II. Project Overview and Goals
This project has two major interconnected goals: providing more on-campus housing for first-year students and engaging the student residents in the intellectual life of the university as early as possible in their first year. Meeting these goals is expected to occur in a project providing about 400 to 425 additional beds in a context that supports living learning programs for first-year students.
The need for additional housing is well established. The UO enrollment has grown significantly in recent years with no commensurate growth in residence hall capacity. Also, most of the existing stock dates from the 1950s and 1960s, but pressing capacity issues prevent taking units off-line for renovation or replacement. With the additional capacity of this and other current projects, the UO can proceed with an overall program of residence hall improvement and upgrade.
The case for integration of living and learning may be less pressing but is in no way less compelling. Not only does research indicate better academic and social results for freshmen involved in living/learning programs (better retention, higher grades, etc.), but the UO suspects that there are larger-scale benefits to be found. Engaging the first-year student from the beginning in the intellectual life of the university, in fact infusing the residence hall with academic components of the institution, has the potential to transform the entire university by creating a student culture of learning and scholarship. This is expected to occur through more frequent and less formal faculty-student interaction, more programmed events with academic connections and themes, and in many other settings and formats.
This integration of living and learning depends most on engaging the faculty in dialogue with the students. Attracting students to such a facility is not challenging, but attracting the time and attention of faculty is where many living learning projects achieve only partial success. The UO intends to use many techniques to attract the faculty, but the visibility and presence of the facility and the beauty of the design are seen as cornerstones of that effort.
Finally, University Housing plans to create housing that attracts students to the UO rather than just housing them. This entails more living space within the room unit and much more attention to both the social and the practical amenities which either support or hinder success in the daily life of the student. Flexibility in room furnishings and arrangements, support for social groupings, and many practical details are important parts of this design effort. Change is also occurring in University HousingÕs food service program, but it is not yet known whether this project will include a full food service venue.
These programmatic goals must be achieved within the context of a self-supporting housing operation that is, in effect, a business within the larger university. This will undoubtably lead to compromises, and success depends on close attention to issues of durability, maintainability, and cost-effectiveness over the long term. In the last analysis, these concerns will prevail over all others, so it is essential that they are considered from the outset.