Theme housing offers student communities
Utah State University on-campus housing offers a “buffet” of options to students who want to live in theme-housing.
“Theme housing is an umbrella term that describes all residence halls and floors that are dedicated to a particular theme,” said Shannon Jolley, USU theme housing coordinator. Jolley hires, trains and supervises a staff of 20 peer mentors who oversee each theme floor.
The university on-campus housing offers three types of themes: Academic Lifestyles, Community Lifestyles and Freshman Interest Groups or FIGs.
“USU supports theme housing because we want to encourage education outside of the classroom,” Jolley said.
Jolley said theme housing allows students to live with others who share similar interests. Students meet informally with faculty and staff, and plan exciting social programs and field trips.
Academic Lifestyles is located on South Campus’ Moen and Greaves Halls. Themes in that category include: American Sign Language, World of Business, Vector Floor (engineering students), Computer Science, Pre-Health Professionals Floor (pre-med students) and The Aldo Leopold Floor (natural resource students).
In San Juan and Summit Halls in the Student Living Center reside students who are involved the Community Lifestyles, Leadership House and Global Village themes.
Theme-housing has increased. The American Sign Language and Vector Floors have had waiting lists for the past two years, Jolley said, and high school juniors are already requesting to be in a FIG. The “Outdoor Adventures” FIG has become so popular, there are now two floors.
FIG theme-housing has allowed students to make a transition to university life with the benefits of a small college atmosphere, Jolley said. Peer mentors are assigned a group of 16 to 18 students who meet regularly for meals, group activities and academic assistance.
Living with theme-housing has helped Sara Ellen Nielsen, who is in the “Elementary Education” FIG, stay on-track in school.
“It makes being a freshman easier,” Nielsen said. “We have advisors that come and help us pick our classes, and we meet other students going through similar situations on a regular basis.”
Most of the students in the groups are situated on the same floors in Mountain View and Valley View Towers. The theme-oriented groups establish common goals relating to the student’s academic studies or hobby interests.
Jenny Taylor, a freshman living on the fourth floor of Valley View Tower, is a part of the “Outdoor Adventure” FIG. She says being in a FIG group is “awesome.”
“We go on many adventures such as snowboarding, snow shoeing and backpacking. We even built a snow cave,” said the freshman majoring in psychology.
Jennie Schmidt, who is also in the “Outdoor Adventure” group, said theme-housing provided her the opportunity to try things she never would have done safely on her own, like spelunking. Schmidt said she was roped down in between tight crevices while exploring caves in Logan Canyon.
“I would recommend theme-housing to anyone, our peer mentors rock.” said the freshman majoring in social work.
Laura Brinton, a freshman majoring in physical therapy, said the FIG program allowed her to earned one credit hour fall semester. But this semester, she participates just for fun.
“We have dinners and hang out with our groups all the time, I’ve made good friends in the process of doing things I never thought I’d do,” she said.
Other themes within FIG include: Appreciating the Arts, Honors, Healthy Living and Science and Society.
Jolley said the “Global Village” theme brings together American and international students through the study abroad office.
“Global Village is a great way to get a study abroad experience right here at home,” Jolley said. Next year the second floor will be known as “Casa Hispana,” and will be dedicated to those with experience in the Spanish language and cultures, she said.
The residents get together regularly to celebrate various holidays, try new food and learn about other cultures. Global Village recently started a monthly foreign film festival. A recent activity was watching a French movie while eating crepes. Next month the theme floor will focus on Polynesia.
Theme housing started with Global Village about five years ago, Jolley said, business, natural resources and engineering shortly followed. When theme-housing first began, it was run by resident assistants and had no central administration.
Jolley was hired as the theme coordinator three years ago and created the new peer mentor student position. Peer mentors and resident assistants both live in theme-housing. The peer mentor’s primary responsibilities are academic support and thematic programming, she said.
“Theme-housing has most evolved in the sense that it is a student-driven program, where before it was very department-driven,” she said. “I have students who return year after year and I have students asking me to start new floors.”
Jolley said she thinks theme-housing is a great way to meet people who share interests, learn about internship and career opportunities, meet with faculty and staff and participate in fun and meaningful activities.
Some students may fear that living in theme-housing means a lack of diversity, however, Jolley said she thinks students who sharing the same major or interest in becoming leaders does not mean they are homogeneous.
For example, many assume that an engineering floor will be “nothing but guys with calculators and rulers run amok,” said Jolley. But the engineering floor is home to variety of people. Men, women, conservatives, liberals, in-state students, out-of-state students are just some examples.
There are no final decisions on theme-housing in the new Living/Learning Center. However, housing is contemplating putting Global Village and Leadership House in the residence hall.
The main difference between FIGs and Lifestyles housing is that FIGs live under a more formal programming schedule. Attendance in FIG activities are mandatory. Housing requires participating in a minimum of three programs each semester in the Lifestyles but there is no credit attached to this.
Jolley said there are countless activities students in theme-housing have participated in such as caving, hiking, skiing, and camping for Outdoor Adventures and Natural Resources. Natural Resource students have also gone to porcupine reservoir to see salmon spawning. Film festivals, international potlucks dinners and service projects are put on within Global Village. Business themes have participated in Wall Street competitions and resume workshops. Computer science and engineering themes usually have LAN parties and programming competitions.
“I recommend theme housing only to those students who want to get more out of their college experience. Theme Housing requires commitment and enthusiasm,” Jolley said. “Theme-housing does not fit everyone but we like to offer a buffet of options.”
-doantn@cc.usu.edu