From Cradle to Pedestal:
The Birth and Evolution of a Model Learning
Community Program
(and How to Avoid Organizational Pitfalls)
David T. Ouimette, Executive Director, FYP & LC, University of Connecticut
John F. Sears, Ph.D, Assistant Vice-President, Student Affairs, University of Rhode Island
ACUHO-I LLP Conference: October, 2013
UConn: Learning Communities:
Session Learning Outcomes
Participants will…
1. Learn the of evolution of UConn’s LC (learning
community) program.
2. Learn of the funding source development and
resources sought and gained in the development of
the LC program.
3. Learn of the successes and challenges (practical
dos and don’ts) in building a campus-wide LC
program.
UConn: Learning Communities:
Expectations
Our format…
• John and David: Telling a story
•You: Ask questions through-out…
•tell us what interests you
UConn: Learning Communities:
UConn
The University of Connecticut
First-Year Programs & Learning Communities
Residential Life
UConn Learning Community Program
 Students take a course or course cluster together
 Students in Living & Learning Communities live together in a Residence Hall
 Engage in activities: study groups, field trips, alternative breaks, and more!




Helps with successful adjustment to college life
Provides “small college feel” on large campus and a sense of place
Promotes meaningful and sustained interaction with faculty, staff and student leaders
Effective structure for promoting curricular coherence, deeper learning,
student success and engagement
Living & Learning Communities (LLC)
Learning Communities (LC)
Interest LLC*
Major/Program LLC
Major-themed FYE Course
 Community Service
 Connecting w/ the Arts
 EcoHouse
 Global House
 Humanities House
Innovation House
 Leadership
 Public Health House
 Business Connections
 Engineering House
 Eurotech
 Fine Arts
 Honors Program
 Music
 Nursing
 (Pre-)Pharmacy
 Women in Math, Science
& Engineering (WiMSE)
 Allied Health
 Animal Science
 Biological Sciences
 Chemistry
 Environmental Science
 Exploratory Majors
 Pathobiology
 Physiology & Neurobiology
 Pre-Communication Sciences
 Pre-Journalism
 Pre-Teaching
*open to all majors
Who are Involved?
42%
of the
incoming class
is participating
in a
Learning
Community!
 Students in all years can participate, but main focus is 1st-year students
 Each LC is led by a team made up of (it varies):
Faculty Director, Instructors, GAs, Residence Hall Director, RA, Student Leaders
 Major-based communities connect with Schools or Colleges
 Interest-based communities are open to all majors
 Faculty Directors – Interest Communities (10-month appointments):
Heather Read, WiMSE
Cathy Schlund-Vials, Humanities House
Jaci Van Heest, Public Health House
Hadi Bozorgamesh, Innovation House
 Faculty Directors – Major Communities:
Sandra Bushmich, Pathobiology
Tim Byrne, Environmental Science
Maureen Croteau, Pre-Journalism
Andrea Hubbard, Pre-Pharmacy
Marvin McNeill, Music
John McNulty, Nursing
Cliff Nelson, Business Connections
Morty Ortega, Environmental Science
Steve Zinn, Animal Science
Friedemann Weidauer, EuroTech
Mark Westa, EcoHouse
Hedley Freake, Global House
2011-12
Storrs Campus LLCs
Business Connections
Community Service
Connecting w/the Arts
EcoHouse
Engineering
EUROTECH
Fine Arts
Global House
Humanities
Leadership
Music
1st Year
Returning
RA
LC
Total
93
21
26
27
76
8
24
68
49
57
---
69
20
20
53
0
17
18
48
0
33
45
4
2
1
4
2
1
1
3
1
2
1
166
43
47
84
78
26
43
119
50
92
46
Nursing
30
56
2
88
(Pre-)Pharmacy
Public Health House
WiMSE
non-Honors LLC Total
Non-Residential LC #
1st yr non-honors Total
73
36
45
95
27
25
526
172
65
72
1191
259
1450
259
----
892
526
4
2
2
32
---32
Honors LLC
407
492
24
923
Including honors Total
1299
1018
56
2373
633
Residence Hall
Alumni, Belden
Alumni, Eddy
Shippee
Hollister
Northwest, Goodyear
McMahon
Shippee
McMahon
Shippee
Alumni, Eddy
South, Rosebrooks
Northwest, Batterson, South, Rosebrooks
Towers Morgan/Sousa
Alumni, Watson
Alumni, Watson
Buckley, CT Commons, South-Wilson, AlumniBrock
Learning Community Partnerships
How & Why?
