To Attend or Not to Attend: The Motivations Behind First Year Resident Attendance at Residence Hall Programs

Abstract

Indiana University (IU) Residence Life programming efforts and its attendance has motivated graduate coordinators to analyze these efforts further and the impressions that first year residents have about programming at IU Residence Life. The research team wanted to discover what students were programmatically interested in and what motivated them to attend which led to the primary research question: What are the motivations for first-year students attending programs put on by Resident Assistants in their residential buildings? By understanding this question, IU Residence Life can understand what is missing from their current practice in program creation and advertisement. The department can also develop better tactics for Resident Assistants (RAs) to gather input from students and maximize attendance and fulfillment potential. Guided by Bowden’s Four Pillars of Tertiary Student Success and Engagement, first year residents in each of IU residence halls participated in a mixed methods based, anonymous survey. The thematic qualitative responses combined with observations in quantitative selections painted a broad picture indicating what motivators and activities students are most interested in and what potential practices can be utilized to cater to first year residents within IU Residence Life.