Explaining the experience of first-generation college students is a task that many of us quickly deflect if at all possible. Just because a subject can be classified as “well, every situation is so different” does not mean that we cannot try. A few years back, a hall director I worked for needed me to come up with a first-generation college student (FGCS) program for her resident assistant staff. After some thought, I came up with the following, relatively quick program:

Materials needed:

Two (or more) sheets of paper

Pencils (preferably the stencil pencil kind)

Or use a whiteboard/chalkboard

(Groups should be 5 or less/group)

Preparation:

1. Design two like house outlines (basic blueprints with basic room options)

2. On back of each, list:

Rooms needed:

Kitchen

Bathroom

Living room

Master bedroom

Spare bedroom

Upstairs bathroom (shared between the two bedrooms)

Appliances needed:

Oven, fridge, sink, pantry, island, counters, cupboards, dishwasher

Sofa, couch, TV, coffee table, plants (x3)

Soap and towels

Bed, armoire (x2), treasure chest, nightstand (x2)

Repeat for spare bedroom (add a desk)

Rules:

Designate 2 “parents”

Divide group into (two) equal halves

Parent 1 = you know the ins-and-outs of home building. Feel free to help with all aspects of the basic design. Give pointers but allow for choices!

Parent 2 = you try to help with basic design but have no prior experience. Accidentally, you give the group bad advice and misguided direction. Five minutes into the activity, you get frustrated and leave.

Allow for 15-20 minutes for groups to finalize their houses.

Once completed, ask the following questions (plus your own):

1. How did the “parents” help/hurt?
2. What were the difficult decisions?
3. Why did you place/label each room where/what?
4. What are the differences between groups?
5. How does this relate to first generation college students?
   1. Parents who can help/ parents who are inexperienced
   2. Some decisions are made without understanding
   3. Communication between student-home is stressed
   4. Transitioning as a freshman becomes immediately more difficult
   5. Does FGCS correlate with low socio-economic status (SES)*?

Treat this as a basic start to get the discussion/training session started. The point of the project is to metaphorically show students that matriculating through a successful college career is similar to building an efficient house— it helps to have an experienced architect. However, it takes student leaders and student affairs professionals to make sure that each student who does not have an experienced parental architect is aware of the plethora of resources offered by their university.

Remember, first-generation college students (FGCS) and students of low socioeconomic status (SES) are not necessarily correlated and should be understood as separate but equally important variables when further understanding our student populations.

Tyler Martin recently completed his M.Ed. in Higher Education and is seeking a position in Student Affairs.

Whether you saw it on Fox8 Cleveland or YouTube last fall, or more recently/likely on Tosh.0, the story about the sixth grader who received a one-hour detention for “passing gas” is true. This article is not to debate slapstick humor versus highbrow entertainment nor is it to discuss the (un)-importance of having/learning “class.” No. This article is to raise awareness to the real problem: our failed education system.

While we in the U.S. confuse young children about natural, bodily functions by not just hushing the “embarrassing” ones— but now disciplining those who childishly defy or outright do not accept mainstream mores— countries such as India, Thailand, China, and Sweden are not simply excelling in academics, but quickly monopolizing the world’s future movers-and-shakers. Take a look at this detailed report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to OECD’s latest tri-annual Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the United States education system ranked 14^th out of 34 in reading skills, 17^th for science, and 25^th for mathematics. Dare I ask what your reaction would be if your child— who has open access to the best of the world’s resources— came home with a 58% in language arts, a 50% in science, and a 26% in mathematics? I venture to assume that your reaction would include a long parent-to-child talk, a parent-to-teacher conference, and inquiring assistance from the professionals at the Sylvan Learning Center.

All right. So what does farting/tooting/passing gas/etc., on a bus have to do with salvaging our failed education system? A lot. Without me going into a complete tirade about revamping the concept of honest adult roles and responsibility courses in grades 6-12, I will leave that for another time and skip to this basic truth: instead of the world’s foremost bright, inclusive, inventive, and progressive nations, we have sidewinder’ed our culture into the trammels of inanity and shame (whatever that is, precisely).

While you watch FOX/CNN/PBS/MSNBC/AJE, etc, tonight, take note of how many stories (and their cumulative time spent) are fixated on fatuous topics: kids farting on busses, a sad woman who has injured her children, a congressman’s sexting pics; and then compare that to the amount of time American media spends discussing how we as a nation are actively seeking means of succeeding in solving our country’s and our world’s largest problems: Diabetes, Rx-addictions, Asthma, Racism, Cancer, Homelessness, Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, Spina bifida, Ethnic “Cleansings,” Anti-Semitism, Homophobia etc. Unless you are a strict PBS or Anderson Cooper (CNN needs to expand with more Coopers, Guptas, Zakariases, etc.) fan, chances are there is a distinctive gap in your findings.

