SESSION OVERVIEW
Belonging is the holy grail of the sector right now, and rightly so. But the way we talk about it tends to shine the focus on the wrong areas. We assign it to community, events, marketing, or EDI. We design programs around it and measure it in surveys. What we miss is that belonging is actually built, or broken, at every service touchpoint. The help desk. The form. The first welcome. The email reply. The way a question gets answered, or does not.
In this session, Rebecca Murphy will make the case that service is the architecture of belonging. Drawing on more than two decades across higher education, hospitality, the arts and public health, including time at Walt Disney World, and grounded in the recent 18-month turnaround of MONSU Caulfield, Rebecca will share a service excellence framework reframed through the belonging lens, a contemporary case study, and three small moves you can take on Monday. You will leave with one organising idea, one framework, and one new question to take into the next meeting you walk into.
By the end of this session, attendees will:
- Understand the case for service as the foundation of student belonging, not a separate workstream
- Have a framework that connects the five components of service excellence to the conditions for belonging
- See a contemporary case study of what this looks like when applied to a real student organisation in crisis
- Walk out with three small, specific actions to start on Monday, without needing a budget or a restructure
PRESENTER
Rebecca Murphy is a people-first leader and strategist with deep roots in Australian higher education. Spanning the Arts, Hospitality and Health sectors, her career has been defined by one constant: a belief in what is ultimately possible when the right people come together. As General Manager of MONSU Caulfield, she transforms student funding into services, events and programs that genuinely shape the undergraduate student experience.
Her approach is collaborative by design – she brings people together, clarifies the gap, and builds a collective path forward. She believes clear communication is an act of kindness, and that people perform best when they feel trusted. Rebecca coaches student leaders to build the leadership and people skills that carry them well beyond campus. Her measure of success? Hearing, years later, how that experience shaped a career.
MONSU Caulfield is the Undergraduate Student Union at Monash University, Caulfield Campus. They support over 11,000 students by providing free services, programs, events, activities and representation, to ensure students have an exceptional university experience.