Dorm floors become ‘villages’

As new students in a new location, many freshmen wonder how they will meet peers who share their interests, outlooks and hobbies.

To make the search easier for them, this semester the Department of Residential Life and Housing and the University College have implemented the VCU Residential Village Program in Rhoads and Johnson halls. Categorized by academic or personal interests, the 10 villages will feature academic and social activities throughout the year that will connect the approximately 400 participants to VCU, said Tim Coffey, coordinator of Residence Education for Rhoads and Brandt halls.

The RV program’s initiatives include study groups, field trips, student-faculty dinners and the RV Speaker and Success series, the latter of which are open to all VCU students. The speaker series will involve visitors who speak on issues related to each village, and the success series will consist of programs that cover a diversity of topics, ranging from academic advising to sexual health awareness.

“A lot of what students learn is outside of the classroom,” Coffey said. Residential Life and Housing wants to bring the classroom into the dormitories, he said.

The Villages

Johnson Hall
The Artists’ Colony
Studio or Performing Arts

Rhoads Hall
Biosphere
Biology or Forensic
Science

Caverns of the Mind
Psychology

Community Action
Community Service

Discovery Zone
Exploring several majors

Inquiring Minds
Any major

Media Central
Mass Communications

Rams’ Club
Health, Sports and Fitness

Successful Surroundings
College Success Program

Teachers’ Lounge
Early & Elementary
Education

In addition to establishing a sense of community among students, the RV program aims to improve VCU’s retention rate, said senior international studies major Veronica Tessler, one of the program’s two Residential Village Assistants. The logic is that the program will help students develop support systems that persist and aid them throughout their college careers, she added.

To track the new program’s level of success, Residential Life and Housing will look to see if early alert notices of “D” and “F” grades decrease and will use survey instruments to compare students in villages and those who are not, Coffey said.

Tessler said much about the villages remains to be seen.

“It’s definitely going to be challenging because it’s the first year,” she said. “The way I run the programming will set some sort of standard for what’s to follow.”

Liz Burns, a freshman in the Inquiring Minds village in Rhoads Hall, said her village, which is open to any major, will offer her the opportunity to meet different kinds of people. She said she looks forward to sharing a class with the other students in her village, a feature that all of the villages share.

“It’s nice to know everyone on my floor will be taking the same English class as me,” said Burns, an undeclared major who is interested in political science.

Therein lies the result the RV Program and the rest of the university seek, Coffey said: “to make a university of 30,000 feel smaller.”