Now that we honestly recognize the problem and its severity, we must now immediately begin to work on salvage and reclaim. Think FDR’s New Deal. And as the Alphabet Soup of FDR’s New Deal inspired reconstruction of a failed economy, an overhaul of our current SES-restrictive, test-driven and anti-scientific education system would reconstruct a failed education system. But how would we replace our failed system? How about through the same philosophy professed by The Statue of Liberty: Freedom. Huh? Stick with me here:

As rational, educated beings, we can all easily agree that our nation was initially founded on the simple concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness— all of which The Statue of Liberty represents, right? Or have we forgotten so soon that She is a beacon of America’s adoration for collective, innovative ingenuity between Free nations, demanding the world to give Her its “tired, [its] poor/[Its] huddled masses yearning to breathe Free?” If we have, click the hyperlink in this paragraph.

So again, how do we fix the American education system? Easy: we return to our original philosophy as a people. We abandon our silly, failed conventional intelligence bench-markers (brainless book-regurgitation tests, academic anxiety-sparking pop-quizzes, and pre-established, assigned group projects) and replace them with innovative, collaborative, self-driven and student-to-teacher-to-student lead projects respective to a given subject’s academic field.

And please— America— please let us finally embrace science! It is time that we drop our animosities towards science and make our children scientists. We rely on scientists for vanity (hair color, Rogaine), health (disease-prevention, vitamin-infused beverages), finances (try and tell the FED that economics is not a science) and almost any/everything else we use daily. Obviously, it is time that we give the scientific method our unadulterated respect and no longer exploit its power for profit and veil it in irrational suspicion.

It is as simple as that folks. Still do not believe me? Ask yourself: “when do I learn best?” I will gamble that it is one of— if not a combination of— you being in your own little geek-out world, exploring websites— or talking to direct sources in a quasi-Socratic conversation— or when you are diving into a good book— or possibly expressing an idea or newly learned concept through artistic means? Maybe it is when you are exercising in the morning or during the monotony of your morning wake-up routine? Regardless of what your unique learning scene is, or how you tap into it, you know that it has bred your favorite and most powerful learning experiences.

Why are we not harnessing this basic understanding and injecting its wisdom into our educational system? If we really want to become the world’s hope again— if we really want to be the leading nation in solving what ails us— we need to make this easy, 100% logical plan an immediate reality.

In student affairs, we pride ourselves as a freethinking, innovative field on a blazing quest of establishing the most efficient and positive learning environments, correct? Then it is time we collaborate with our faculty friends and try tooting new horns— and stop fartin’ around.

Tyler Martin recently completed his M.Ed. in Higher Education and is seeking a position in Student Affairs.

Summer is in full-swing and we’re all busy bees, getting ready for the start of another new academic year. If you’re like me, this means preparing for leadership training opportunities. And for some of you, this is synonymous with Resident Assistant Training. While you’re putting this beast together, I ask how much emphasis have you and/or your institution placed on training for diversity issues? Although diversity is nothing new to us in Student Affairs, I still find that its emphasis is not on par with our students’ needs.

Yes, we may require a diversity program or two for our RAs, Hall Council, and Residence Hall Association, but how much affect do these programs have? Is open support for the various religions, abilities, races, socioeconomic status, genders, and sexual orientations of our increasingly diverse resident student body enough? And more importantly, how well versed are our student leaders? Is the RA ready to handle a student coming out to them? What would they do when faced with a roommate conflict fueled by religious differences? Could they confidently approach the needs of a wheel-chair dependent resident? The more we think about it, the more nervous it may make us.

Fret not, there’s a solution! An easy way to tackle this concern is introducing (if you have not already) diversity training into your leadership curriculum such as RA Training. As professionals and (pre)-professionals, many of us are ready to tackle these difficult situations, and we do. Nevertheless, it’s paramount that our student leaders are able to face these situations with just as much ease since they are the ones who usually are first confronted with these situations. Below are some Diversity “Behind Closed Doors” or BCD scenarios that I wrote for my department’s Fall Training. If you think it’s time your department tackles diversity training, these may provide you with a good start:

Behind Closed Doors – Diversity-based Situations

Scene 1

Type: Race Relations (Not to be disclosed to RA-in-training)

Prompt Read to RA-in-training:

It is Move-in Day and your residents are really excited to finally get to college! You notice two residents arranging their room and decide to stop by to see them.

