Living and Learning or Living and Losing?

Written By: Katya Schwab ‘17

Published in March 2014 

A sign made by Webb 2nd residences invites new comers to the floor, one of the LLC dorms.
Photo courtesy of Katya Schwab '17

I stood surrounded by boxes, suitcases, and half-unpacked space-bags, surveying the supposedly fresh coat of cracking paint and chitchatting with other students who were dragging their belongings up the stairs. 

I repeated the phrases: “Hi, I’m Katya…I’m from Denver…and I’m a first-year” enough times to make my head spin.

I quickly realized that the majority of students on my hall, Webb 2^nd, were first-years like myself.  Initially, I assumed it was typical for all the first-years to live together.  Later that week, I heard that we were part of an experiment known as the Living Learning Community (LLC).

Every first-year was required to take a First-Year Seminar (FYS) class during the Fall 2013. LLC combined three different FYS classes with the SUPER program, and housed the students from these classes in Webb Hall. Each first-year was then assigned a roommate from his or her FYS class.

These FYS classes included:

1.     The “SUPER” program for students studying advanced math and science degrees.

2.     “Beauty and the Beasts” that examined the evolution of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale through history.

3.     “Creative Problem Solving” that encouraged students to use reason and creativity to invent original solutions to a variety of problems.

4.     “Holocausts” which studied the holocaust of World War II.  

Resident Assistant (RA) of Webb 2^nd, Anna Culpepper ’15, explained her understanding of the goals of LLC.

 “The idea was for first-years to live together and have class together; the year before, first-year class unity was poor,” said Culpepper, “ I think this was an attempt to solve that by putting together people taking common classes.  It assumed that sharing a class would mean they had common interests.”

However, out of the 35 residents originally living on Webb 2^nd, only 29 of the initial students remain in Spring semester 2014, myself included. 

“All of the first-years are tired of each other,” Culpepper said.  “There aren’t as many visitors because first-years don’t seem to meet as many people around campus.  It is easier to meet people in a co-ed and multi-aged environment” said Culpepper.

Recently, Alyssa Umberger ’17 a first year in the LLC with the Holocaust class, Professor Rohrer teacher of the Beauty and the Beasts FYS class, and myself discussed LLC.

“I heard reports that everyone in the Holocaust FYS class really bonded because of living together,” Professor Rohrer commented.

Umberger adamantly shook her head and retorted, “I’m sick of everyone from my FYS class.  We just can’t get away from each other.”

At the end of the Fall 2013 semester, Professor Rohrer asked my FYS class to share our thoughts about the LLC.  Most students agreed that it was convenient to walk down the hall and pick up an assignment that had been forgotten.  Others commented that it was nice to have a roommate with similar interests. 

At the time, I was in the process of changing roommates.  Neither my former roommate nor myself mentioned our frustrations.  But how many people would slight his or her roommate sitting two desks away?

I was one of four roommate changes to take place on Webb 2^nd in the 2013-2014 school year.  “The LLC severely limited roommate selection; rather than selecting roommates based on common interests from the entire class of 2017, the choice of roommate was limited to a single FYS class,” said Culpepper.

First-years are not the only residents living on Webb 2^nd.  Aside from Culpepper, two seniors and one junior live in the three singles on the hall.  Sarah Kass ’14, a senior living on Webb second, said, “I remember being intimidated by upperclassmen as a first-year so it’s nice that the first-years can live together with a few upperclassmen to act as role models.”

Kass continued on to say, “The upperclassmen enforce the traditions and honor code at Randolph.  I feel like a big sister on the Hall, and I like that the first-years come to ask me for advice.”

Culpepper also commented, “Having the upperclassmen here has positively effected the hall’s dynamic; upperclassmen have a lot to offer first-years. It gives first-years someone they can go to who they trust, other than just myself as the RA.  The upperclassmen on our hall can share their wisdom and maturity that the first-years wouldn’t find just living with each other.”

There is concern that the LLC alienates first-years from the rest of the student body. “It would be an awesome program at a larger school where first-years could easily feel lost in the student body, but it’s just too limiting at Randolph,” said Culpepper.

The administration has not commented on the future of the Living Learning Community in the upcoming school year. Dean of Students Matha Thornton has confirmed that a meeting is being scheduled to discuss LLC later this year.