Every year COCM hosts an Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. In February, COCM’s Assistant Directors fly in from over 40 different sites for a week of learning, listening, sharing, and building community amongst fellow student housing professionals. Being an Assistant Director of Housing can mean many things. Depending on the particular site, AD’s have a variety of roles, responsibilities, and challenges in facilities, maintenance, operations and res life. During one session at the 2019 Annua...
Apr 10, 2019•21 min
Brian served as the IT Coordinator at COCM for 10 years. In 2018, he left COCM to join the BL Harbert Team as an IT Manager for the US Group. In today’s episode, Tara Wilkinson catches up with Brian to ask him about all that he learned from working with COCM and how it is impacting his new position. Brian joined Capstone Development Group over a decade ago in a different role than where he ended up – as IT Coordinator. Soon after he started to work at Capstone, Brian noticed areas where some hel...
Mar 25, 2019•20 min
Every year COCM hosts an Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. In January, site directors from over fly in from over 40 different sites for a week of learning, listening, sharing, and building community amongst fellow student housing professionals. Being a Director of Housing at any university comes with a variety of roles, responsibilities, and challenges. During one session at the 2019 Annual Meeting we sat down with four directors to discuss all of these things. Our panelists are from very d...
Mar 15, 2019•28 min
Opening a brand-new residence hall, on a campus that is not used to serving its students 24/7, is quite an undertaking. How do you manage the expectations of a diverse student population? How do you initiate support services after traditional hours? How do you build the foundation for a successful community—without the luxury of established policies and procedures? Rob Olson is the Director of Facilities and Capital Projects at Green River College, and Greg Houghton is the Director of Finance an...
Jan 30, 2019•21 min
Close your eyes and picture a community college. Did you envision student housing? You may be surprised to hear that many campuses DO have housing, and just like any four-year school, living on campus has an impact on student success. The catch is, student housing cannot be just a building on campus; it must provide an experience that engages the students who live there. Tracy Morris has 17 years of experience as a community college administrator. Most recently, she served as Vice President for ...
Dec 19, 2018•25 min
Even among student housing professionals, few are familiar with the idea of nonprofit ownership. What is it? How does it work? And why would a university choose to work with a nonprofit to develop student housing facilities? Will Givhan is the President and CEO of the Collegiate Housing Foundation , the country’s premier nonprofit provider of student housing. Since its inception in 1996, the 501(c)(3) has financed over $2.1B in student housing facilities, completing 55 projects at 40 schools in ...
Dec 12, 2018•19 min
To be a successful leader in the student housing space, you need buy-in from all of the players involved. But how do you determine what’s driving each stakeholder and make decisions accordingly? Brian Kraft argues that learning to listen is the most critical skill for leaders in student housing. Brian is the Regional Vice President at COCM. He is responsible for supporting the directors of six properties on the east coast and serving as a liaison among institutional partners, owners and the home...
Dec 04, 2018•17 min
What are the key differences in working as a student housing professional for COCM versus a public institution? How does working within the confines of a bureaucracy for a university contrast with serving a housing-focused private company? And how can the two work together for the good of the students they serve? Gray Bekurs is the Vice President for Business Development at COCM, working with the marketing team to pursue new management and consulting opportunities. Gray began his career in stude...
Sep 21, 2018•15 min
There is no doubt that institutions of higher learning face a number of challenges, not the least of which is an unsustainable financial model. Tuition, fees, room and board no longer pay the bills—despite sticker prices as high as $72K a year! So, how do colleges and universities design innovative solutions and continue to thrive in the 21st century? Brian Mitchell is the founder and president of Academic Innovators , a consultancy that helps colleges and universities learn to adapt and evolve ...
Sep 05, 2018•26 min
Many professionals in the world of student housing began as RAs, gaining exposure to the industry as college students and eventually realizing the opportunity to pursue a career in the space. But what if you weren’t a resident assistant in college? How do you get into student housing with a background in what seems like a vastly different industry? Jeremy Biddy is the Vice President of Operations for Capstone On Campus Management. In that role, he oversees all of the operations in the field and ...
Aug 31, 2018•15 min
When it comes to student housing, there is simply no way to copy/paste a set of processes on each new campus. Rather, you need to gain an understanding of the institution and the property itself and customize your approach based on the circumstances at hand. How exactly does site diversity impact the way you work with a particular university? Brian Kraft is the Regional Vice President of Capstone On Campus Management. He has worked in the student housing industry since 1999, serving small privat...
Aug 28, 2018•16 min
When a residence hall comes in under budget, that money can be invested in the building itself. But how do you make decisions around what improvements to prioritize? Kelly Podach Francis designs an action plan based on student feedback, and she contends that this approach leads directly to student retention. Kelly is the Director of Facilities and Operations for Rountree Commons at the University of Wisconsin—Platteville. In this role, she manages the day-to-day operations of the privately-owned...
Aug 24, 2018•17 min
How can an urban research university serve as an anchor for its community—attracting employers and giving talent a reason to stay in the city after graduation? Harlan Sands believes that the key is to serve as a hub of innovation, aligning skills taught with the needs of a modern economy. Harlan is the newly appointed President of Cleveland State University. A highly regarded leader in higher education, Harlan has 30-plus years of experience at urban research universities. Harlan has served as a...
