ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½

During the 2019–20 academic year, the Board of Trustees began to formally consider the physical and social needs of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ juniors and seniors as part of a review of their residential life experience. The aim was to see how best to provide appropriate residential and social space for all ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ students. In conjunction with this effort, ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ engaged the planning firms RAMSA and WXY — the firms engaged to develop plans for the University’s Middle Campus — as well as the Sasaki Group to consider the current conditions of the housing and social spaces available to ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ juniors and seniors. While these planning efforts necessarily slowed down in the spring as a result of COVID-19, these firms will be charged to continue this work in collaboration with the administration during this academic year. First, they will be asked to consider the numerous studies conducted in past years on residential life at the University, and they will also be charged to consider housing and social options available at peer and national institutions. This review work should be completed within the fall semester, allowing for the development of a long-range plan of the upper-level residential and social experience and the provision of new residential and social opportunities for all ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ students. As previously stated, this planning will be done as part of a comprehensive effort consistent with the goals and objectives of The Third-Century Plan and the DEI Plan. This initiative will help to address inequities in the student social and residential experiences.

We will support plans for new programming and improvements to ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½â€™s long-standing Harlem Renaissance Center, located in the Bryan Complex on the upper part of the campus. Further, faculty and the Residential Commons directors will work to develop a dedicated Sophomore Residential Seminar associated with Hancock Commons and the Harlem Renaissance Center. This initiative provides a robust living learning community for students interested in race, ethnicity, and the African diaspora.

With the commencement of the new academic year, we will engage ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ faculty and students, as well as national scholars, in a comprehensive review of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½â€™s history, with particular emphasis on the histories of non-majority groups at the University. This project will build in important ways on the bicentennial explorations of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½â€™s mission and history by acknowledging the history and contributions of people of color to the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ campus and community.