Not only do students provide informal direction, they also have a formal mechanism for addressing their own needs-especially with regard to their lives in Reynolds and Buchanan halls. We have the opportunity at Western to generalize much of the success of the Honors College to meet the needs of other students. Bob Caruso, Rick Collings, and I have had ongoing conversation about generalizing many of the lessons of the Honors College to other residential settings. In a house structure, students would be admitted both to the University and to a house. Learning communities would be assigned to the house, not to a freshman residence hall.
Many students find moving out of the freshman residence hall to be disruptive and difficult.
Under the house model, they would not be required to leave the hall at the end of a year. Students would remain in the residence hall so long as they lived on campus. At the same time, if they did not like the house, they could be moved to another. What seems to be most critical about the house structure is that it assists the student in developing a social network and sense of belonging that can help with retention. Designed properly, a house also can develop a culture that is academically based, as well as socially oriented.