Non-Traditional Conference Groups and How They Can Create That Summer Long Buzz

Posted by: Samantha Crossley

Summer is the time of year when many individuals in our field have a real opportunity to shine. Students are gone, faculty have ended their semesters and are enjoying a well-deserved break, but event planners and conference staff? This is our moment to create a new hustle and bustle on our campus. Most traditional camps and conferences create that feeling in the short-term by filling our campuses for anywhere from one day and up to a week. But what if you had the opportunity to create that atmosphere and feeling on your campus all summer long?

We have managed to achieve this by partnering with a large corporate company who employs international students that come to work in the United States on a J-1 visa. These visas are for those who intend to participate in an approved program for the purpose of teaching, instructing, or lecturing, studying, observing, conducting research, consulting, demonstrating special skills, receiving training, or to receive graduate medical education or training.1 These participants, who we lovingly refer to as J-1s, live and eat on our campus within a few days following our College Commencement in May up to and through the beginning of August before our next academic year begins. For the summer of 2024, we had participants from thirteen different countries, ranging from Dominican Republic to Thailand to Kazakhstan.

Our first three summers with this group were pre-COVID-19, where we housed ninety (90) J-1’s in some of our independent living apartments. We quickly learned that the cultural differences between the J-1’s home countries and our own were vastly different. For example, food was often not thrown out in the trash, but instead was flushed down toilets; toilet paper was not flushed down toilets but was being thrown out in bathroom trash receptacles, etc.

However, for the past three summers and our upcoming summer season we switched models and went from independent living units to traditional dorm-style housing, where we are able to house upwards of 450 participants. Switching to this model is what gave that constant buzz and liveliness on campus all summer long. When J-1 participants aren’t working, they are out on campus eating in our Dining Hall, using the fitness facilities, enjoying the summer weather on campus, visiting the College Store, and really trying to immerse themselves in our college culture as much as possible. We have even had participants come back to campus multiple summers in a row!

Each year there are new challenges – what areas were sticking points the last summer will not be the same the following summer. One year, cigarette smoking and the debris associated with that act covered our patio areas. The next year, smoking wasn’t an issue as much as fire alarms being set off from cooking multiple times a night became. The first five years, J-1 participants used to arrive every day of the week, at all hours of the day. To try and alleviate some of the unknown, this most recent summer season we worked directly with our corporate partner to provide a more narrow window that participants could arrive at “check-in”. What went from 7 days a week, 24 hours a day was dwindled down to one day a week between the hours of 8:00 am – 10:00 pm. This logistically made it easier for our student staff, because I was able to schedule our staff for that specific timeframe for check-in, thus giving the rest of my staff a more solid schedule for the week when dealing with the more traditional, short-term camps and conferences.

While the experience is a great one for the J-1 participants, it’s also transformative for our own students. We employ students who live in the dorm buildings as well to serve as the equivalent to an academic year Resident Assistant. They are exposed to many different cultures daily in terms of language, food, personalities, etc. Many of our former students have said that they have kept in contact with some of the former participants, are friends on social media, and will still check-in every now and then. Even during their off hours, student employees could be found playing dominoes, video games, and even watching the Olympics in the lobby area with a large group of J-1’s.

For these student employees, we needed to create a space of profound empowerment. They are living with these participants day in and day out and see the good, bad, and quite frankly, the ugly. Our current employment model is set to have one full-time Building Team Lead in each of the dorm buildings, with three to four part-time Resident Assistants who are on-call during the hours of 5:00 pm – 12:00 am. The Building Team leads work during the daytime hours when our office is open as well as serve on-call during the evenings a few evenings a week. During the day, they are retrieving mail and packages from our Mail Services department, sorting, and delivering these to the guests, addressing any room lockouts, emergencies that may arise during the day, conducting weekly dorm room inspections, planning large J-1 community events to bring everyone together, and more. They are encouraged to be engaged with their residents as much as possible, while keeping a professional boundary and expectation with their residents as well.

It’s also a great revenue opportunity for our Dining team! Every week, each participant is given $50 towards meals at our dining hall or in the Jays Nest (our equivalent of a convenience store). They offer late night operational hours in the Jays Nest that are solely promoted for the J-1’s. Between 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm, the nest is filled with students purchasing hot, made-to-order foods, prepackaged items, drinks and more. The Dining team even added in a section for college branded apparel, shower caddies, toiletry items, phone chargers, and more to add that extra convenience during those late-night hours. We are currently looking into the option of using that $50 elsewhere on campus like at the College Store, printing services, and even the fitness center. This would not only help the J-1’s become more immersed in our campus but would also help other campus entities meet certain revenue goals that they may have set for their departments.

A group this large and who is on campus for 12 weeks at once means there is a lot of communication and collaboration among various campus partners. We work closely with our Facilities teams to ensure that all dorm rooms are ready to be safely inhabited in a very short time after our academic year ends. Work orders are submitted on behalf of the J-1’s as they come up throughout the summer (blinds get broken, closet doors become unhinged, etc.) Our Environmental Services staff is in all the common spaces with daily servicing and reporting back on any health or safety concerns – stove burners being left on unattended was a common reoccurrence this summer, so our team has looked to implement an automatic stove shut-off in all our kitchen spaces. Our Mail Services team deals with the large influx of packages and helps us out by labeling and sorting any mail that comes in, so that our student staff can more easily and quickly deliver throughout the day.

While the group presents our college with new challenges each passing year, we have found that this long-term model has been an exciting and unique opportunity not only for revenue for the college, but also for exposure to the college. We don’t just “fill” our rooms throughout the summer; our hope is to create a welcoming space for everyone involved and keep that energetic and dynamic feeling moving all summer long.
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1https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/exchange-visitors

Author

Samantha Crossley, Associate Director of Special Events and Summer Programs, Elizabethtown College