Actors:

(Resident 1, Resident 1’s Parent, Resident 2)

Scene to be enacted:

Move-in Day:  Two residents are arranging their room. One resident has a parent with him/her. The RA stops by to see how move-in is going and the parent begins aggressively complaining about how his/her son was put with someone of a different race and that he/she will not have his/her student picking up drugs and becoming promiscuous because of his/her roommate.

RHD: Processing:

1. What did the RA do well?
2. What could the RA have done better?
3. How has training taught us to do in this situation?
4. Is there specific protocol for approaching this situation?
5. Veteran RAs: What advice can you give Rookie RAs?

RHD: Points to make:

1. Ask the parent to join you in the hallway.
2. Explain to the parent that roommates are required to live together for the first two weeks before they can be moved.
3. Explain that being moved will be the choice of the students involved once the two-week waiting period has elapsed.
4. Speak to the students, individually, later to see how they feel about their living situation.
5. If the situation escalates more, send the parent to the RHD.

Behind Closed Doors – Diversity-based Situations

Scene 2

Type: GLBT Coming-Out (Not to be disclosed to RA-in-training)

Prompt Read to RA-in-training:

Two of your residents came to VSU as lifelong best friends and have maintained their friendship despite rooming together. They’re inseparable and never fight. As you’re doing a round, you hear screaming coming from their end of the hall.

Actors:

(Resident 1, Resident 2)

Scene to be enacted:

Two roommates are best friends and are inseparable. They’ve known each other their entire lives and have no secrets—or so one of them thought. After rooming together for almost a semester, one roommate decides to tell the other his/her one secret: he/she is Gay. Roommate 1 is completely flabbergasted and the surprise of it all erupts in homophobic rage. Roommate 1 screams at the other roommate, calling him/her a faggot/dyke and proceeds to run out the door, slamming it behind him/her. The RA calls for your attention but you keep going. The RA stops in to ask Roommate 2 what had just happened. Roommate 2 is in tears and states that he/she just came out to Roommate 1 and doesn’t understand his/her reaction.

RHD: Processing:

1. What did the RA do well?
2. What could the RA have done better?
3. How has training taught us to do in this situation?
4. Is there specific protocol for approaching this situation?
5. Veteran RAs: What advice can you give Rookie RAs?

RHD: Points to make:

1. Both roommates are very emotional right now and it’s your task to sift through their emotions to reestablish their common bond.
2. Have Roommate 2 recount the incident.
3. Locate Roommate 1 and discuss his/her feelings (they’re important, too!).
4. Suggest taking both roommates to a GSA meeting, or inform them of GSA and their services.
5. Discuss the situation with your RHD.
6. Check up on residents to see if their relationship is rebuilding or further deteriorating.

Behind Closed Doors – Diversity-based Situations

Scene 3

Type: Religious Differences (Not to be disclosed to RA-in-training)

Prompt Read to RA-in-training:

Two of your residents are roommates but not friends. You know that they coexist without much communication, but neither of them have explained why. While doing a round, you hear a bunch of commotion followed by screaming and the slamming of a door.

Actors:

(Resident 1, Resident 2, Friends of Resident 2 [if possible])

Scene to be enacted:

Resident 1 is of a traditional, conservative Christian religion. Roommate 2 is a Neo-Pagan (define). Despite Resident 1’s intolerance towards Roommate 2’s beliefs, both residents manage to remain roommates since they have conflicting schedules that keep them separated. Tonight, however, Resident 1 walks in on Resident 2 and his/her friends performing a ritual that involves them sitting in the form of a circle with lit candles and incents amongst them and a religious text in the center of their formed circle. Resident 2 and his/her friends appear to be chanting. Resident 1 bursts into anger and kicks the candles, incents, and text; screams at them and crashes out the door, slamming it behind him/her. Resident 1 sees his/her RA and charges towards him/her demanding a room change.

RHD: Processing:

1. What did the RA do well?
2. What could the RA have done better?
3. How has training taught us to do in this situation?
4. Is there specific protocol for approaching this situation?
5. Veteran RAs: What advice can you give Rookie RAs?