Residential Life & Housing Assignments
Schools and Colleges (Advising Units)
Academic Support
Enrichment (Undergraduate Research)
Admissions
Registrar’s Office
Orientation
Provost’s Office
VPSA
Learning Community Curriculum
 UNIV 1810: FYE Learning Community Seminar
LC-themed course all 1st-year students enroll in
 INTD 1840: Experiential Learning
Community Service House, EcoHouse, Public Health House
students complete a service requirement
 Non-1st-year students in 4 communities also have course requirements
Community Service, EcoHouse, Leadership, Public Health House
 Optional courses such as WiMSE Research class introducing students
to various labs and research groups on campus
 Awarded Davis Educational Foundation Grant:
“Integrating Freshman Writing Courses into Learning Communities”
• LC-themed ENGL 1010/1011 courses
• Academic model that embeds writing into content-specific goals of LC
• 20 LC-themed sections offered 2011-12
• See Freshman English Program instructor page: freshmanenglish.uconn.edu
Developing Community
Learning
Community
Field Day
Learning Community Talent
Show
Husky Week of Welcome
Learning Community KickOff
Experiential Learning
Community Service House, EcoHouse, & Public Health House
students completed over 14,000 hours of community service and
service learning project activities in 2010-2011!
Community Service House
students spend Labor Day
weekend completing service
activities at Camp Horizons in
Windham, CT while bonding as
a community.
Alternative Break Trips
Green Game Days
Installing Green Roof on
campus
Husky Reads school program
Composting projects
EcoHouse Extension at
Spring Valley Student Farm
EcoHouse at Spring Valley
Student Farm
students supplied Dining Services,
including Chuck & Augie’s,
3,400 tons of organic produce in
2011!
Julia Cartabiano, Farm Manager and
Plant Science Graduate Student,
orchestrated Fedco bulk order from
Belchertown, MA with students
Julia and Students
attended NOFA
Winter Conference in
Manchester, CT
10 EcoHouse students live and work at SVSF
Study Abroad Opportunities
First-year Business Connections
students travelled to Paris with
Associate Dean Lin Klein and staff
from the School of Business to meet
UConn alumni and tour organizations.
Eurotech House students travelled
to Germany with Amanda Brieger
(GA) and Sebastian Wogenstein,
Associate Professor of German &
Director of Undergraduate Studies in
German, to practice their German
language skills and tour engineering
firms.
Undergraduate
Enrichment
 Global House Faculty Colloquium Series, Spring ‘12
• 13 faculty presented research to students in
their LC Lounge & joined students for a meal
 Annual WiMSE Banquet
• Keynote speakers have included
Rachel O’Neill; Linda Strausbaugh - MCB
Linda Barry; Liisa Kuhn - UC Health Center
Heather Read, Faculty Director of
WiMSE and Linda Strausbaugh from
the Health Center chat with Jessica
Fall
Rigoberto Lopez, Professor
and Department Head,
Agricultural & Resource
Economics, discussed “The
World Food Supply”
Jason Mancini, Native American &
Indigenous Studies presented
“Preserved on the Mighty Waters:
Ethnofraternities, Transnationalism &
Memory of New England’s Indian
Mariners”
Undergraduate
Enrichment
 Connecting with the Arts / Fine Arts
• Students meet UConn Fine Arts Alum
& Jorgensen Performers
o Broadway
Lead actor in Wicked and actors
in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
LC students meet UConn Alum, James Barry & Joe
Jung, & lead actors in the play Bloody Bloody
Andrew Jackson (Benjamin Walker & Bryce
Pinkham) in NYC
Folk singer, Arlo Guthrie, meets with
Connecting with the Arts students
class in the Jorgensen gallery
 LC Scholar Symposium
• 1st-year students selected to
present work from their
LC-themed ENGL class
English instructor, Christiana
Salah, introduces Russell
Bentley from Humanities
House who will read from his
paper, “Chaos in Arcadia.”
