Treanor Student Life

While 80% of American college students make it through freshman year, only 55% on average complete a degree after six years. As college students spend nearly three-quarters of their day in their living environments, designing an environment that sets students up for success now extends far beyond the classroom – to the residence.

“Every piece of national data there is shows that the residential environment is a critical factor in academic success and achievement,” says Julie Weber, Director of Housing and Residential Life at New Mexico State University. Students who live on campus are more likely to graduate within four years, engage with their peers, use academic resources, visit the library, study with others and interact with faculty outside the classroom – all of which have been linked to academic success, she says.

By applying design and academic research, campuses can build residential environments that contribute to that success. Here’s how:

 

Social spaces
Social skills are as important as study skills in fostering learning and campus engagement. In a 2007 study, researchers noted that residents of suite-style residences perceived 23% fewer opportunities for social interaction than those in a traditional residence hall. Participants attributed the difference to the hotel-style building layout.

“How you set up the architecture determines how it’s used,” says J. Greg Merritt, Ph.D., Senior Associate Director of University Housing at the University of Michigan. “If you set it up like a hotel, which has been the trend, then students treat it like a hotel. It becomes a customer service experience, not necessarily a community.”

Features such as multiple entrances and long corridors can reduce socialization, whereas a welcoming main entrance, visible common spaces and shorter corridors promote interaction. Even when working with existing buildings, success-inducing design changes are possible. At New Mexico State University, 884-student Garcia Hall – currently organized around four separate patios – is being transformed into four academic interest communities, each with faculty offices, classroom spaces and interest-specific features.

Other design features that promote students’ social development include:

• Small individual living spaces
• Low to mid-rise buildings (five or fewer floors) with fewer than 500 residents
• Visible social/study spaces that provide a sense of neighborhood
• Hybrid spaces, such as suites with 10-12 rooms opening onto common living, dining and kitchen facilities
• Flexible rooms for study, meetings and informal learning

Research shows that younger students require opportunities to meet people and explore their social identity. As students develop, their needs for privacy, control and independent living increase. A successful residential program is designed to accommodate these natural stages of growth.

 

Integrating academics

“If your institution believes in integrated learning, then you need to think about where students are 24/7,” says Merritt. “There are cues you create in a residence that say ‘this is about education, not just a place to live.’”

When the University of Northern Colorado built its most recent residence hall, for example, it included designated music rooms with soundproof walls. “We have a strong performing arts program here and our students need those spaces,” says Tobias Guzmán, Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management & Student Access. “People say that students don’t practice in their residence. Yes, they do.”

In addition, they designed classrooms and community rooms/flexible learning spaces where students and academic leadership can meet. “We involved faculty at the design stage,” says Guzmán. “We asked them what they wanted to see from a faculty perspective. We built that academic partnership.”

Academic supports also include learning laboratories for access to advanced technology and tools, such as software, printing facilities and smart boards, as well as faculty offices and residences that encourage out-of-classroom interactions.

At Michigan, a new open office-style learning community is designed for serendipitous knowledge capture, Google-style. “It has been that the goal of a graduate student is to get the corner office,” says Merritt. “Today’s students are graduating into a different workplace.”

“When these things are value engineered out of the residence, it’s no longer about creating a sustainable 25-year building where students can be successful,” says Guzmán. “You need to understand who your students are and what they study. You need to know who lives with you and who doesn’t. You have to ask yourself, ‘What is the outcome you want for your students?’ and be intentional about that.”

 

Designing for real needs

Lifestyle needs are also important. Daylighting and views of nature have been shown repeatedly to increase physical and emotional well-being. And the ability to personalize rooms through furniture placement and decor encourages psychological integration, enhances personal security and deepens connection to the space.

“Our rooms have a desk, a bookshelf and an extended workspace,” says Weber. “An engineering student might pull them together for a large workspace. Another student might separate them out.”

In-residence wireless access — and the energy-efficient electrical systems to drive increasing technology needs — are fast becoming a must-have as more professors give assignments electronically. And with increasing demands on their time, students value convenience – laundry down the hall, comfortable furniture, nearby green spaces, a place to park their bicycle.

Designing, staffing and programming residences that align with students’ social, academic and physical needs turns a campus residence from a place to sleep into an environment that actively helps students learn and grow. It’s a value proposition with which off-campus options cannot compete.

Sources: Chickering and Reisser 1993; Terenzini, Pascarela and Blimling 1996; Stimpson 1994; Hagerty, Williams and Oe, 2002; Kaya and Weber, 2003; Brandon, Hirt and Cameron 2008.

See next blog entry for Treanor's white paper on academic success.