User Guide

Resident Assistant. House Fellow. Peer Advisor. Community Mentor. Senior Resident. Regardless of the title, your role encompasses various responsibilities, such as organizing community activities, enforcing rules and standards, ensuring security, and occasionally providing informal counseling. Addressing counseling can be challenging, especially if you're not a psychologist or studying psychology. However, your interactions and efforts to foster a sense of community can significantly impact students' experience in your residence.

Additionally, dealing with roommate conflicts is an inevitable part of dormitory life.

This concise guide assumes that you have taken the Coly Assessment yourself, and so have all your residents. In fact, we hope you have already utilized Coly as a tool to build a community within the dormitories, enabling students to get to know each other and themselves. You might have even encouraged your residents to share their Coly profiles with each other.

We would appreciate hearing about your experiences with Coly. Furthermore, we are always open to suggestions on improving this tool. Don't hesitate to contact us at hello@coly.io

QUICK TIPS FOR USING COLY IN RESIDENCE LIFE - Every group utilizing Coly is unique, but there are a few daily steps to follow:

1. ENSURE THAT EVERYONE HAS TAKEN COLY.
Your school has most likely already facilitated this process, but if any students still need to take it, you can send them a reminder through our platform at www.coly.io.

It would be best to take the assessment yourself, as it lends credibility to your residents and provides insight into their experiences.

2. UTILIZE THE COLY PROFILES.
This one-page summary contains essential information about their personality and values, including tailored advice. It's ideal for sharing with other students. It serves as a conversation starter, allowing students to initiate discussions and get to know each other better. For instance, discovering a shared personality type can quickly spark a conversation ("So you're fast-paced? Me too!"). Consider encouraging all students to share their Coly profiles during the first few weeks of the semester.

3. UNDERSTAND THE COMPLETE PICTURE OF COLY ROOMMATE MATCHES.
‍If your university employs Coly to help students find compatible roommates, it's essential to recognize that perfection in matching is unattainable. Coly utilizes a complex algorithm to create an optimal combination of values and personality factors for success. However, that is merely the starting point.

Equally vital is learning relationship skills to maximize the potential of those matches. This is where empathy plays a crucial role. Effective communication, conflict management, and understanding different approaches to time, organization, and schedules are essential for sustaining compatible roommate relationships. While Coly assists in creating compatible matches, relationship skills are necessary for them to thrive. A student's Coly profile can aid in developing these skills, and you might also consider conducting a brief presentation on the topic.

4. CONSIDER A BRIEF PRESENTATION.
Devoting a few minutes to help your residents understand the importance of collaborative efforts in building harmonious relationships throughout the year can yield significant benefits. Coly makes this process easy. You don't need an elaborate seminar; a brief exploration of a tenants profile can go a long way in mitigating conflicts before they arise.

5. EXPLORE THE COLY ROOMMATE GUIDE.
Each resident has access to our resource page containing tips on cultivating healthy roommate relationships. Familiarize yourself with this guide to understand what your residents are seeing. You can also supplement it with your suggestions and insights from other students. Resources can be found at www.coly.io/resources

UTILIZE COLY TO MANAGE CONFLICT - Roommate conflicts are almost inevitable, and you'll likely be called upon to mediate when they escalate. Two distressed roommates might seek your assistance, each hoping you'll take their side as you enter the situation. 

So, what can you do? 

Enter the Coly Assessment, which can be a game-changer in certain circumstances. 

How? 

Sharing the Coly profiles can help distraught roommates gain perspective on each other's viewpoints. This fosters empathy and the ability to accurately understand the world from another person's perspective, a valuable gift to impart to your students. 

For instance, if two roommates are experiencing compatibility issues on various fronts, encourage them to share their personality pages with you and discuss how their inherent traits contribute to their difficulties. 

Prompt them to put themselves in each other's shoes by understanding their roommate's personality and values. During these conversations, please encourage them to consider what the other person is saying and how to accommodate their roommate better.

Additionally, the "my guidance" page in their profiles can provide valuable insights on their strengths and challenges. Help them comprehend their respective "fight types" and how their combination can escalate or alleviate conflicts.

Finally, ask each of them to provide objective advice to themselves if they were in the other person's situation.