Information to which campus employees might have access to perform duties may be considered confidential and protected by University policy and/or federal and Maryland law. All Resident Life staff must complete an online acknowledgement of the guidelines regarding confidentiality within MyDRL under the Employee Agreement link, as well as the University’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) training.

To fulfill the duties and responsibilities of employment, employees may need to access personally identifiable information of students, prospective students, employees, alumni/ae, donors, or guests which is confidential in nature. The university has a legal and ethical responsibility to protect confidential information and to safeguard the privacy of personally identifiable information.

If you have any questions regarding access, use, or disclosure of confidential University information, you understand that it is your responsibility to consult with your supervisor or department director. You should not make unauthorized disclosures of confidential university information.

Failure to meet expectations regarding confidentiality may result in disciplinary action in accordance with University policies and procedures, State and federal laws, and applicable collective bargaining agreements up to and including dismissal. Employees with access to confidential information may also be subject to criminal penalties for the unauthorized access, use, and/or disclosure of such information.

Resident Life has guidelines that address risk as it relates to relationships outside of primary relationships for Resident Assistants. But, ALL Resident Life staff must recognize that, in fairness to students and in order to effectively fulfill the responsibilities of their positions, it is imperative that you maintain a professional separation between your personal activities and the private lives of students whom you supervise, advise, or oversee. Your ability (both actual and perceived) to meet this professional obligation to students is compromised if you act in a manner which blurs your role. 

In any secondary relationship, staff should consider the potential harm or trauma to a resident, the impact on your effectiveness as a staff member (your primary relationship), and issues of liability (legal, public, financial) to you, the department, and the University.

The two most likely secondary relationships to occur between staff and students are solicitation to organizations/activities and social, romantic, or sexual relationships.

Solicitation to Organizations/Activities

Staff should not solicit students (including student staff) to attend, join, or contribute to social, political, religious, or other organizations and activities other than those that are considered “official business” of the University (i.e. recruitment of Resident Assistants, Judicial Board members, Orientation Leaders). It is improper to engage in such solicitation in an official capacity, to use the authority of your staff position (with its implicit power to reward, punish, or treat differently) to encourage attendance or membership in such associations.  

Social, Romantic, or Sexual Relationships with Residents or Student Staff

The second area is social, romantic, or sexual relationships between staff and residents in their charge or between staff and student staff. Regardless of who initiates or pursues these intimacies or whether at the moment they appear mutually voluntary, the practical inseparability of personal and professional roles creates an inherently unstable situation. These situations are rife with latent claims of coercion or “reluctant acquiescence.” Owing to the differential in power, we presume these relations to be involuntary. They are also inevitably distracting to other students, residents, or student staff and the existence or perception of favoritism is unavoidable. Professionalism and a regard for personal legal liability require that Resident Life staff forego these compromising relations.

Social, Romantic, or Sexual Relationships with Coworkers

The university does not have a policy prohibiting social, romantic, or sexual relationships between coworkers. The Policy on Sexual Misconduct does outline relationships that fall outside of consensual relationships. But, social, romantic, or sexual relationships between consenting coworkers should also be considered for the impact on your effectiveness as a staff member and potential issues of power, liability, and harm. Please consult with your supervisor or staff in Staff Development & Services if you have questions.

Staff should present a clean, professional appearance to our students, colleagues, parents and other stakeholders.  Everyone is expected to wear clean clothing, free of holes and tears.  Depending on the day's tasks this could mean casual, business casual, smart casual, or business attire. On Departmental residence hall tour days, staff members are encouraged to show their Maryland pride. To demonstrate our Maryland pride,  staff should only wear Maryland or departmental affiliation shirts and sweatshirts. Athletic wear - sweatpants, joggers, yoga pants, etc. - is only appropriate after hours or when the task calls for such attire.   

Social media refers to a variety of online communities like blogs, social networks, chat rooms, and forums – not just platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, & Instagram. 

Social media is a place where people exchange information, opinions, and experiences to learn, develop, and have fun. Social media can be a fun and rewarding way to share your life and opinions with family, friends, colleagues, and others around the world. However, use of social media also presents certain risks and carries with it certain responsibilities. These guidelines provide practical advice to avoid issues that might arise by careless use of social media. 

Staff should not use their personal social media accounts to conduct university business or as a work-related communication method. Staff are also reminded that while they may view their posts as personal communication, students and other campus constituencies may have access to this information and may not make as clear a distinction between personal and professional views, posts, and images. 