Aug 14, 2018•19 min
‘We came in humble and approachable, wanting to collaborate.’ How do you turn around a student housing site that has spiraled into decline? Where do you begin when all of the problems—occupancy, reputation and facility issues—are intertwined? How do you look at the situation with Fresh Eyes and change the narrative, rebuilding the site’s reputation one step at a time? Jeremy Steed is the Operations Director for Capstone On-Campus Management. He began his housing career as an RA while studying bi...
Jul 10, 2018•15 min
Time management. Customer service. Conflict mediation. Critical thinking. Teamwork. Whatever your motivation for becoming a resident assistant, the position allows you to hone a number of incredibly valuable skills that carry over to any career you might choose to pursue. And though the field of student housing is less familiar to the general population, it affords the opportunity to give back and do work that truly matters, whether you’re working one-on-one with students as an RA or overseeing ...
Jun 15, 2018•14 min
Dr. Lisa Guion Jones joined us to discuss the pivotal role of persistence, passion, and people in higher education.
May 10, 2018•33 min
Timothy Evans joins us today. Timothy is the assistant director of operations at the University Village Apartments, an on campus housing facility at California State University San Marcos. One of the biggest topics in higher education these days is student debt. And Tim has such a neat back-story that makes him passionate about getting out of, and staying out of, debt. And with where Tim works, he is in a unique position to speak into the lives of students staring down the possibility leaving sc...
May 15, 2017•30 min
COCM's Jeff Kirkpatrick shares his story of how a dangerous situation propelled him into being an RA and eventually a full time student housing professional.
Apr 07, 2017•6 min
In this "How I Got Into Student Housing" series, we've been talking to housing professionals to understand how they got into this field. In every episode of the series, you’ll hear how a mentor and/or a situation guided each person into something they love. In this episode we interview COCM's director of Towson Place Apartments, a student community at Towson University.
Jan 05, 2017•9 min
Va'Shajn Parr, Director of University Village and the Quad (on-campus housing) at CSU San Marcos spoke with us about the service he is using to solve the resident package delivery problem.
Dec 09, 2016•14 min
President of COCM, Doug Brown and Executive Vice President, Sandy Hill sat down with us to talk about how they got into the student housing world and then to COCM. The conversation winds through their background, funny stories they’ve had while traveling, and where they see the future of COCM. This is a special video podcast version of a series we’ve had on our regular podcast, “How I Got Into Student Housing.” If you haven’t been following this series, the episodes are designed to be a fairly q...
Nov 02, 2016•16 min
This episode, Dr. Nancy Uscher joins us to chat with us about the relationship between a research university and its school of fine arts, and why that relationship is important. Dr. Uscher holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, a master’s degree in music from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a Ph.D. in music from New York University. She is also an Associate of the Royal College of Music in London, where she spent her ju...
Oct 05, 2016•23 min
Jack Suess, the Vice President of Information Technology and CIO of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, joined us to talk about what they’re doing with “Big Data” on that campus, and how they’re using it to increase student success. We also talked about using the cloud to be a "greener" campus and the importance of quality WIFI coverage.
Aug 31, 2016•34 min
Joe Cantona is a Site Operations Specialist for COCM. In his role, he has worked on site at almost every one of COCM's sites across the country, performing tasks from opening sites for the first time, to filling the gap while critical staff when they are on leave. He joined us for the latest installment of our “How I Got Into Student Housing” series. If you haven’t been following this series, the episodes are designed to be a fairly quick look into how these housing professionals got into this f...
Aug 11, 2016•10 min
Author and fellow podcast host, Lisa B. Marshall joined us to talk about her story and why good communication is critical.
Jul 15, 2016•22 min
Shawn Simons joins us to talk about fire safety in residence halls on campus by sharing his story about the fire in Boland Hall on the campus of Seton Hall University in 200.
Jun 30, 2016•31 min
Lynn Gangone, Vice President for ACE Leadership at the American Council on Education, joins us to talk about what role her organization plays for people seeking to be in higher education leadership.
Jun 23, 2016•21 min
Best selling author and award winning columnist, Jeff Selingo joined us to talk about his most recent book, There Is Life After College. We talked about the way this generation is learning and how it affects the transition to life after college, how residential education is more important than ever, and his favorite phone apps. We're also giving away five signed copies of his book to the first five people to email us at info@studenthousingmatters.com . Don't miss out!...
Jun 08, 2016•21 min
Melynda Davis is COCM's director at Campus Town at The College of New Jersey. She joined us for the latest installment of our "How I Got Into Student Housing" series. If you haven’t been following this series, the episodes are designed to be a fairly quick look into how these housing professionals got into this field. In every episode you hear, you’ll hear how a mentor and/or a situation guided every person into something they love.
May 10, 2016•8 min
Our latest post in the "How I Got Into Student Housing" series features Debbie Daniels, COCM's Director of Edgewood Commons at Frostburg State University. If you haven’t been following this series, the episodes are designed to be a fairly quick look into how these housing professionals got into this field. In every episode you hear, you’ll hear how a mentor and/or a situation guided every person into something they love.
Apr 14, 2016•7 min
