2021-2022 Community Sociograms

We believe that RAs are experts of their communities. They do not have to be experts of everything else. As an RA, you are tasked with building relationships with the residents in your community which will help you understand trends, address needs, and celebrate successes. One way that a leader can do this is through the development of community maps, or sociograms.

Sociograms are visual representations of a community. In a sociogram, you should be able to observe multiple layers of how the community functions, both as a collection of individuals with unique traits and as a dynamic organized group.

Each month you will be asked to reflect on one aspect of your community through certain question prompts. These prompts are often aligned with the conversations you should be having with your residents anyway through roommate agreements, Tiger Talks, and events. As you continue to add more information about your residents, you should develop a deeper understanding of your residential community--how they interact with each other, how they interact with you, their needs, their strengths, their challenges, and how they can continue to grow and learn in the Residential Experience Model.

Each RA will be provided access to a floor plan for your community. You can elect to complete your sociogram prompts each month by hand or digitally through a PowerPoint, Prezi, or Word document. Your sociogram is a living document that will continue to add more information over the course of the year. It will be used for assessment purposes to track trends, but also can be a reflective artifact for you to observe how you have connected with your residents to understand them more fully and support their student success.

Sociogram Prompts