Residential Life fall 2019

Transfer Student Initiatives in the Apartments Community

The Apartments Community Residential Life staff sought to create a program for transfer students housed there to increase their sense of belonging and community and to connect our transfer students to campus resources. Rockland, Glimmerglass, Hempstead and Jones in the Hillside Community were designated as transfer student housing and were assigned RAs who can specifically work with transfer students’ unique needs.

Programming included the activities specific to transfer students during Welcome Week, campus and bus tours (61 students each day), a Transfer Ice Cream Social (190 students), a community picnic (over 250 students), a first-day-of-classes station, a s’mores event (over 75 students), The Apartments Student Success Fair (120 students) and a University Police Meet and Greet (30 students). Staff also created a Transfer Success Series where students could learn about resources on campus like Discovery, Health Promotion and Prevention Services, the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development, how to connect with others and a cooking demonstration by a campus chef. Looking forward, in October, Apartments staff is planning a two-part registration event with the Discovery office and other advising offices on campus, and a Transfer Networking Banquet.

Residential Life social work interns

The Department of Residential Life has recently developed and implemented a program in which 12 Binghamton University Master of Social Work (MSW) students have taken an active internship within the campus communities. This program was formulated to provide an extra level of support to the student population and to aid in-building residential staff in managing student emergencies and providing follow-up after a crisis occurs. The interns can also support students working through interpersonal conflict, coping with stressors, adjustment to college and student life, providing support and resources, and. Their role is to help respond to students who have been in crisis to provide resources, support and follow-up.

The MSW interns have been assigned offices within the communities they are serving, and some interns have been placed centrally on campus so that they are able to see students as needed across residential areas. The interns work with students to provide resources and referrals to other professional services if an individual student’s needs cannot be met by the intern. This program was formulated to provide additional support to residential students and to foster the education of Binghamton University’s own graduate students.

Closing Cleveland Hall for renovations (Hinman College)

The renovation to Cleveland Hall in Hinman College will upgrade the utilities infrastructure, abate all asbestos remaining in the building, renovate all student bathrooms to address drain and air circulation issues, replace windows, add a new HVAC system with cooling throughout the building, replace the aged and unreliable elevators, and provide better overall design as well as more community building space throughout (moving the kitchen to the main floor, consolidating laundry facilities to the center of the basement adjacent to community gathering space, reclaiming hallway lounges that were converted to single rooms in one location).

Onondaga Hall re-opened after renovations (College-in-the-Woods)

• CIW fully open: re-opened Onondaga Hall added 217 beds back online
• Renovations included asbestos abatement; exterior masonry repair; renovation of bathrooms; upgrades to building mechanical, electrical and plumbing; and 2,500 new pieces of furniture.
• Bathrooms were redesigned to change one group-shared facility with designated gender into three non-gendered single-occupancy private bathrooms per wing.
• Lounge areas and corridors received new ceilings, flooring and lighting. Overhead lighting and energy efficient LEDs were installed in bedrooms as this was the most requested upgrade by students.