Now, as the 2022-2023 academic year concludes, the Danieley Neighborhood wants to provide its spring update!

Where is Danieley in its assessment process currently?

In the multilevel assessment process (MAP) outlined by Strine-Patterson (2022), there are multiple concurrent and interlocking cycles in the assessment process. Currently, Danieley is in stage 1, “Departmental Educational and Operational Plans,” which you will recognize as our neighborhood plan (p. 65).

Over the summer, we will transition through stages 2 and 3, “Plan Evidence-Informed Strategies” and “Plan Measurement and Data Collection,” respectively (p. 65). You will notice that this will prepare us nicely to begin stage 4, “Implement Strategies and Measurements,” for the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year in August 2023 (p. 65).

What are we seeing?

Being transparent with our data and related insights is important to us for a few reasons:

1. Evaluation.ÌýSharing what we know allows us to reflect critically on what programs and services we offered and to make any changes that impact what we will continue to offer.
2. Accountability.ÌýSharing what we know holds us accountable to providing the best programs and services possible. If we say we will make a change, you can trust that the change is data-driven.
3. Empowerment.ÌýSharing what we know lets students know that we approach our work with a dynamic and humble spirit in tune with what students want and/or need. It lets students know that we are listening and acting, and it signals that we are co-creating their experienceÌýwithÌýthem and notÌýforÌýthem.

Winter and Spring 2023

With this in mind, here are selected data from Winter and Spring 2023 we want to foreground*:

• Winter and Spring 2023 programs/opportunities overview:
  • Total offered: 35 (average 2.5 per week)
  • Total educational programs: 23
  • Total social programs: 12
  • Total programs with campus or community collaborations: 19
• Winter/Spring 2023 programs/opportunities attendance:
  • Total attendance: 1,093 (average 31 per program)
  • Total individual Danieley residents who attended: 348 (52.89% of neighborhood total)
    • Overall, our resident engagement grew 8.51% from Fall 2022.
    • Overall, residents are generally attending programs in expected demographic rates with one exception:
      • Residents who identify as male are slightly more likely to attend than those who identify as female (6.02% more likely)
      • Residents who live in flats are significantly more likely to attend than those who live in apartments (30.56% more likely)
      • Residents who are incoming students (in their first year of college) are attending at the same rate as residents who are returning students (returning students are 0.41% more likely to attend)
    • Total individual Danieley residents who attended multiple times: 177 (50.86% of residents who attended)

2022-2023 (Fall, Winter, and Spring Together)

• 2022-2023 programs/opportunities review:
  • Total programs offered: 73 (average 2.6 per week)
  • Total educational programs: 42
  • Total social programs: 31
  • Total programs with campus or community collaborations: 26
• 2022-2023 programs/opportunities attendance:
  • Total attendance: 2,180 (average 30 per program)
    • Our total attendance grew by 234 residents from 2021-2022 programs (n=1,946)
  • Total individual Danieley residents who attended: 479 (70.86% of neighborhood average total [n=676])
    • Our total engagement with Danieley residents specificallyÌýdecreased 6.56% from 2021-2022 (77.42% of neighborhood average total [n=682])
  • Overall, residents are generally attending programs in expected demographic rates with one exception:
    • Overall, residents who identify as female are slightly more likely to attend than those who identify as male (1.39% more likely)
      • In the 2021-2022 year, female residents were 32.39% more likely to attend than male residents.
    • Overall, residents who live in apartments are significantly more likely to attend than those who live in flats (21.52% more likely)
      • In the 2021-2022 year, apartment residents were 8.11% more likely to attend than flat residents.
    • Overall, residents who are incoming students (in their first year of college) are more likely to attend than those who are returning students (7.14% more likely).
      • In the 2021-2022 year, returning residents were 6.47% more likely to attend than incoming residents.
  • Total individual Danieley residents who attended multiple times: 303 (63.26% of residents who attended).
    • In the 2021-2022 year, 450 residents attended multiple times (or 85.23% of residents who attended).

What does it all mean?

