-campus residential experiences, including the broad scope of residential academic support, living-learning programs, residential colleges, residential curriculum tutoring, peer mentoring programs, and other initiatives.

Res Ed: RA Selection/Training- Programs and services designed to select, train, supervise and advance the role of undergraduate student leaders who serve a critical role of live-in resident assistant to the successful housing and residence life operation.

Res Ed: Hall Directors- Programs, services and resources designed to assist graduate-level and full-time professional staff who serve in the role of live-in hall directors, community directors, or similarly situated roles in developing the diverse skills and understandings they need to be effective and efficient in staffing their facilities.

Res Ed: Student Development- Research, theories and models on how college students grow and develop, and how to make policy and practice decisions to influence the growth and development trajectory of residents.

Res Ed: Residence Education- The total education program planned and facilitated for on-campus residence is captured in residence education competency. This more general competency is designed to address those areas of residential education including promoting personal growth, community building, student advising, broad based programming strategies not specifically addressed in the other residence education competency areas.

Website reference- https://www.acuho-i.org/resources/core-competencies?portalid=0

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