NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Campus life is the good life for 600 upperclassmen who moved into the first residential colleges at the University of Oklahoma this semester.
The stately and elegant Headington College and Dunham College opened in August with spacious dining halls, made-to-order food options, private courtyards, game rooms, comfortable lounges and libraries filled with books and artwork on loan from the campus museum.
The Oklahoman reports that the amenities are not intended to pamper students, but to increase their academic achievement by enticing them to spend more time on campus interacting with faculty and fellow students.
“I’m really excited,” said senior J.D. Baker, one of the resident mentors living in Headington College. “It’s about cultivating academic excellence in a residential setting.”
Baker said he expects living and learning in the same space will make the college experience even better.
“There’s just a mountain of research to show the benefits to students of living on campus,” said Nick Hathaway, OU vice president of administration and finance.
Those students tend to attend classes more and use academic resources more, Hathaway said.
The residential college model adds the presence of faculty in the space where students live. Each college has one senior fellow with a family residence and office, and another five faculty fellows with offices. They eat in the dining hall and strike up conversations with students in the living room.
“The fellows each are passionate about their own academic interest and they’re going to bring that passion into the college,” Hathaway said.
Keith Gaddie, senior fellow and faculty-in-residence for Headington College, anticipates the teaching moments in the hallways and while walking back from class with students.
Students say life-changing conversations with professors almost always are spontaneous events, not planned lessons, said Mark Morvant, senior fellow and faculty-in-residence for Dunham College.
“We’re making more opportunities for those types of conversations,” Morvant said.
The idea is to build a strongly-bonded community through the integration of social, academic and residential life.
Dunham and Headington have students from 100 majors and faculty from every college across campus, who will share their ideas and interests.
“A college is people. You build the plan around the people,” said Gaddie, chair of the political science department. “It’s a democratic model. Over time, they’ll teach us how to evolve this space.”
Most of the spaces throughout the buildings can be used in a variety of ways. The storm shelters - with collapsible tables and chairs - can be used for a program or a yoga class. Lounges along residential halls can be used for floor meetings. The dining halls make great study halls.
“After the food service shuts down, they’re still in here. It’s a great space,” said Morvant, executive director of the Center for Teaching Excellence.
One student told Morvant the residential college has relieved all the anxieties of living off campus.
The concept of a residential college was new to many students, so filling the beds was slow in the beginning, Hathaway said. About eight weeks before the start of the semester, students could step inside and see for themselves, and the two colleges filled up, he said.
Angel Boardingham, selected to be a graduate tutor in Dunham College, needed no convincing.
Boardingham was very involved on campus and “developed a genuine love for OU” as an undergrad.
“I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I really got on board with the vision,” she said.
Each floor has a graduate tutor and an undergraduate mentor who facilitate community and civic programming. If there is a problem on the floor, the residences are encouraged to find a solution.
“This is definitely unique,” said Periloux Peay, a graduate tutor in Headington College. “They really get a firsthand experience in self-governance.”
Floor residents can agree to enact quiet hours and to amend rules they put in place.
“You’re actually bonding with your neighbors,” said Peay, who started a fantasy football league on his floor.
President David Boren’s experience living in residential colleges as a student at Yale University and Oxford University was the spark that lighted the fire at OU, Hathaway said.
Now that students understand the model, he expects a waiting list to get into Dunham and Headington going forward.
OU isn’t stopping with 600 beds in Headington and Dunham, which face the football stadium. A second, larger project is under construction to provide four more 300-bed communities for upperclassmen.
Cross Neighborhood is expected to open for fall 2018.
The two projects combined will more than double OU’s previous housing capacity for upperclassmen, Hathaway said.
Cross Neighborhood’s four buildings will have a more urban design with no kitchens or dining halls, Hathaway said. Instead a series of restaurants that appeal to students will be built along the street.
Each building will have three residential floors above first-floor amenities, which residents of all the buildings will share, Hathaway said. Those include a black box theater, a digital learning space and gaming center, fitness center, miniature health clinic, creative work space, market and restaurant, and rehearsal spaces for music and dance students.
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Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com
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