The Academic Lifestyle Program provides the opportunity for you to live in an academic and socially enriched environment. Your decision to live in one of these exciting communities will make an impact on you for the rest of your life.
Themed Living Learning Community room selection priority times and dates are from 6:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m. midnight Tuesday, May 26 through Saturday, May 30 and Monday, June 1. The room selection link will be available under "News/What's going on?" on the the University Housing Services home page on Tuesday, May 26 at 6:00 a.m.
A survey was conducted of students living the themed living-learning communities compared to those living in non-themed communities and the results are compelling. Here are just a few of the results, students who live in the themed communities are:
- More likely to attend seminars and lectures
- More likely to study with a small group of people
- More likely to attend class
- More likely to study and do homework
- More likely to participate in community service activities
- More confident in college success
If you are a faculty member, you may very well have students in your classes who live in these themed communities and your own experience with these students may reinforce the assessment results.
In order to continue to provide enriching experiences for our residence hall students who are mostly in their first and second year of college, the more opportunities available to interact with faculty members outside of the classroom, the better for their overall connection to the campus. And we know that the more connected students are to the University, the more likely they are to graduate
How can you be involved?
There are several ways that you can be involved in the themed living-learning communities as a faculty. One way is the faculty mentor program that has been in place for 16 years and information about the faculty mentor program can be found here. Each academic lifestyle has a faculty member from their department who serves as the Faculty coordinator. As a member of the floor, you will be able to work on team projects and attend social events. Academic lifestyle floors provide a supportive place to live, learn, and make long lasting friendships as you work towards graduation and obtaining your “dream job.”
Another for those who are interested, but do not have the time to commit for the year, we can work with you to make even hour to put to good use. Since we know that even short periods of time can make a lasting impression, we can work with you to meet with floor residents for lunch, dinner or a casual meeting in the residence hall.
Here are just a few suggestions:
- What made you choose to be a professor? What do you think you would enjoy doing if you were not in academia?
- Share information about your research - how do you integrate your research into the classroom, who should and how can students get involved in research at the undergraduate level?
- Do you have an interesting hobby that you like to do in your free time? Students like to know faculty members are regular people with hobbies too !
- Were a first generation college student? Hearing your story - the challenges and triumphs - can be empowering to the students.
If you would like to get involved or have an hour or so to donate to our residence hall students in the coming year, please contact Stacey Mwilambwe.
Here are just a few of the exciting features of the themed living-learning communities:
- Computer Lab - South Campus and Watterson towers offer a fully equipped computer lab for your needs.
- Language Tables - The foreign language floor offers weekly practice opportunities while you learn different languages.
- Global Review - The International House program co-sponsors weekly featured speakers to talk about current events in our global society.
- Cultural Dinners - The dinners provide you with an opportunity to sample delicious food from the celebrated culture, and to meet distinguished speakers who will provide you with diverse global perspectives.
- Volunteer Opportunities - You will be given the opportunity to choose a team service project to do with your floor in the Bloomington-Normal community.
