Building resident life brings fun to campus
UHCL has hired Amy Snyder as the first Director of Student Housing and Resident Life. Having worked with seven different universities, Snyder brings twenty years of experience to helping build on-campus residency.
“I love my job,” Snyder said. “I love what I do. I love working with students. I think being on a college campus has kept me young in a way…it keeps me energetic and vibrant and wanting to learn more.”
Snyder began her journey as a “reslifer” when she worked as a resident advisor (RA) while attending Daeman College. She graduated with a degree in History and Government, and then pursued a masters in College student Personnel at Bowling Green State University. After graduation, she transitioned into campus leadership roles and has been involved in resident life ever since.
Snyder’s background in resident life has varied from supervising a staff of 10; to managing on-campus housing for more than 800 to 4,000 students. She believes her experiences have prepared her to build the student housing program at UHCL.
“I think I bring a lot of great experience,” Snyder said. “I’ve worked with populations of over a thousand and then in populations where in the University of Florida we had about 800 on campus.”
Snyder will help facilitate the building of the student housing program by creating policies, contributing to the building’s details, determining living logistics and hiring a staff.
“A residence hall on campus will bring a new and different kind of energy to campus,” said David Rachita, dean of students. “Students choosing to live on campus will experience a wide array of programs and opportunities. As educators we know and promote that learning takes place both inside and outside of the classroom. A residence hall offering will add greatly to this holistic educational approach while creating a new and different way for students to feel connected to the University.”
The hope is that an emphasis on dorm life will further the connections between students, enhance school pride and encourage camaraderie between students in a campus setting.
Snyder was drawn to UHCL because the opportunity to begin a new student housing program is rare.
“It is very rare in what we do in reslife that you’re going to have the ability to build a program and have an influence in everything such as what kind of programs you’re going to be putting on to the policy,” Snyder said.
The dorm facility will tentatively be ready fall 2018. Snyder expects to have a staff of 10, including student RA’s, an administrative assistant and an individual who lives and works in the dorms full-time. The staff will work together to help manage and facilitate programs to provide a fun, safe and inclusive home for up to 300 students.
The Resident Life and Student Housing department will host 6-8 RAs for the fall semester of 2018. RAs will serve as peer leaders, live in the dorms and be responsible for a hall of students. This job may entail briefing students on dorm and safety procedures and hosting events.
“Really, to be an RA, and to be a good RA, the folks I’m looking to hire are people who are helpers,” Snyder said. “If you like to help people, and you have that kind of passion and that kind of heart, you’re going to be good at the job; were looking for those kind of students.”
Along with dorms, UHCL will continue to work closely with off-campus apartments.
“It’s a different type of living completely; being in an apartment is a lot more independent, and you have to be a more independent student to live there and want to live there,” Snyder said. “This [residence halls] is going to be a lot more RAs per resident, and there will be a lot more intentional getting people to know each other. It’s going to be a different type of student who would want to live in a residence hall.”
Moving forward, Snyder will soon be developing focus groups to determine the wants of the student body at UHCL. For more information about how you can be involved with building a reslife on campus, contact Amy Snyder at snyder@uhcl.edu.
