Residence hall life at Miami University has undergone a transformation in 2009 with the addition of 11 living learning communities (LLCs).
Miami now has 31 LLCs, including Heritage Commons.
Vicka Bell-Robinson, director of LLCs at Miami, said the handful of new LLCs are geared toward both first-year students and upperclassmen. They cover a wide range of topics including: allied-health professions, education, entrepreneurship, governmental relations, international business, explore Miami, student-created, pre-law and service opportunities and reflection.
While the student-created LLC is not new, Bell-Robinson said it was revamped for the 2009-10 school year and is now a "legitimately student-created community" that helps first-years get involved on campus.
"I think LLCs are really important because they really seek to educate the whole person; it's not just about what they're learning in class," said Shannon Foley, a first-year adviser for the Explore Miami LLC in Morris Hall.
According to the Office of Residence Life Web site, "Studies have shown that students who live in living learning communities are more involved in programs on and off campus and perform better academically than students who do not live in living learning communities."
The Web site also mentioned increased student retention and making lifelong friends as other advantages to living in a living learning community.
Upperclass students had to undergo an application process during which they picked the topic for their LLC. This is similar to the Explore Miami LLC.
"The purpose (of this LLC) is to help students utilize the available university resources," Foley said.
Foley said the Explore Miami LCC is brand new and helps students to get involved in both curricular and co-curricular activities both on-campus and in the community.
With the addition of 11 new LLCs came the elimination of one, the Health Enhancement and Lifestyle Management (HELM) LLC.
"It wasn't meeting the needs of its design," Bell-Robinson said.
Bell-Robinson said last year the HELM LLC had about 900 students participating.
"It's really hard to engage students in really large communities," Bell-Robinson said.
First-year E.J. Corporan is living in the Change: Emerging Community Leaders LLC in Havighurst Hall.
"I think the LLCs allow for people with the same interests to be put in close quarters," Corporan said. "The odds of meeting someone that you get along with or have the same interests with greatly increase when you have people in the same LLC."
Bell-Robinson said offering a required or optional course is a new offering within some first-year LLCs.
For his optional class, Corporan is taking EDL 306: The Nature of Group Leadership.
"We have the class once a week and we discuss different kinds of leadership as well as doing group building activities to help us distinguish between different leadership techniques," Corporan said.
Although it's still early in the year, Corporan said he thinks the goals of the LLCs will be achieved.
"If everything they say we're going to do is accomplished, then I definitely think the LLC has done its job," Corporan said.
