The Scripps College of Communication Residential Learning is moving back to Washington Hall and the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps Residential Learning is moving to Carr Hall.
After a few years apart, the Scripps College of Communication Residential Learning Community returns to Washington Hall this fall.
Housed in James Hall since 2011, the Residential Learning Community will be returning to the East Green residence hall next semester where it was from 2004 to 2010, according to Wendy Merb-Brown, director of the Learning Community Programs.
“The reason we moved them to James is because Washington Hall at the time was only first year students and James Hall would allow an opportunity for first year students and upperclass students to live together so it allowed for students who wanted to stay in a communication environment to be able to stay with other people in their colleges, whereas Washington didn’t have that,” Merb-Brown said.
Merb-Brown noted that she saw a bigger interest for the residential learning community when it was in Washington Hall.
When the Communication Residential Learning Community was in Washington Hall, there were typically about 175 communication students in the Residential Learning Community, Executive Director of Housing and Residence Life Pete Trentacoste said, adding that they allowed students to request roommates who weren’t in the Learning Community.
In Fall 2015, 280 students took part in the academic portion of the Communications Learning Community and 78 students chose the residential component in James Hall, Trentacoste said.
“It’s now going to be a first year focus,” Merb-Brown said. “That upper class first year focus thing, as much as we would have thought it would be a great idea, we didn't really see that much difference in student interest.”
Members of Housing and Residence Life meet with the Director of Learning Community programs in addition to the Associate Dean of Scripps College of Communication and discovered it would be better to move the learning community back to Washington Hall, Trentacoste said.
Kylie Hulver, a freshman studying visual communication, was a member of a Learning Community during her first semester and currently lives in James Hall.
“I don’t know if it will really change much,” Hulver said. “I think James and West Green in general have a tight-knit community because we are pretty small, so I could see it moving to East Green and being a little bit less of a community atmosphere.”
James Hall will continue to house a mix of student athletes and non-athletes, Trentacoste said, adding that currently athletes are spread across several residence halls.
“While we won’t be moving all athletes into James, it will have the highest percentage of student athletes compared to other buildings starting next year,” Trentacoste said in an email.
While no residence hall house solely student athletes, Trentacoste said he anticipates approximately half of available spaces in James Hall will be occupied to student-athletes.
In total, three learning communities are housed in residence halls: Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps, the College of Fine Arts and the College of Communication. The Army ROTC and Fine Arts have a required living experience component to their Learning Community, but Communication no longer requires students to take part in the residential aspect of the learning community program, Trentacoste said.
The Army ROTC Learning Community will also see a change in location for next year. Currently, those students reside in Gamertsfelder Hall, but they are going to be in Carr Hall starting next academic year, Merb-Brown said.
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The College of Fine Arts learning community is in Lincoln Hall and will remain there, Merb-Brown said.
“When Lincoln Hall was renovated, we were able to do some things to the building to make it fine arts friendly,” Merb-Brown said.
Lincoln Hall is equipped with an art and dance studio, according to the university’s website.
Learning communities started at OU in 2000, Merb-Brown said.
“Students had a higher retention rate, a higher GPA after freshman year, they were more connected to campus in social and academic ways,” Merb-Brown said.
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