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When COVID-19 impacted Australia earlier this year, student accommodation providers found themselves in the most challenging operating environment imaginable. Deakin Residential Services (DRS) rapidly adapted to the continually changing landscape, taking a ‘whatever it takes’ approach to supporting students across all four of Deakin University’s campuses. Adopting a focus on ensuring members of our community were supported, engaged and informed, DRS instigated ongoing one on one welfare checks with every resident, and introduced a new wellbeing model tailored to support students through life ‘out of the ordinary;’ facilitated a comprehensive suite of virtual programs to foster community and responsibly engage students in a COVID-safe manner, and leveraged technology to keep students informed, manage expectations, and demonstrably ensure understanding, compliance and active support for key safety messages. This paper will share further details regarding this three-part strategy, exploring aspects which have been found to be silver-linings and likely to remain part of our operation post-pandemic, along with discussing some of the challenges and opportunities which have arisen throughout 2020. The authors will highlight key elements which are transferable, not only to other student accommodation providers, but also to those supporting the broader student experience within higher education.

Deakin's RESPECT values guide community expectations and standards amongst the on-campus residential student cohort. First introduced in 2016, these values provide a unique opportunity to measure community sentiment, and extend beyond rules and regulations to outline core ideals embraced by the 2,700 students across multiple campuses who call Deakin home. By integrating these community values into all aspects of campus life, including resident induction, rules and regulations, disciplinary processes, student leadership, and event management they have become part of the fabric of the residential community. The recent introduction of a RESPECT values index, calculated using aggregated data from targeted questions in an annual survey, provides a quantitative benchmark, the ability to examine the effectiveness of each individual value, and an opportunity to celebrate examples of positive culture. This paper highlights the rationale behind the introduction of these values, outlines the collaborative design, development and implementation processes used to meaningfully establish and embed them within the community, and details the methodology employed to effectively measure and assess their impact.

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