Enhancing Your Hall Identity Through the Saints & Hall Chaplains

2020 MISSION INTEGRATION AWARD WINNER

The Association for Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities (ASACCU) is pleased to announce the winners of its annual awards for mission integration for 2020.  The awards, which have been recognized annually for the past nine years, recognize excellence in student affairs programming that integrate Catholic identify and mission.  Submissions were judged on six criteria. including demonstration of at least one of ASACCU’s Principles of Good Practice.

In the category of Residence Life, Dean of Students, and related: Providence College’s program titled: “Enhancing our Hall Identities through the Saints and Hall Chaplains”. In existence since 2018, the program utilizes the presence of residence hall Chaplains to introduce residents to the lives of the saints and to inspire students to grow into their own faith and values. Judges found the program to be particular effective in establishing curricular and co-curricular learning outcomes and linking these to mission and identity.

About the Program

The hall chaplain program began in fall 2018 as a collaborative initiative between the Office of Residence Life and Campus Ministry designed to further bring our Catholic identity and Dominican Charism into the residence halls. A Dominican priest was identified as the hall chaplain for each residence hall community. Hall chaplains provide a pastoral presence to our residential communities and work in collaboration with the residence hall staff. Hall Chaplains meet with the RAs providing a pastoral presence in meetings and training sessions. They engage with the whole community by holding office hours in the residence halls, meeting with the RA staff, facilitating room blessings, planning hall masses, and attending floor meetings. In the spring of 2019, the hall chaplains worked with their RA staffs to choose a patron saint for the hall. In the fall of 2019, the hall chaplain introduced the saint to the community while blessing an icon of the saint that was hung in each hall’s entryway. Each hall celebrated the feast day of their patron saint this academic year.