The Rebranding of Residential Education: Names, Faces, Responsibilities
By Gracie Meisner, Assistant News Editor
Nicole Bauer ’22 (Photo Eric Lippe/The Gettysburgian)
As Gettysburg College welcomed students back to campus, many noticed changes in the signature policies, offices, and organizations that make up the college. The Office of Residential Education (ResEd) is not exempt: the office bears a new name, houses new responsibilities and initiatives, and has welcomed two new staff members to its team.
Previously named the Office of Residential and First Year Programs, ResEd has undergone a sense of rebranding; while its core purposes and responsibilities remain the same, the office has adopted new wellness programming initiatives and no longer contains orientation and extended orientation.
Assistant Director Brooke Gutschick ’17 explained that first-year orientation responsibility was moved to the newly-created Office of Student Success.
“We used to have ‘first-year programs’ in our title, which meant that we oversaw both orientation and extended orientation, but with the creation of the Center for Student Success, the college saw a need to house the student support programs, such as orientation, and academic support under one office,” said Gutschick. “Not having the first-year programs has allowed us to focus even more on the residential experience but more importantly the education that comes with living on a college campus.”
Gutschick explains that, without first-year orientation, staff will additionally have more time to focus on the college house program, which provides safe spaces for students of common interests.
“Our college house program has 17 houses that provide not only living spaces, but programming and community spaces for some of our marginalized students, as well as a place for people to hang out if they have a common interest. We are going to continue to elevate that program because we have more time to focus on it than in the past,” said Gutschick.
“Not having the first-year programs has allowed us to focus even more on the residential experience but more importantly the education that comes with living on a college campus.” – Brooke Gutschick ’17
Delaney Borgquist ’23 and Ethan Wilt ’23 felt that the changes bear a positive impact on their jobs as Residence Coordinators as well as on their first-year residents. Unlike previous years, students do not have to attend a plethora of events to build extended orientation credits. While students still must attend community meetings and participate in a G-Chat each semester to fulfill the First Year Residential Experience (FYRE), they have more freedom in exploring programming than in years past, and events are centered around wellness and well-being.
“With less required extended orientation events, first-year students are now more in control with what they want their experience to be. They are encouraged to interact with what they are interested in instead of feeling like they have to go to activities to check boxes. As a staff, we have been focusing on wellness, an initiative in partnership with other departments, to provide the necessary support for residents,” said Wilt.
Borgquist echoed Wilt’s sentiments.
“The freedom to pick and choose events focuses on the holistic student and living experience, and there’s no more saying ‘you have to go to this event,’ like in years past,” said Borquist.
Along with changes to the name and responsibilities of ResEd, two new faces make up the staff: Residential Life Coordinator (East Quad) Gray Reid and Residential Life Coordinator (Upperclass) Nicole Bauer ’22.
Reid explained that they served as a Resident Assistant in their undergraduate education and loved experiencing the job, getting to know people, and being able to serve as a resource, which ultimately led them to seek out a job that would provide opportunity for similar work.
“I want to continue that work, but in a multifaceted aspect,” said Reid. “I saw lots of areas in residential education where diversity was not the most prevalent or was often overlooked, and as somebody who has several marginalized identities, it felt very important to me that this come more into the forefront and we have conversations about how to address it. I knew one of the best ways to address it was to be the person who could – before the students come to us with problems – say, let’s start addressing it. So I applied to Gettysburg, and that’s how I ended up here,” said Reid.
Reid notes that, even in the short time they’ve held their position, they have already had the opportunity to help make a difference for students.
“I saw lots of areas in residential education where diversity was not the most prevalent or was often overlooked…” – Gray Reid
“I like the job because it provides me an opportunity to get to work with students in their first time in college. They might not have all the skills or the guidance, and I am that person that they can stop in and ask questions,” said Reid.
While Reid joined the ResEd staff at the height of its changes, they see the sense of rebranding as a positive.
“I think it takes the stress off of our student staff members. It allows us to do what we are best at and why we came into the residential sphere. And I think it certainly allows us to do more creative programming and more intentional programming. We’re really here to focus on that educational aspect – how you learn to live and thrive in a different setting and with other people and be an adult,” said Reid.
On the other hand, Bauer found her way to the job after studying at Gettysburg College. Prior to graduating, she worked in the College Life office for four years: as a Resident Assistant for two years and as a Residence Coordinator for one year. Having been involved with ResEd for a number of years, Bauer also sees the changes to the office as positive.
“The changes have allowed our office to focus on other aspects of residential education and how to make the residential experience more of a learning opportunity. We’re trying to partner with different offices and groups around campus to promote wellness. We’re really excited about the changes, and they are a learning curve for everyone, but it has been good so far,” said Bauer.
While the new year has brought on many changes, ultimately, Gutschick explained, the core functions and responsibilities of ResEd will remain the same: to support students and make their experience as positive as possible.
“At the end of the day, ResEd is going to be there to support students even outside of their living environment. That is evident through the way that RAs hear concerns about anything under the sun from their residents. We really try to focus on supporting the whole student, not just the fact that they happen to live in our residence halls,” said Gutschick.
This article originally appeared on pages 5–6 of the September 2022 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