There’s no perfect formula to capture the human experience in a data set or short article. However, we can infer meaning from the data points with longitudinal data sets for comparison.

You can see that our Danieley resident engagement grew 8.51% this semester compared to Fall 2022– wow! Even so, our engagement fell 6.56% from last year. Despite overall positive metrics elsewhere, our engagement numbers decreased.

So, what happened? Increased numbers from the 2021-2022 may have been the result of the pandemic. Fall 2021 and Winter 2022 saw the pandemic in full effect, and many of our programs were designed to be quicker and door-deliverable. Once pandemic restrictions lifted, it could be that residents resumed regular activities and extracurricular involvements, which also meant they were in Danieley less. We would need to explore this phenomenon more to better understand it.

Another explanation could be in the semantics. You can see that our total attendance numbers actually grew by 12.02% from last year– it’s ourÌýDanieley-specific attendance that decreased by 6.56%. This indicates we’re engaging campus-wide, which is certainly an intriguing surprise! Danieley programs tend to see Colonnades and off-campus residents most. It leads us to wonder how we can work with other neighborhoods in the future while also doubling-down on our own.

You can see that the female-male, apartment-flat, and incoming-returning ratios tend to flip-flop, though as time goes on, it will be interesting to note the salient themes. So far, it’s clear that our apartment residents tend to engage more frequently.

What the data won’t necessarily show us, though, is the intimate and meaningful relationships we’ve formed with residents and student staff this year. Though our repeat resident numbers have decreased, our mentorships and relationships have strengthened. As a personal note as Community Director– what an incredible community we had this year. Our residents were so willing to be in conversation with us, and our student staff culture was tight-knit. Just when we got to know our residents as our Danieley Neighborhood locals, they’re gone and graduated– but, we know they’ll come back for programs and chats (they’ve told us so!).

What will we do with what we learned?

In our 2022-2023 neighborhood plan, we declared four goals based on our observations from the 2021-2022 academic year. Our achievements in goal 1is marginal, though our achievement in goal 2 is significant. Our decrease in repeat engagement is unfortunate, though undocumented in this statistic is the increase in quality connections we feel we have made with our returning residents!

• To increase incoming student engagement
  • Our incoming student engagement grew by 0.67%
• To increase male resident engagement
  • Our male resident engagement grew by 7.45%
• To increase repeat resident engagement
  • Our repeat resident engagement fell by 21.97%
• To establish a living learning community (LLC)
  • We will revisit this goal once the 2030 Residential Campus Plan is complete

Based on our observations and on what the data are telling us, our new goals for the 2023-2024 academic year are:

• To increase incoming student engagement
  • To be transparent, our gains were marginal in this area. We know we need to be more intentional with this population, who noted feeling isolated in Danieley from other first-year peers in other neighborhoods and who also explicitly are looking for first-year friends. With Danieley’s first-year population expected to triple in Fall 2023, we will be committing to create a quality first-year experience for our residents.
• To increase male resident engagement
  • We’ve been hard at work creating a better connection with our male residents. In 2021-2022, female residents were significantly more likely to engage with us than their male peers; in 2022-2023, female and male engagement was almost equal. We want to continue to create meaningful opportunities for our male residents in the upcoming year.
• To implement quality measures
  • Over the past two years, we’ve built an infrastructure dedicated to collecting and evaluating quantitative data points like attendance numbers and survey responses. We know we can go broad and get folks engaged– now we want to go deeper and understand theirÌýexperiences with being engaged. We want to personalize our assessment efforts and get students talking with us more about their experience in Danieley.
• To establish LLC presence
  • Our final goal remains the same: we want LLCs in Danieley! Our proposal process unfortunately has hit snags along the way, but we remain committed to establishing LLC presence in Danieley. Why? Because the peer-reviewed AND Elon-produced data all point to the positive impact LLCs have for students.

References

Strine-Patterson, H. (2022). Assessment is a leadership process: The multilevel assessment process.ÌýNew Directions for Student Services,Ìý2022, 61-76. doi: 10.1002/ss.20429

*All data collection has been reviewed and approved by 51±¬ÁÏÍø’s Institutional Review Board.

