Major Roomies

The engineering class dismisses and three students, still deep in discussion about their morning class, head back to their rooms. The conversation continues as they stop for soup and sandwiches at the café located in the community center of their residential village, where other engineering students, also residents, join the conversation.

When lunch is over, they all go to their rooms -- upstairs, on the second floor of Baylor's first new residential center in nearly 40 years and the University's first Campus Living and Learning (CLL) partnership with an academic unit, the School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS). Sound too good to be true? It's not. Groundbreaking for North Village took place May 16 following a Board of Regents meeting. It will be open for students in fall 2004, with 180 of its 600 beds reserved for SECS students. The $33 million, 212,000-square-foot facility is the first of four projected residential villages Baylor will build in the next 10 years. The endeavor addresses the first and second imperatives of Baylor 2012, the University's 10-year Vision -- "to establish an environment where learning can flourish" and "to build a truly residential campus." Baylor hopes to have living-learning centers in other residential villages for students interested in international affairs, leadership, arts and sciences and fostering a civil society.

"There is plenty of empirical evidence that shows that environment matters, especially to 18- to 21-year-olds," said Dr. Frank Shushok, associate dean for CLL, a division of the Office for Student Life. "By forming academic communities that offer mentoring between upperclassmen and freshmen, accessibility of faculty on-site, discussion groups and lab support, our students' capabilities can be fully actualized."

A steering committee of faculty, staff and students from CLL and the SECS has been meeting since September 2002 to plan for the new center. Baylor's residential village concept is a major shift from its current dormitory structure, which primarily is a "sleep and eat" environment, Dr. Shushok said. Although the new approach is modeled after similar programs at the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Ohio State, Baylor's will be one of the first in Texas.

"By joining this small, close-knit community, students will strike a balance between serious intellectual pursuits and social interaction that will reinforce experiences in the classroom and the living room," said Dr. Shushok, adding that SECS students living in the center will take at least one course in common each semester.

Such living-learning centers at other universities have proven to benefit recruitment and retention, Dr. Shushok said. That evidence and the site of North Village, adjacent to the School, made it a "perfect fit" for his division, said Dr. Benjamin Kelley, SECS dean.

"This partnership will provide graduates of our programs a depth of communication and networking that hasn't been available before," Dr. Kelley said. "The mentoring aspect will help our younger students who come in very capable but also immature."

A full-time staff person in the SECS will be hired to facilitate the academic partnership and work with CLL. This person will work with Baylor staff in admissions, recruiting, academic advising and student life to coordinate academic and social opportunities for students in the village. Those who want to live in the center will go through a special admission process and must be approved by an SECS screening committee. Room and board fees will be slightly higher than other dormitory fees but competitive with off-campus apartment costs, Dr. Shushok said.

The other two-thirds of the beds in North Village will be available to upperclassmen (sophomore and up) from across academic disciplines. Half of the 600 units will have kitchens, half are single rooms within a suite of rooms and there will be one bathroom for every two residents. The first floor of two of the three units and a separate, 15,000-square-foot community center in the third unit will be coed common spaces open 24 hours. Men and women will be housed in separate units.

Other amenities being discussed include cafés, coffee rooms, a faculty office and an apartment for visiting guest lecturers. For more information, contact the Campus Living and Learning office at (254) 710-6650.