RHD: Points to make:

1. Lead Resident 1 back into his/her room and have all non-residents leave the room.
2. Point out the policy violations with the candles and incents, but do not make the situation about the policy violations, but rather the roommates situation.
3. Emotions are high right now, separating the roommates and speaking to them individually may be a good idea. Start with Roommate 1 since he/she came to you first.
4. Bring the roommates together and use the Talking Stick and Roommate Mediation skills.
5. Be aware that some situations are above your skill set and that is OKAY.
6. If you feel that the situation will only become worse, contact your RHD or the RHD on duty so he/she may investigate and decide on any further action.

Behind Closed Doors – Diversity-based Situations

Scene 4

Type: Socio-economic Status/ First-gen College Student (Not to be disclosed to RA-in-training)

Prompt Read to RA-in-training:

You love community building activities. In fact, you’ve managed to get your entire floor to regularly see movies on opening nights, go off-campus to eat, and they even designed and purchased several floor pride shirts! One of your residents, who used to be just as active as the rest of your floor, has recently stopped going to the movies and off-campus to eat. Tonight, you decide to stop by and see if he/she’s okay and find out why he/she’s changed.

Actors:

(Resident 1)

Scene to be enacted:

Resident 1 hails from a family of low socio-economic status and is a first-generation college student. Although the HOPE Scholarship and his/her Financial Aid covers most of the cost for college, he/she still had to take out a loan for some books and living expenses. Resident 1’s floor is very engaged and regularly sees movies on opening nights, goes off-campus to eat, and even designs and purchases several floor pride shirts. Even though Resident 1 has really enjoyed this, he/she’s realized that continuing this will deplete his/her fixed finances. The RA has noticed that Resident 1 has stopped attending the movies and no longer goes out to eat with the floor. He/she stops by tonight to ask Resident 1 why. Despite Resident 1’s embarrassment, he/she places pride aside and explains his/her situation.

RHD: Processing:

1. What did the RA do well? What could the RA have done better?
2. How has training taught us to do in this situation?
3. Is there specific protocol for approaching this situation?
4. Veteran RAs: What advice can you give Rookie RAs?

RHD: Points to make:

1. Finances can be a sensitive subject to students, so approach them with diligence.
2. Do not hesitate to use the programming budget—designing low-cost and free programs is very simple. Be sure to utilize CAB, RHA and general University events as programs!
3. All students need to understand finances: program a Budgeting/Finance 101 program.
4. Be aware that First Gen students may need more assistance than other students. Plan for this by knowing basic questions to University services and guide them to the resources/services/offices that may help them.
5. Praise your residents’ academic success through programs and conversation: ask residents how they want to be recognized (some wish to be, others do not).

Behind Closed Doors – Diversity-based Situations

Scene 5

Type: Students with Disabilities (Not to be disclosed to RA-in-training)

Prompt Read to RA-in-training:

One of your residents uses a wheelchair for mobility. This resident has been very social and active all semester—coming to hall events and spends a lot of time in the lobby being chummy with other residents. Recently, however, you’ve not seen this resident around. Being concerned, you stop by why the resident is out and ask his/her roommate if everything is okay.

Actors:

(Resident 1)

Scene to be enacted:

Resident 1’s roommate uses a wheelchair for mobility. Lately, Resident 1 has noticed that his/her roommate has become frustrated with the way other residents are treating his/her disability. Resident 1 has seen other residents walk around his/her roommate as he/she is leaving the building since he/she uses a proxy card that automatically opens the doors. Resident 1 has also seen residents make faces, gestures, and comments about his/her roommate being slow and taking up the whole hallway as he/she navigates the building. Resident 1 knows that his/her roommate has become aware of the ignorance/intolerance of other residents has become less active in the hall and is now spending most of his/her time outside the resident hall. When the RA stops by to ask about Resident 1’s roommate, Resident 1 explains the situation.

RHD: Processing:

1. What did the RA do well? What could the RA have done better?
2. How has training taught us to do in this situation?
3. Is there specific protocol for approaching this situation?
4. Veteran RAs: What advice can you give Rookie RAs?

RHD: Points to make:

1. Start the year by discussing a climate of acceptance and expecting diversity. This will set the tone for the year and make residents more aware of one another initially.
2. Talk to the resident experiencing the issue to assess his/her feelings and sentiments.
3. Ask the resident if he/she would be interesting in creating an ability-based program (some residents with disabilities are more than willing, while others would rather not).
4. Become acquainted with the Access Office (aka Disabled Student Development)—they will be glad to help you understand your resident and his/her needs.
5. Do not tolerate any intolerance of any diversity element: treat it as you would any other inconsiderate behavior.