This new school year, Housing and Residential Life is implementing five new interest communities in the dorms that are separate from general housing. Students have the option of choosing to live in one of the communities or not to live in one at all.
The five communities include: LGBT and Allies, Global Connections, Outdoor Adventures, Pop Culture and Sports and Fitness. Specific rooms are assigned to the different communities so that students who choose to be part of one live around all the people in the same community as them.
The housing staff is extremely excited about what these new communities will offer to the students living on campus.
“It’s all about sort of creating deeper connections and also educating them outside the classroom about something they are really interested in,” said Rebekah Gregory, coordinator of Resident Academic and Career Support. “It’s a further life experience in education that is free to them.”
Gregory explained that the funding for the interest communities comes from a request that housing submitted to the IRA last year called a matching of funds. The request was approved, so the IRA matched the amount of money housing allocated for the interest groups. This has doubled the amount of money that can be spent on various learning activities for the different groups.
There are three set goals for the interest communities: education, advocacy and fun. The groups are required to achieve these goals by different types of events. According to the operating model written by Gregory for the interest groups, the education goal will be reached through exploration events, the advocacy goal will be reached through a service project and the fun goal will be reached through events that are social.
Students are enjoying the aspects of the communities so far. One student, who is a part of the Sports and Fitness community, spoke about her experiences so far.
“I am glad that I chose to live in the communities this year,” Sarah Cruz-Hernandez (sophomore, Pre-Nursing) said. “Everyone I’ve met is really nice and I am excited to go to some of the events.”
The service projects are one of the event types they are focusing on getting started right now. Gregory said that next semester, each interest group will be required to sponsor some type of service activity and provide it to the campus community, or even the general community of Turlock. The resident advisors (R.A.’s), who are assigned to the different interest groups, are in charge of planning these events; Gregory and other members of the housing staff must then approve them.
Gregory also spoke about another aspect of the interest groups that will be starting very soon.
“Our Faculty and Residence, Taylor Marcell, has recruited different faculty members who share these interests to kind of mentor these R.A.’s, they are going to help them plan events,” Gregory said.
All of the interest communities’ events are funded by Housing and Residential Life and at no cost to the student participating in them. Global Connections is planning to go see a play in the city while Sports and Fitness wants to take a trip to a bigger university to watch a football game.
Some communities have up to 50 students in them. Gregory says that everyone in the housing office wishes to see the program grow this year and in years to come. They are still in the developmental process right now, but Gregory says everything has been going smoothly so far.
For more information on the communities visit www.csustan.edu/housing.