°Â³ó²¹³ÙÌýisÌýBJs in your PJs?

BJs in your PJs is the signature program of Danieley’s Wellness Week. Now in its second year,ÌýDanieley Wellness Week is a layered programming sequence that aligns with Elon’s HealthEUÌýinitiative. Our Wellness Week encapsulates many dimensions of wellness, including physical, emotional, and community.

We wanted to discuss sexual wellness, and we played on the abbreviation of Ben and Jerry’s to entice our audience. Knowing also that residents enjoy food-based (ice cream) and casual, come-and-go (PJS/pajamas) programs, we decided on this concept and format. Based on our mid-year survey, we also knew that residents wanted programs that started later in the evening so that they’d be in Danieley after their day on main campus.

A growing body of research tells us that Gen Z students want “snackable content” that they can consume quickly. In “Marketing to Gen Z” (2018), authors Fromm and Read share that Gen Z typically has an 8-second attention span with preference for content that is bite-sized, punchy, and text-slim.

That’s exactly what this program was designed to be– provocative, unfiltered, and intriguing. The play on words in the title gets folks’ attention. In a popular mobile app, Fizz, an anonymous poster shared an image of our email advertisement of the program, which garnered 923 upvotes. It became clear that our residents and other Elon students were eager to engage.

You can see in our advertising that we played into the Gen Z marketing techniques further. We emphasized a sense of humor, graphics over text, and incomplete information. Asking the question and not giving the answer was intentional– we want to encourage students to come to the program to learn the answer, to talk with their peers, or research the question further.

When considering the important topic of sexual wellness, we knew that we needed to do this intentionally amidst the touchy subject of sex. Sex is often seen as socioculturally-taboo in today’s society, though sex positivity is increasingly becoming inherent in the Gen Z psyche. Sex is also often politicized, with legislation affecting many areas of society, including education and curricula.

Sex education in schools is often structured to pathologize sex as a problem or as risky behavior, and little to nothing is spoken of sexual desire. Examples of this pathologization include sex education that emphasizes abstinence outside of marriage as a positive choice, heterosexual and monogamous relationships, pregnancy prevention, STI education, and sex in terms of reproduction only.

For example, Alamance-Burlington School System’s essential health standards for grades Ìýreifies these concepts and demonstrates the suppression of education surrounding sexual positivity and desire, same-sex and polygamous sexual wellness, trauma-informed education, and social-justice-informed education.

We must be concerned about the lack of holistic education around sex and its many facets given the current climate of sex education prior to college. We also must be concerned about the lack of diversity in current sex education curricula, knowing that Gen Z is the most diverse generation in history.

Talking about sex and sexual wellness is connected with healthier and safer sexual practices and increased self-esteem and sense of self-worth. And, — the type of relationship you want, sexual boundaries, consent, and more.

Co-Creating Knowledge

We know that the co-creation of knowledge with students is what creates lasting and meaningful impact in their learning, as opposed to a transactional approach to learning where we supply content in a vacuum without their input or interests considered. We wanted our residents on board with us in creating a successful program in which they steered the content.

In a survey sent to all Danieley residents asking for sexual wellness tips, content suggestions, or questions, we received plenty of interest in learning more. Salient themes centered around wanting to learn more about same-sex sexual wellness, how to communicate effectively in sexual relationships, about campus resources for sexual wellness materials and education, and more.

We partnered with Elon’s SPARKS Peer Educators in order to have knowledge about sexual wellness shared with our residents by their knowledgeable peers, which we feel enhanced the ability for our residents to converse openly about the topic at the event. SPARKS provides many resources regarding sexual health.

Show Time!

At our program, we were prepared with pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream; many safe sex materials provided by SPARKS like internal and external condoms, lube, and more; stickers with sexual wellness tips and facts (informed by our residents’ suggestions in our survey); glow sticks and dim lighting; our raffle prizes; and many staff to handle the crowd!

Fifteen minutes prior to the event, we had crowds forming in anticipation! Once we started, we ran out of ice cream in just four minutes. All in all, we had more than 100 students in attendance!

