CAMPUS AMENITIES / CAMPUS LIFE
Residential and campus life is perhaps the most important, though least tangible, aspect of a student’s college experience. A strong, successful approach to residential life can mean the difference between an isolating college experience and one that allows students to form meaningful relationships across disciplines and to feel like part of a larger community.
Biddison Hier, Ltd. has worked with colleges and universities to create supportive residential environments that facilitate student interaction, encourage impromptu conversations, expose students to a school’s diversity of thought while allowing them to focus on their specific area of study, and make them feel as if they are part of a broader campus community. The firm addresses all aspects of the residential experience, including:
- The uniqueness of the first year as a crucial transition period
- The availability and nature of on-campus housing
- Alignment of housing and residential program spaces along the developmental continuum from freshman to senior year and beyond
- The importance of diversity in residential life
- Dining and campus community / congregation spaces
- The role of faculty as informal mentors within residential colleges.
After gathering information from surveys, interviews, focus groups, site visits, and reviews of peer institutions, Biddison Hier, Ltd. works with an institution to develop a residential and campus life master plan that is consistent with its cultural norms and goals for community-building. In addition to articulating concrete goals and guiding principles, the plan addresses the organizational structure of the program, the state of the campus’s physical spaces, and recommendations for technology infrastructure. Our work has yielded specific, implementable solutions such as:
- Developing a strong community during the first year that eases students’ transition to college life and allows them to naturally form lasting bonds
- Establishing a single, unified system of campus residential communities
- Retaining links with off-campus communities
- Recommendations for creating specific community spaces throughout the campus to encourage the casual exchange of ideas across disciplines
