The North Campus residence halls are far more than a hive of cluster dorms and modernized student unions. Cornell's Residential Initiative planners have worked to develop and implement inspiring living-and-learning programs that help integrate the intellectual and social aspects of student life.
"Programs, services and facilities have been intentionally designed to foster community development and interaction among students and faculty," said LeNorman J. Strong, assistant vice president for student and academic services.
To help cultivate this living-and-learning environment, staff in Cornell Campus Life/Community Development collaborated with faculty and student services departments to create a mix of vibrant programs -- including an increased number of academic classes and seminars in North Campus residence halls and community centers.
"The Residential Initiative was a driving force behind Community Development's introspective look at its programs and services for first-year students," said Don King, director of community development in Campus Life. "For many years, first-year students have lived together in other areas of campus, such as in Collegetown or class halls, but there has not been a time until now when all 3,000 first-year students were housed together on the same part of Cornell's campus."
Having learned from experiences in class halls and elsewhere, Community Development staff retooled and refocused many existing programs, while developing entirely new programs and services designed to serve the needs of first-year students, King said.
The North Campus initiative also presents an opportunity for first-year students to establish class identity through participation in a wide range of shared experiences. All North campus residences, old or new, are equipped with ample and comfortable meeting, program and recreational spaces. Efforts were made to ensure that no student feels at a disadvantage in terms of living quarters, said Peggy Beach, Campus Life director of marketing and support services.
"What makes the North Campus special is the variety -- all first-year students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the community and its programs and initiatives," said Beach. "All the basics are there in all the buildings."
The 21st century freshman at Cornell can roll out of bed, grab a bite and head to a morning writing seminar without leaving North Campus. Students might linger over after-dinner desserts in thoughtful discourse with a faculty-in-residence. A total of nine John S. Knight first year writing seminars will be offered mornings and evenings in Robert Purcell Community Center and in the Court and Mews residence halls.
Meal passes have been provided to all Knight writing seminar instructors. This will allow teachers to meet with students informally, further accommodating the integration of intellectual and residential life. And the discussions of Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, begun during orientation, will continue in writing seminar assignments.
|
| Freshman Shawnakim Lowey-Ball, right, and orientation supervisor Brandie Moreland '04 listen to responses to Lowey-Ball's question during the Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies community panel discussion in Barton Hall, Aug. 26. Small group discussions on the book followed on Monday afternoon (more on them in next week's Chronicle), many in the residence halls, and discussions will continue during the semester, including in freshman writing seminars. Richard Killen/University Photography |
Carol Kammen, a senior lecturer in history, teaches a morning writing seminar titled "History of Cornell." Holding first-year seminars on North Campus is not only practical, Kammen said, it literally brings home the concept of education as an intrinsic and natural element of daily campus life.
"It helps emphasize the fact that being here is all about education and that education can occur in a variety of settings and in a variety of ways," said Kammen. "The new residence halls themselves are wonderfully conceived, and the teaching spaces are very conducive to learning -- it makes you want to be a freshman again."
As part of their course work, Kammen's students keep a "a cultural scrapbook," and this year's class is no exception. They will document their impressions of North Campus life as well as collect items ranging from theater programs to parking tickets to letters from the dean, among other ephemera. At semester's end, the scrapbooks are submitted to the university's Kroch Library to be archived and catalogued by name so students, as well as researchers, may refer to them in the future.
Three new faculty-in-residence are immersed in North Campus life with homes in Court and Mews and in Dickson halls. They are: Richard Ripple, professor of education; Henry Richardson, professor of architecture; and Carlos Castillo-Chavez, professor of biomathematics and statistics. Nava Scharf, a senior lecturer in Near Eastern Studies, will return as a faculty-in-residence but in a new home, Low Rise 7.
"This is a team effort with my husband, Stanley, and we feel privileged to be in such a position," said Scharf. "My regular close contact and interaction with students as a faculty-in-residence enables me to serve as an adult role-model and to share, listen and advise our students -- and on occasion, their parents as well. Parents are 'eager' to speak to an adult their own age about their children, especially if there is an emergency of some sort."
Among the activities Scharf and her husband share with students is a tour of Cornell Plantations' "economic botany demonstration plots," where many of the food crops mentioned in Diamond's book are on display. Faculty-in-residence also have regular dinners with different groups of students, hold open houses and go on group trips to theater productions or community events.
Another example of direct interaction among faculty and students is the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellows program. Faculty Weiss fellows host dining discussion groups and arts programs with students in their courses.
|
| Student resident advisers in Mews Hall, Robyn Tortorelli, seated, and Jackie Mandel preview Robin's living quarters last week before the arrival of the first-year students. Richard Killen/University Photography |
"The program gives the Weiss presidential fellows -- recognized as innovative leaders in Cornell's undergraduate education -- a wonderful opportunity to interact with undergraduates, including first-year students, in a variety of intellectually stimulating situations beyond the traditional classroom," said Dan Schwarz, a Weiss fellow and professor of English. "By dining with students either informally after class or in the residential hall, often with specific discussion topics in mind, the Weiss fellows have a chance to contribute to the students' participation in a community of inquiry. Speaking from my own experience, by taking student guests to campus theater, concerts, dance recitals and museums, I have been able to introduce students to the vast range of Cornell's cultural resources and enhance their enjoyment of Cornell."