It was great to see the students engaging in conversation with SPARKS educators and with each other about sexual wellness and the materials available. Students were excited to point out the stickers with the information they suggested on them.

What’s Next?

Though Danieley’s Wellness Week was in its second iteration, BJs in your PJs was new to Wellness Week this year. Based on our turnout and on student engagement, we plan to do this again!

We hope to expand the scope of the program by bringing in more campus and community collaborators, providing interactive educational opportunities, and more! And, of course, providing even more ice cream!

To collaborate with us in future iterations of BJs in your PJs or in Wellness Week generally, please contact the Danieley Neighborhood Office leadership team!

This methodology is what is known as a “culture of assessment.” Assessment is a method by which to assist in strategic planning; assessment elucidates the pathways in which to achieve an organization’s strategic plan. Strine-Patterson (2022) shares that strategic planning is a complex form of assessment. It creates a goal structure that organizes more specific goals within broader goals. It avoids staff acting alone, being isolated from larger assessment efforts and focusing on narrow issues and personal agendas.

Danieley’s assessment efforts provide evidence as to how we are achieving our priorities, goals, outcomes and objectives, which, hearkening to the image of Matryoshka dolls, in turn provides evidence for and support to how Residence Life, then Campus Life, then Student Life, and then Elon is doing the same.

Where is Danieley in its assessment process currently?

In the multilevel assessment process (MAP) outlined by Strine-Patterson (2022), there are multiple concurrent and interlocking cycles in the assessment process. Currently, Danieley is in the sixth stage of its MAP, “Interpret results and Identify Improvement Opportunities” (Strine-Patterson, 2022, p. 65). We have collected data that is informing our praxis (outlined below), and we will use what we have learned in order to inform the next step of the MAP, “Departmental Educational and Operational Plans” (which you will recognize as our Neighborhood Plans).

You will notice that in stages three through five of the MAP, Danieley will have planned measurements and data collection efforts, implemented these methods, and analyzed the data (Strine-Patterson, 2022, p. 65). Danieley uses a mid-fall survey administered to current Danieley residents in October, the Fall 2022 Student Satisfaction Survey that is administered to more than 6,000 students by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment in October, Danieley program attendance data, and other measurements to gain valuable insight into how Danieley is working to achieving its goals.

What are we seeing?

Being transparent with our data and related insights is important to us for a few reasons:

1. Evaluation. Sharing what we know allows us to reflect critically on what programs and services we offered and to make any changes that impact what we will continue to offer.
2. Accountability.ÌýSharing what we know holds us accountable to providing the best programs and services possible. If we say we will make a change, you can trust that the change is data-driven.
3. Empowerment. Sharing what we know lets students know that we approach our work with a dynamic and humble spirit in tune with what students want and/or need. It lets students know that we are listening and acting, and it signals that we are co-creating their experience with them and notÌýfor them.

With this in mind, here are selected data we want to foreground*:

• Fall 2022 programs/opportunities overview:
  • Total offered: 38 (average 3 per week)
  • Total educational programs: 19
  • Total social programs: 19
  • Total campus or community collaborations: 7
• Fall 2022 programs/opportunities attendance:
  • Total attendance: 1,087 (average 29 per program)
  • Total individual Danieley residents who attended: 316 (47.88% of neighborhood total)
    • Overall, residents are attending in expected demographic proportionÌýwith one exception (e.g., apartment residents comprise 34.42% of our attendees and similarly comprise 34.15% of the neighborhood population)
      • Residents who identify as female areÌýmore likely to attend than those who identify as male (11.03% more likely)
      • Residents who live in apartments areÌývery marginally more likely to attend than those who live in flats (1.20% more likely)
      • Residents who are incoming students (in their first year of college) are attending at the same rate as residents who are returning students (incoming students are 0.12% more likely to attend)
      • Residents whose academic major is undecided are both less likely to attend (10.39% of attendees but 13.40% of neighborhood) and also are considerably less likely to attend than those who have declared their academic major (33.45% less likely)
  • Total individual Danieley residents who attended multiple times: 170 (55.19% of residents)

We also have an executive summary of data from our mid-fall survey, which you can read on our neighborhood webpage.

