Document Type
Doctor of Education Capstone
Original Publication Date
2026
Date of Submission
May 2026
Abstract
This capstone project examines challenges to authentic community building within Virginia Commonwealth University’s Residential Life and Housing (RLH) department. Although the Community Development Model (CDM) was originally designed to foster belonging through structured engagement, it has increasingly been perceived by frontline staff as a compliance-driven checklist rather than a tool to develop community. Using improvement science principles, this case study identifies outdated curriculum, misalignment with student needs, and disconnect between senior leadership and frontline staff as systemic barriers to building authentic community in RLH, including student residence halls.
We used a single-institution case study design. We conducted empathy interviews with Resident Assistants (RAs) and professional staff to inform our data collection tools and protocol. We then collected data in the form of RA survey, Hall Director (HD) interviews, senior leadership interviews, and departmental document analysis. Grounded in community development theory (CDT), complex adaptive systems theory (CAS), and critical pragmatism, our case study explored how organizational structures and practices influence community building efforts at a mid-sized urban university setting.
Findings revealed that RLH functioned as a CAS in which adaptation occurred primarily at the individual level rather than through intentional system design. Analysis grounded in CAS demonstrated that path dependency, misalignment of senior leadership and frontline staff, fragmented networks, and ineffective feedback loops reinforce compliance-oriented practices and limited efficacy of RAs. CDT further highlighted that limited agency, limited participation in decision-making, and weakened solidarity among levels of staff. Together, these dynamics contributed to transactional engagement, inconsistent community outcomes, and diminished by-in for the CDM.
In response, this project recommends organizational and curricular reforms that shift RLH from compliance to connection. Key recommendations include strengthening feedback loops between frontline staff and senior leadership, increasing communication transparency, formalizing frontline participation through a standing advisory group, and enhancing RA and HD training to better align with contemporary student needs. To address curricular misalignment, the study proposes adopting the knowing, connecting, empowering (KCE) framework as a relationship-centered, equity-informed alternative to the CDM. The recommendation is to implement this curriculum in a phased improvement science approach. KCE emphasizes early relationship formation, shared ownership, and continuous evaluation. Collectively, the recommendations aim to realign organizational structures with authentic community building practices and foster sustainable belonging within VCU residence halls.
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