When posting, we expect you to adhere to our confidentiality policies and caution you to avoid violating anti-harassment policies. We advise you to:

• Let others know that your personal account or statements don’t represent our department. You shouldn’t state or imply that your personal opinions and content are authorized or endorsed by Resident Life. Consider using a disclaimer such as “opinions are my own” to avoid misunderstandings.

• Avoid sharing intellectual property like trademarks on a personal account without approval.

• Confidentiality policies and laws always apply.

• Avoid any defamatory, offensive, or derogatory content directed to campus community members.

Official departmental messages should only be shared through approved social media accounts, typically as part of an individual’s outlined job responsibilities. Exceptions include promoting job announcements, encouraging participation in Giving Day and other development activities, and promoting approved department initiatives.

Campus guidelines for social media use for staff who are publishing and commenting on behalf of a UMD-affiliated account are available on the Maryland Brand website.

In the course of your work, you may be contacted by the media or other outside groups seeking opinion, information, or data about our department, policies, or work product. Inquiries should be referred to the staff member overseeing that process within our department.

As a public institution, media outlets are permitted to film on the UMD campus. However, they are not permitted inside the residence halls, nor may they block egress to buildings. If you see a news station near a residence hall, please alert Meredith Carpenter and/or Jasmine Pelaez, who can notify the university's Office of Marketing and Communications as appropriate.

For inquiries from the media, including the Diamondback, parties should be referred to Meredith Carpenter and/or Jasmine Pelaez. 

Only designated Resident Life staff serve as official spokespeople for the department. Other Resident Life staff (including Resident Assistants) may speak to the media to share their personal opinions. When doing so, they should make it clear they are representing their personal viewpoints and not those of our department. However, anyone speaking to the media should be aware that it is rarely possible to separate expressing personal opinions with university affiliation unless explicitly noted. 

Keep in mind that the media may also attend programs and open meetings and that anything you say in those settings may be quoted or paraphrased by them. Tracy Kiras and/or Jasmine Pelaez is available to provide best practices and assistance in working with the media.

Supervisors should review their expectations with their staff regarding the scheduling, rescheduling, and attendance at unit-specific meetings.

All staff are required to attend “Department Meetings” (held 2-3 times per semester) and retreats (Summer Summit in Summer; Winter Summit in Winter) and are strongly encouraged to attend annual events such as our end-of-semester and end-of-year celebrations. Absences from required meetings must be approved by direct supervisors and only in cases of academic coursework, prior-approved leave status, necessary office coverage, and crises. Supervisors should make every attempt to allow staff to attend these functions.

Much of our work is fluid and sometimes immediate crises or student issues arise that necessitate missing a meeting or needing to reschedule a meeting. When this occurs, staff should reach out to meeting organizers to let them know and to either reschedule or determine what they missed and what tasks may need to be accomplished. If staff have to miss an assigned shift for a departmental function (open leasing, RA selection, Fall Welcome, etc.), they should attempt to first find a replacement staff member before asking the organizer to accommodate their absence.

Each summer, departmental staff are asked for their preferences for committee assignments for the upcoming academic year. Some of these committees happen every year (Standing Committees) and others are created to respond to the annual goals for that year.  

These committees are designed to effectively and efficiently carry out our mission and goals in the context of our core documents and on behalf of our students. Committees are intended to intentionally connect a group’s work with Resident Life’s strategic priorities, initiatives, and goals, as well as the housing strategic plan. 

Our committees need broad participation and our department flourishes when everyone is involved in the realization of our mission and the accomplishment of our goals. Our committees serve a vital role and we want to make sure all our staff have the opportunity to be involved. Individual supervisors may have additional expectations regarding committee involvement.

When committee solicitation information comes out, supervisors should discuss their staff member’s interest, relationship to job role, and professional development goals. 

When staff members begin at other times of the year, a full list of committees should be provided by their supervisor, who should also review opportunities to determine if and when the new staff member might want to join a committee. Either the new staff member or the supervisor should then contact that committee chair to see if a staff member joining off-cycle would be helpful.

Each year, there are a number of major initiatives and events that require broad participation of our staff to realize. These events and programs are coordinated by a variety of offices but serve the larger interests of our department and our students. They include (but are not limited to) Fall & Winter Openings, Fall & Winter Welcomes, Selection Activities, Admissions programs (Admitted Student Open Houses), Spring Leasing for South Campus Commons & Courtyards, and Maryland Day. 

None of these programs individually require every department staff member to participate, but every staff member should volunteer over the course of the year. Within units, individual supervisors should discuss expectations for participation to ensure broad involvement across their staff groups, while still attending to other unit priorities (office coverage and duty coverage, for instance).