In our 2022-2023 neighborhood plan, we declared four goals based on our observations from the 2021-2022 academic year. We are pleased to announce that we have met all goals where possible, as noted below. Our achievements in goals 1 and 2 are marginal, though our achievement in goal 3 is significant:

1. To increase incoming student engagement
   1. We have engaged approximately 0.21% more than this time last year
2. To increase male resident engagement
   1. We have engaged approximately 1.95% more than this time last year
3. To increase repeat resident engagement
   1. We have engaged approximately 22.65%
4. To establish a living learning community (LLC)
   1. We will revisit this goal once the 2030 Residential Campus Plan is complete

What will we do with what we have learned?

We have many insights from what we have learned. We are eager to roll out new initiatives as soon as possible, though we acknowledge that some initiatives may take more time and thought. We have developed an action plan, which distinguishes between short-term, mid-term, and long-term action items. You can read our action plan on our neighborhood webpage.

References

Strine-Patterson, H. (2022). Assessment is a leadership process: The multilevel assessment process.ÌýNew Directions for Student Services, 2022, 61-76. doi: 10.1002/ss.20429

*All data collection has been reviewed and approved by 51±¬ÁÏÍø’s Institutional Review Board.

Between meeting new roommates, resident assistants, orientation leaders, hallmates, classmates, professors, club representatives and others, the sheer number of introductions can become overwhelming!

Danieley Neighborhood and Residence Life know how important it is at 51±¬ÁÏÍø to create and foster meaningful relationships with students. We also know how critical it is for staff and faculty, who are key supports for students in residential neighborhoods, to be visible and available to students. We know that going beyond surface-level interactions and creating ways for students to engage and to relate with us in personal and meaningful ways is a clear path toward fostering mentoring relationships, which is a hallmark of Elon. We want to share pieces of ourselves in order to connect with residents in meaningful ways.

Tusky is Missing!

We brainstormed ways to stand out amongst the tidal wave of introductions, and we thought– what if a live-actionÌýClue game could be combined with a get-to-know-you activity?

We knew we had something exciting on our hands. Tusky the elephant, our neighborhood mascot and lovable stuffed animal, was the perfect rallying point to be the center of Danieley’s very own “WhoDANit?,” in which Tusky mysteriously disappears from his home in the Danieley Neighborhood Office the night of check-in. Who could stand to think our Tusky could be in trouble?!

We enlisted the help of our student office assistant, Carson Pridgen ’23, to act as Danieley’s neighborhood detective. In order to investigate all leads on Tusky’s disappearance, Detective Carson needs to interview all the folks who may have had access to Tusky when Tusky went missing. The suspects are:

Community Director Tanner GillÌý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý

Graduate Apprentice Aly Weaver

Faculty Director Paula DiBiasio

Program Assistant Joy Robertson

I Think I Can Help!

You think you can help us find Tusky?! Please tell us what you may know! You can watch Detective Carson’s interviews with the suspects on Danieley’s Instagram, . You can watch them beginning Tuesday, August 23 until Tuesday, August 30, at which point Detective Carson’s case will close and the truth will be revealed!

Submit your tips to Detective Carson if you think you know WhoDANit! Any current Elon student (not just Danieley residents) can fill out to cast their vote by Tuesday, August 30 at 10:00 p.m.

Anyone who guesses WhoDANit? correctly will be entered into a raffle drawing for one $50 Amazon gift card. Results will be announced Wednesday, August 31 on Danieley’s Instagram.

Good luck, and thank you in advance for helping us find our Tusky!

“The Danieley Difference”

We call our new theme “The Danieley Difference” because we want our residents not only to grow in their understanding of self and others in regards to difference and identity while here, but we also want them to be inspired to use what they learn to make The Danieley Difference, or a continued legacy of DEI praxis in their future communities and in their future work as global leaders.