Other efforts to link students and faculty include: a Conversations with Faculty program, which brings students together with faculty, in relation to their interests and disciplines, in the residence halls; and dining-discussion groups in Risley Dining on Monday nights, hosted by the Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti (CAPE). Also, local Cornell alumni are being invited to host, at their homes, a series of dinners designed to connect new students and faculty with the area Cornell alumni community.
Sophomores are pitching in to help first-year students, as well, through the newly established Residential Fellows Program, which will be piloted in most of the freshman residence halls.
"We've identified students from the past year who have indicated an interest and willingness to volunteer as part of the community and serve as a link between North and West campus," said King. "They will not live on North Campus, but will serve as visiting mentors and as a general resource for freshmen. These individuals will complement the existing student support staff that includes resident advisers and program assistants."
Not all students living on North Campus are freshmen -- about 600 upperclassmen share quarters with first-year students in eight program houses: Akwe:kon, Ujamaa Residential College, Ecology House, Just About Music Hall (JAM), Holland International Living Center, Risley Residential College, Latino Living Center and the Multicultural Living Center.
"Cornell's program houses offer a richness and wide variety of programming that will strengthen Cornell's commitment to community-building by integrating the intellectual, leadership, social and cultural dimensions of student life in a way that enhances all student life on North Campus," said Strong. "These communities tend to be smaller than traditional residence halls and serve as critical networks of returning students, who provide support and outreach that address the needs of [new] students."
Moreover, Strong added, the theme-based program houses enable students to develop and foster an intellectual culture within their individual communities as well as the larger Cornell community -- an important dynamic on North Campus that will contribute to the development of future traditions.
The following is a list of some first-year residential programs and initiatives, with a brief description of each:
Conversations with Faculty: In the program -- which was a pilot program in Donlon Hall in Fall 2000, as Donlon Faculty Fellows -- students are asked which professors they would like to interact with informally in their residence halls. An effort is under way to attract faculty members to the program who are teaching large freshman classes, such as economics, psychology and chemistry. Selected faculty will be invited to an informal program with students and will be linked to current faculty in Faculty Programs in Residential Communities.
Residential Fellows Program: The purpose of this program is to link returning students and first-year students, based on their affiliations to individual residence halls. For returning students, it is an opportunity to serve as mentors and leaders and to stay connected with their former residence halls. For first-year students, it is a chance to meet former residents of their communities who can share insights based on their experiences.
Dining discussions with alumni: Participating local Cornell alumni will host six to eight students from specific North Campus complexes for dinners at their homes. A total of six dinners will be hosted in the fall. The program is being coordinated with Cornell Alumni Affairs and Development and the local Cornell Club. The goal is to help first-year students connect into this untapped resource of local alumni and also help build relationships with other students from their communities.
Weiss Fellows Student Community Interaction Project: This program provides all interested faculty Weiss fellows with a small dining account to be used to continue conversations with students that began in the classroom or to organize meal discussions on particular topics.
Increase in faculty for residential programs: To support the additional numbers of residents on North Campus as well as a demand for more "dining discussion" opportunities, additional faculty have been recruited and selected for Faculty Programs in Residential Communities, including: 13 faculty-in-residence, 90 faculty fellows and 20 dining-discussion faculty fellows.
Late-night events: Late-night programming boards will be composed of a representative from each community center student council who develops and organizes evening events in his or her respective community center (Robert Purcell, Community Commons and Noyes, for West Campus and Collegetown) and interested students living in the surrounding residential areas. Community center program directors and assistant directors will serve as advisers. The boards will meet, jointly, once a month, to coordinate efforts. Each board will sponsor a monthly late-night event in its community center.
Monthly student-development programs: In an effort to support first-year student development, a series of programs are under way with community center and residence hall directors that address pertinent life issues and needs for students. These programs deal with issues that affect most first-year students, such as: development of social skills as well as study and time-management skills; creative ways to resolve roommate conflicts; education about alcohol and other drugs; and ways of connecting with Cornell resources. The goal is to coordinate one large program per month. It is also anticipated that there will be monthly social events that encourage freshmen to truly come together as the class of 2005.
Student-staff training: A portion of the student-staff training for resident advisers and program assistants is based on orienting them to the student populations they serve and training them to recognize and accommodate the specific needs of their residents.
"The Class of 2005 will be active participants in an effort to transform student living and learning at Cornell," said Assistant Vice President Strong. "This is the important first step of achieving President Hunter Rawlings' vision of a university that fully integrates academic life with student life in a manner that enhances the education of students, while also strengthening their connections to faculty and to the university."
|
| This map of a section of North Campus shows the integration of the newer facilities -- Mews and Court halls and the Community Commons (along with the new soccer fields and tennis courts) -- with the older residence halls, program houses and community centers. Cornell University |
| Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page |