Elizabeth
Rawlinson from
Business
Connections
reads an excerpt
from her paper,
“Clutching for a
Monster.”
Learning Communities Online
Blog
www.uconnLC.blogspot.com
EcoHouse at Spring Valley
Student Farm Blog
http://springvalleyfarm.
blogspot.com
Website
www.LC.uconn.edu
UConn LC’s on
 Facebook
 LinkedIn
 Twitter
UConn: Learning Communities:
Modest Beginnings
 Four communities
Leadership
Nursing
ACES
Pre-Pharm
 Newly renovated facility, Northwest
 Coincided with FY housing
UConn: Learning Communities:
Modest Beginnings
 Grass roots
 Limited institutional awareness or buy-in
 Growth, contraction, growth…
 Successes along the way…
 Schools and colleges
Nursing
Pharmacy
UConn: Learning Communities:
Past and Present
 Structure
Interest and academic
 Goals
 Types
 Funding
$
Other resources
Overcoming Challenges and
Problems
 Residential Life Point of View
(Early, current, and future…)
Lack of buy-in by entire department
Supervisors of hall staff not vested
Organizational change effort was slow
LC’s not built into the evaluation and reward system
LC size in Residence Halls created challenges
Overcoming Challenges and
Problems
 Residential Life Point of View
(Early, current, and future…)
Culture differences between FYP and ResLife
ResLife deep pockets (perceptions)
“Good” halls v. “bad” halls - assignments
Occupancy management support of LC goals
Overcoming Challenges and
Problems
Academic Affairs Point of View:
 Not built into the Faculty Reward System
 Considered a “special program”
 Lack of understanding of what an LC is???
 Resentment by some Schools/Colleges
 Empire building
 Change(s) in Leadership (The President)
 Reluctance by some departments to collaborate
 LC needs not necessarily supported by the
academic system in place
Translating Lessons Learned
Academic Affairs Point of View
Obtain Chief Academic Officer buy-in
Develop LCs to support academic initiatives
Support key student development initiatives
Persistence (faculty start-up time)
Build in natural synergies across campus (i.e. Arts)
Find faculty friends (champions)
Faculty reward structure

Translating Lessons Learned
 Residential Life Point of View
 Be firm (structure) but flexible (creativity)
 Establish LCs in the reward structure
 Ensure your practices support the LC
 500 v. 40
 occupancy management
 hiring procedures
 Try to make funding support clear
 Establish language!
 ID your early champions and reward them publicly
 Obtain/collect data to support your practice
 Save records… (build your history)
Translating Lessons Learned
 Institutional Point of View
 Build cross-cultural incentives
 Support from leaders
 Market as an institution (not department)
 If possible, set clear goals so departments know
what to expect
 When/where appropriate, establish a multidisciplinary guiding body (i.e., advisory board)
 Clarify/establish language!
 ID your early champions and reward them publicly
 Try to reduce the steep learning curve for newbies
 Obtain/collect data to support your practice
Translating Lessons Learned
 Current
Best model for supporting…
Leveraging costs
How to say no
How to pull back – program review
(maintaining a high standard)
LCs v. special interests v. themed housing
Honors program v. leaning communities
Identity issues… house v. program
Translating Lessons Learned
Organizational Culture Change
Translating Lessons Learned
What types of organization
culture change related to
learning communities
are you facing on your own
campus?
Questions
&
Discussion
?
From Cradle to Pedestal:
The Birth and Evolution of a Model Learning
Community Program
(and How to Avoid Organizational Pitfalls)
David Ouimette, david.ouimette@uconn.edu
John Sears, jsears@uri.edu
ACUHO-I LLP Conference: October, 2013