Danieley’s neighborhood theme, which guides its curricular programming, has remained largely unchanged since 2013. Its traditional focus on civic engagement and leadership is not lost in this new iteration, however. Civic engagement and leadership are crucial elements under the umbrella of DEI work, and students will continue to engage with these concepts through a DEI lens.

A Top-Down Vision

Our shift to DEI work is not made in isolation or without purpose. Our work is a magnification or funneling of the broader charge from 51±¬ÁÏÍø’s institutional plans.

Elon’s strategic plan for 2030,ÌýBoldly Elon, explicitly aligns the innovative work Elon is currently doing and planning to do with its commitment to building and fostering more diverse, equitable and inclusive communities. Danieley believes that communities that celebrate and engage with difference directly create communities that foster personal well-being, as stated in Theme 2 of the plan – thrive.

The Division of Student Life models and adapts its work from Boldly Elon. Of Student Life’s Themes and Areas of Focus for 2020-2025, Danieley’s theme aligns itself most saliently with Theme 3: Inclusive Excellence, Theme 4: Wellness and Well-Being, Theme 5: Vibrant Residential Campus and Theme 6: Civic Engagement.

Residence Life, a subsidiary of Student Life, embodies a unique positioning as an academic and residential bridge for students, which lends our work in Danieley to creating curricular pedagogies that complement students’ classroom learning. Based on Residence Life’s Sophomore Community Development Model, and based on a thematic and programmatic benchmark of both first-year and also other sophomore neighborhood communities at Elon, our team in Danieley observed an opportunity to reposition its focus on students’ identity development, both on a personal level but also at group and community levels.

Innovative Programming

Our philosophy toward DEI praxis in a Residence Life programmatic lens is to invite students to DEI development in a fun, dialectical environment in which students co-generate learning. Our belief is that “shaming” others into DEI learning is quite detrimental to students and to the community, and learning is most impactful when knowledge is openly shared and processed in a vulnerable and courageous environment.

In the year ahead, we plan to program around the , as they provide a helpful framework for foundational reflection about identity. We also plan to challenge students to think of identity in terms and language that go beyond the Big 8. Below is a shortlist of some of our favorite programs we have planned for students this year:

• Danieley Coffee, where we gather every Friday morning, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to socialize, foster social support networks, and connect with campus and community partners in informal learning.
• U.S. Citizenship Trivia, where we test students’ knowledge on the U.S. citizenship naturalization process, challenge myths and misconceptions about immigration, and learn about related current events affecting people worldwide.
• Stonewall Splatter Art, where we learn about the 1969 Stonewall Riots and channel our own anger or stress into cathartic displays of art by throwing our “bricks” (sponges soaked in paint) at canvases.
• Music Bingo, where we specifically celebrate black musical artists during Black History Month and test students’ knowledge of music and pop culture in a beloved cultural game, Bingo.
• DIY Astrology Birth Charts, where we create artistic renderings of our birth charts, learn about astrology (is it pseudoscience, fact, or both?!), and learn about others’ zodiacal identities in a fun way.
• Second Chance Prom, where we invite students to celebrate the end of the year in a high-school throwback! Born from the desire to give students whose proms were impacted by COVID-19 a second chance, we extend our prom to those who dream of other second chances at prom– those who could not afford prom wear during high school but now can, those who are queer but were not “out” or were not comfortable or safe going with someone they loved in high school, those who were caretakers at home during high school, those who needed to work a nightshift to help at home during high school, and many others.

What Else is New?

• To better align ourselves with Elon, Student Life and Residence Life, we created new mission, vision and DEI statements.
• To better represent the beautiful, natural environment of Danieley, we created a new neighborhood logo.
• We welcome Paula DiBiasio, who served as faculty in residence for Danieley in 2021-2022, to the faculty director role! We also welcome Aly Weaver, who is our new graduate apprentice through the Master of Higher Education program! Lastly, we welcomeÌýJoy Robertson, who is joining us as our new program assistant!

To Learn More

To learn more about Danieley and our plans for the year ahead, please visit our website to view our neighborhood plan and other information. For more detailed inquiries, please contact Community Director Tanner Gill or Faculty Director Paula DiBiasio.