The number of students who applied to live in living learning communities for the fall decreased from 844 last year to 575, but assistant director for living learning and academic initiatives Katharina Daub said that she hopes this means more students will be placed in their first-choice community. The deadline to apply was April 8.
Daub said that last year about 200 more students applied for LLCs than were spaces available. The decrease in applications will allow placement be a more inclusive process, she added.
Including spaces in the East Wheelock cluster, the College can provide 400 upperclassmen beds in the permanent LLCs and 105 in the design-your-own communities.
Students can apply to live in up to three of the LLCs. The permanent communities are the Global Village, East Wheelock cluster, Triangle House and DEN in Residence, in addition to all of the special interest and affinity communities, such as the Sustainable Living Center, the Chinese Language House and Foley house.
The Global Village is located in the McLaughlin cluster and gives students the opportunity to explore global topics as well as the option the live on a language-specific floor. DEN in Residence lets students become more involved with the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. Triangle House provides an environment where students can deepen their understanding of LGBTQ topics, and the East Wheelock cluster encourages interaction between faculty and students beyond the classroom.
There are six design-your-own communities for the upcoming academic year — Asian/American; film appreciation; philomath community; health care policy, innovation and delivery; dialogue for Dartmouth and empowering women through faith, spirituality and reflection — all of which will be housed in Wheeler residence hall next year.
The College reduced the number of design-your-own communities this year from 10 to six, which may have contributed to the decrease in applications, Daub said.
“This past year was the first year where all the affinity programs and different housing opportunities have been under the umbrella of living learning communities,” she said.
Daub said that individual programs such as the Sustainable Living Center, the Chinese language house and the Gender Equity floor have had lots of success in the past, but grouping all of these opportunities together under the umbrella term of LLCs has had positive results, such as more interaction between communities.
“It was nice to be to be able to pull that all together this year and allow the advisors to get to know each other,” Daub said.
Advisors for the individual communities were able to come together and share their experiences and methods in managing the communities, such as how to engage students who were not participating. Daub said this allowed for unprecedented collaboration across the LLCs.
Daub said she has heard positive feedback about the LLCs from students who appreciate engaging with peers around a common interest and getting to know faculty and staff members personally.
Daub said the way the living learning committees operate will not be altered much by the development of new residential communities stipulated by the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” plan.
“Living learning communities will continue the way they are and continue to deepen students’ experiences,” Daub said, since the residential community program will not begin until fall of 2016. She added that the program may affect application numbers for living learning communities.
Savannah Liu ’18 applied for the Dialogue for Dartmouth community, which will explore social justice issues and how they relate to life on campus.
She said that she heard about the program from a friend who developed the idea, and after going on a Tucker Foundation Alternative Spring Break trip to West Virginia focused on environmental social justice, she saw the community as a way to take her experiences on the trip back to campus.
Ayana Whitmal ’18 said that she applied for three living learning communities, including empowering women through faith, spirituality and reflection after taking several women’s and gender studies classes.
Whitmal said that she liked the idea of having important and meaningful discussions with people with whom she will be living, ensuring that she can develop deep connections with her community members.
Rafananda Tejada ’18 applied for the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean house, Dialogue for Dartmouth and the Portuguese floor in the Global Village.
She said the LALACS floor appealed to her as a way to become more in touch with her Latin background. She also added that her housing number is not high, and living in a community would provide a better alternative to other campus housing.
Lyric Griffin ’18 also applied for Dialogue for Dartmouth.
“I felt that I needed a living learning community,” she said. “Being surrounded by people with like minds who share the same values really reminds you why you are here.”
