Members of the Class of 2018 will have the chance spend their first year in new living and learning communities focused on STEM subjects, entrepreneurship and the arts, if proposals for these residences move forward.
These pilot programs, the result of discussions between residential life director Michael Wooten, College President Phil Hanlon and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, are based off of current affinity programs, though faculty involvement and integration with pre-existing programs have not yet been finalized.
“The affinities and special interest communities are all types of living and learning communities that are much more integrated with larger intellectual questions,” Wooten said. “What I’ve proposed over the years is that we need to 2.0 this thing.”
Currently, there are no plans to construct new buildings, though existing ones may be renovated.
“What you can expect is that learning communities will include a first-year component and that upperclassmen will be included,” Wooten said. “These communities will provide continuity across four years at Dartmouth.”
The living and learning communities will not be a mandatory part of the residential life experience, and their expansion aims to create more choices for students. Dartmouth is also considering opening affinity housing programs to first-year students, but bed space may pose a logistical challenge.
As with any other learning-based residential program, students interested will be required to apply before the term begins. The decision to implement the new communities follows research indicating that they are most effective for college students during their first and second years.
“It’s time for us to take the residential structure to the highest level and to integrate the best of our intellectual community into all parts of the campus experience,” Wooten said.
Representatives from the office of residential education visited the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, New York University and Columbia University last winter to talk with administrators, students and faculty.
These proposals coincide with efforts by the Inter-Community Council to improve residential life. On Sunday, the ICC sent a campuse-wide survey asking students about their perspectives on the Dartmouth Plan and undergraduate advisors, among other questions.
ICC co-chair Karima Ma ’14 said the survey results will be shared with Johnson and Wooten at the end of the term to help pinpoint the factors that contribute to students’ quality of life, and may eventually be released to the student body. In general, students seem to feel a greater sense of community as freshmen than as upperclassmen.
“I think the D-Plan facilitates people forming very insular communities because it’s hard to meet people different from you when you have such a short time span together,” Ma said. “So people often go back to where they’re comfortable — areas on campus like a Greek house, an affinity group. That’s a constant.”
ICC co-chair Bennie Niles ’15 said that some students, however, value location over friendships on floors as upperclassmen.
Ilenna Jones ’15, who lives in La Casa, said the College could look into adding more houses as residential buildings.
“Being in a house versus being a dorm is completely different. In a house you have more common areas, places to socialize right there in front of you — I feel like that’s the set up in Greek houses,” Jones said. “I feel that if there were more opportunities for affinity housing and a general ability for communities to organically form, that would be awesome for people.”
Ma is a former member of The Dartmouth staff.
