Author: Member Deleted   Posted: 01/13/10

Is anyone aware of any “industry standards” for determining the number of fulltime professional staffers needed say per 50 residents (or 100 residents)? Or has anyone over the years developed a personal/institutional model/formula for determining housing staffing needs?

Thanks in advance for any input or thoughts on this topic.
Jeremy Wilkes, Baptist College of Health Sciences

Author: bnorquist   Posted: 01/23/10

Hi Jeremy,

This is more anecdotal from my experience as an RD at Biola, APU, and Wheaton College and also as an Associate Dean at Moody rather than an industry standard:

***************************************

At Biola, I effectively oversaw a staff of 7 RAs in a two building residential area of about 180 students.

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:7.
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:180.
Ratio of RAs to students = 1:25

At APU, I effectively oversaw a staff of 6 RAs in a modular residential area of around 160 students.

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:6
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:160
Ratio of RAs to students = 1:26

**************************************

At Wheaton, the largest living area I oversaw was a residence hall of 605 students. There I also had 2 other Graduate Residence Advisors and an ARD (2nd year RA acting as an administrative assistant). In that building I had 12 RAs.

Ratio of RD/GRAs to RAs = 1:4
Ratio of RD/GRAs to students = 1:200
Ratio of RAs to students = 1:50

**************************

At Moody, we have 1 Residence Director per 10 RAs and 300 students. There is an acknoweledgment that this ratio is most likely too many RAs and students per Residence Director. If we had more funds available, we would try to lower these two ratios.

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:10
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:300
Ratio of RAs to students = approx 1:30

*******************************************

Here are my thoughts about these ratios:

From my experience, the ratios at Biola and APU were probably my ideal.

The paraprofessional staff help at Wheaton was phenominal, but 50 students per RA was probably to high.

At Moody, we do a good job of the number of students per RA, but our student and RA numbers per RD are probably a bit too high.

************************************

So there you go. Take it for what it’s worth. I hope the information is helpful!

Bruce

Author: Member Deleted   Posted: 02/04/10

Thanks Bruce, that is helpful. Sounds like we might have an opportunity to develop an “industry standard” or “best practices” in this area. Might be something the collaborative could oversee.

Jeremy

Author: Member Deleted   Posted: 02/08/10

I like this approach. I feel, if we get enough comments, we could garner a pretty handy ratio assessment. Here at Huntington University things look like this:

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:6 (on average)
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:130 (on average)
Ratio of RAs to students = approx 1:25 (approximately)

I use averages because our floors vary in size. There was a time in recent past where the building I supervise had an RA to student ratio of 1:40 and it was difficult to keep track of everyone. I agree that 1:30 is about as high as it should go.

Nathan Geer

Author: Member Deleted   Posted: 02/12/10

Thanks Nathan. Hopefully, the question will continue to be reviewed and disused. We know all institutions are different and have their own means for identifying needs as well as where they choose to place their resources (and emphasis). Developing a best practice “formula” for this might be extremely beneficial for a lot of us. Maybe this could be a Collaborative topic at the Conference this year. I know the Business Office folks here were able to go to some association website and type in the number of students we have and get a “this is how many staffers you need for financial aid . . .” (this is the Jeremy Standard Version here, but I think you can get the idea). With the “data driven” nature of our collegiate communities, we student development folks may be at a disadvantage by not developing and publicizing what could be considered “best practice” or “industry standards” for our profession. Just some more food for thought.

Jeremy Wilkes

Author: bmorgan6   Posted: 02/22/10

At Bryan College, we average:

127 students per RD
22 students per RA
6 RAs per RD

These are averages and the numbers can be very disparate. One of our residence halls is built in a rather unique way, and in that building, some RAs have only 8 residents, while others might have as many as 40. The other residence halls are more standard, with each RA having around 25 residents.

I think 25 students per RA and 125 students per RD is prime.

Thanks for starting the discussion. I am needing such information also.

Bruce Morgan

Author: Member Deleted   Posted: 02/24/10

Hey Bruce, thanks for posting. How are things in East TN?

Let’s say you have housing for 100 students, no live-in professional, no staffer fully devoted 100% to housing, but you do have 5 RAs. What would you be asking your institution for in the way of personnel.

Maybe I should have asked it that way to start. Does this spark any thoughts from anyone?

Jeremy

Author: klitscher1   Posted: 02/26/10

Jeremy,

I just completed a similar study here at Union University – we are currently at:

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:10.5 (on average)
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:370 (on average)
Ratio of RAs to students = approx 1:35 (approximately)

We intend on adding two assistant RD positions next year (coming soon to an ACSD Career Center near you) which would bring our ratios to around:

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:6 (on average)
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:250 (on average)
Ratio of RAs to students = approx 1:40 (approximately)

We are obviously still on the high side of professional and student staff in comparison to our residents, but will be making some progress. Part of the reason is the structure of our residence halls – apartment style buildings that house between 35-55 students each. In an ideal world I would think Bruce’s numbers are great – though I’d maybe say:

Ratio of RDs to RAs = 1:6
Ratio of RDs to students = 1:150
Ratio of RAs to students = 1:25

(I’ve seen RDs do GREAT with 150 students, and I’d say the ideal RA staff is around 6-8, less than 6 can sometimes be awkward, more than 8 can get unmanageable).

In your case, Jeremy, I would ask for a full-time, live-in professional RD who oversaw all of housing (placements, overseeing RA staff, etc), and perhaps a part time administrative assistant. How is your Residence Life program structured now, and where does it fit in to the office of Student Development?

Ken Litscher
Dir of Res Life – Union University

Author: klitscher1   Posted: 02/26/10

I forgot to add – I did survey about 10 schools when we were coming up with our numbers – here was summary:

RANGE
Residential Students: 700-2900
RA to Resident ratio: 1:18-39
RD to Resident ratio: 1:114-370
RD to RA ratio: 1:5-10

AVERAGE
Residential Students: 1510
RA to Resident ratio: 1:32
RD to Resident ratio: 1:225
RD to RA ratio: 1:7

MEDIAN
Residential Students: 1350
RA to Resident ratio: 1:32
RD to Resident ratio: 1:225
RD to RA ratio: 1:7

Hope that helps – the Average and Median were very similar, so while it’s a limited sampling – it does reflect a little bit on what other schools are doing.

Ken