How University Housing is Using CliftonStrengths to Help Students

At UT, administrators have embraced Gallup’s CliftonStrengths as a comprehensive framework to help students identify and develop their natural abilities and talents. In the Division of Student Life, that application is extending beyond the student experience to that of staff and departments as well, using CliftonStrengths to identify individual abilities and enhance team dynamics to further improve the student experience.

Few campus departments are as critical to the students they serve as University Housing, which manages 15 residence halls. Residence halls, home to roughly a quarter of the undergraduate student population, operate 24/7, closing during academic breaks. This means hall staff have a rotating on-call schedule and sometimes respond to major emergencies, like health-related crises events or concerns regarding maintenance or plumbing issues that have large impacts.

“You may start your morning supporting a student in crisis and end the day conducting a hall walk with housekeeping staff,” says Michelle Unger, assistant director of professional and graduate staffing for University Housing. “No two days are ever the same, which is one of the things that makes the work so engaging. There is a tremendous amount of intentionality behind what we do, from student outreach and relationship building to helping students successfully transition to campus life.”

That intentionality increases the commitment the entire University Housing department has to professional development. For the Housing Services area of the department, which includes housekeeping and maintenance staff, a one-day training in CliftonStrengths served as the culmination of an eight-week supervisory leadership course that included all frontline housekeeping and maintenance supervisors. This course was an opportunity for staff to enhance and develop their leadership skills.

The CliftonStrengths workshop included 22 staff members participating in discussions about the unique strengths they bring to their work, the impact on students, and ultimately, the spaces they are cultivating here on campus.

For Justin Hayes, University Housing assistant director for safety, security, health, and wellness, “Growing and developing leaders is crucial to long-term success for both our leaders and the organization to drive and shape culture, morale, accountability, and overall service excellence within Housing Services. We intend to continue the foundational principals of CliftonStrengths to enhance how our supervisory staff excels in leadership but also navigates the unique characteristics of each of their staff members. As we build our professional development program and map what success looks like, this workshop served as the foundational next step for the cohort. This is just the beginning of that journey.”

“Growing and developing leaders is crucial to long-term success for both our leaders and the organization to drive and shape culture, morale, accountability, and overall service excellence within Housing Services.”

Justin Hayes
Assistant Director for Safety, Security, Health, and Wellness, University Housing

During spring 2026, a dozen University Housing staff, including hall directors plus residence life supervisors who enrich the experience of campus residents, also completed a one-day training and reflection on CliftonStrengths. Goals of this training included personal development for hall directors and their teams, increased cohesion for hall directors as they work together to manage situations that have impacts across residence halls, and increasing the culture in University Housing to continue creating authentic spaces for every student, a hard but immensely valuable task.

For Unger and her colleagues, “It was helpful to see the charts and information that highlighted the different strengths of the individuals in the room. Through the breakout activities, we were able to see our strengths come to life and have meaningful conversations about how they influence the way we work. The training provided a useful framework for understanding and appreciating those differences. No two staff members on our team are the same, and we saw that reflected in our CliftonStrengths results.”

The one-day training was led by Shane Boswell, assistant director for leadership development in the Jones Center for Leadership and Service, who has facilitated similar trainings across campus since joining UT in 2022. With most CliftonStrengths exercises, the activity may be short but it includes a challenge to apply and work towards as a staff after its conclusion. For University Housing, that means identifying specific strengths and personal development as well as team development that can help them operate even better while also utilizing these insights to support students based on their natural strengths as well.

For both groups of University Housing staff, Unger and Hayes note that CliftonStrengths has created a common bond and shared language that more easily enables encouragement, thoughtful and intentional interactions, and more frequent collaboration in daily work.

Boswell notes that this commitment to training demonstrates how University Housing alongside departments like the Jones Center are pursuing holistic development for all staff that impact the student experience.

“Jones Center staff work to support all areas of campus in their CliftonStrengths integration,” says Boswell. “Not only did these two training days help University Housing supervisors unpack self and team dynamics surrounding CliftonStrengths, but the groups also explored what we know about the undergraduate student population surrounding CliftonStrengths. We discussed new engagement strategies for further increasing a sense of belonging with students, and how to use CliftonStrengths as a tool to accomplish
those goals.”

For many departments and units on campus, working with the Jones Center for Leadership and Service to identify and develop the CliftonStrengths of staff members and teams is an intentional step taken to impact the student experience in meaningful ways. In University Housing, those meaningful connections are the driving force behind everything the department does to house, care for, and support its residents.

“I have seen first hand the fist bumps and high fives between our staff and students, the cookies and flowers brought to the staff kitchens by students to show their appreciation to the staff,” says Hayes. “These are testaments to the appreciation students feel toward our Housing Services staff who are providing them that ‘home away from home.’”