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Article Type

Professional Proficiency

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

Fostering a sense of community should be at the center of every housing and residence life professional’s efforts. Research conducted by Braxton et al. (2014) revealed that students who are able to identify with their residence hall community, interact with peers in this community, and find solidarity within the community experience an increased sense of communal potential. This heightened communal potential is positively correlated with student persistence. Therefore, this article explores Berger’s (1997) three dimensions of community—identity, interaction, and solidarity—by identifying currently implemented policies and practices within residence hall communities that seemingly foster these dimensions of community. These policies and programs, and the like, are strongly encouraged within residence hall communities, especially those housing first-year students.

Author(s)

Natalee M. Erb, M.Ed., is program coordinator for student initiatives, Office of the Dean of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons, at Vanderbilt University.

Matthew S. Sinclair, M.Ed., is area coordinator for Warren and Moore College Halls Office of Housing and Residential Education, at Vanderbilt University.

John M. Braxton, Ed.D., has two major programs of research. One program centers on the study of college and university faculty members. Faculty scholarly role performance and the normative structures of undergraduate college teaching and research are the primary foci of this particular program of research. His other program of research focuses on the college student experience in general and the college student departure process in particular. Within this program of research, Professor Braxton conducts research on college student departure, assesses current theory on college student departure, and constructs and tests theory on this phenomenon. Professor Braxton has published over 110 publications in the form of articles in refereed journals, books, and book chapters. Of his books, 5 are full-length co-authored and 12 are edited books. His full-length books include Rethinking College Student Retention (with William Doyle, Harold Hartley, Amy Hirschy, Willis Jones, and Michael McLendon), Professors Behaving Badly (with Eve Proper and Alan Bayer), Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching (with Alan Bayer), and Institutionalizing a Broader View of Scholarship Through Boyer’s Four Domains (with William Luckey and Patricia Helland). Braxton is a recipient of the Research Achievement Award bestowed by the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the Contribution to Knowledge Award given by the American College Personnel Association (ACPA)–College Student Educators International. Both awards are for outstanding contributions to knowledge that advance the understanding of higher education. Professor Braxton served as the ninth editor of theJournal of College Student Development for 7 years, from 2008 to 2015. He currently serves as an associate editor for Higher Education: A Handbook of Theory and Research. He is also a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

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