OPINION: Students, residential staff need to establish better relationships

Staff members who oversee college residential life are some of the most important people in shaping students’ lives. Whether it be fulfilling individualized orders and serving food at campus dining halls or assisting new students with building security measures, dining hall staff and housing security guards are essential to USC. But while these staff members interact with students every day, most students hardly to get to know them, learn their names or hold a full conversation with them. Thus, students need to establish better relationships with staff members to promote a better sense of community.

It’s imperative that students create stronger human connections with the residential staff who influence their daily lives — from the moment students step out of their residential  buildings heading to their first classes to the late hours they return home at night. With so many readily available opportunities for contact, it’s a shame that such a pronounced rift persists.

In order to eliminate these barriers, USC administration needs to facilitate student-staff interactions. To start, all USC Hospitality, Housing and the Department of Public Safety staff members should be given name tags to help ignite conversations. The system would be easy to implement, as Customer Service Center workers currently wear such tags. This change would help students with putting a name to a face and open the door for conversations and connections.

Implementing staff name tags is not a new idea. USC’s dining hall staff has donned name tags in the past, and according to USC Hospitality Assistant Vice President Kris Klinger, they are considering implementing them again. The tags would help ease students into conversing with staff and getting to know them better, allowing for stronger communal relations and, in turn, a friendlier environment.

“Get to know each other’s names and use them when greeting each other. Learn a little about each other and celebrate special occasions,” Klinger advised in an email to the Daily Trojan.

USC Housing Senior Associate Director Chris Ponsiglione agrees that housing staff and students should establish stronger connections. Housing security guards are in constant contact with students and are expected to protect them from harm in their residential buildings. The closeness of this relationship reveals the necessity for security guards and students to treat one another as more than just acquaintances.

“Housing works with our security vendor to train their staff to put customer service as a priority,” Ponsiglione said in an email to the Daily Trojan. “They are expected to treat the students as they would want their own children or family treated.”

However, Ponsiglione is opposed to the idea of name tags. Even though it may seem like a simple solution to create a sense of community, he raised the concern that being too friendly with students can infringe on guards’ duties. Security guards are rotated often for this reason, as it keeps them from becoming too familiar with student residents.

“Familiarity can be counter to the objective nature of security services,” Ponsiglione wrote. “We generally discourage the guards from acting too familiar with the residents. Moving their assignments is sometimes a factor of staff turnover but also in order to ensure that the staff is able to function as an independent monitor.”

It is fair to acknowledge that security guards should not be distracted from performing their jobs. Nonetheless, being greeted by a familiar face and having a friendly conversation can never hurt. In the end, encouraging a supportive community where students and staff members alike can feel comfortable knowing they can have a friendly conversation will always improve campus life.

Because it’s easy for students to get overwhelmed, it’s important for students to establish strong relationships with staff to ensure that they can create a comfortable environment where they can feel at home. And this goes both ways. Staff, with the help of administration, need to make sure they are putting out the best hospitable efforts to take care of their students — student interactions can also make their jobs more enjoyable. Otherwise, we’ll continue to remain in a world of anonymity that feels nothing like a home away from home.