Higher Education News from the Collegiate Way

Residential Colleges & the Renewal of Campus Life

These news items about residential colleges, house systems, and the renewal of university life are posted for readers of the Collegiate Way website. For more about residential colleges and collegiate universities please visit the main Collegiate Way page.

Collegiate Way News · Subset: Highlights

¶ This topical subset contains some of the more noteworthy news postings and original essays that have been posted on the Collegiate Way website. It’s a good subset to browse if you’re curious to learn more about the ideas behind residential colleges and school house systems, and how these configurations can support liberal education. (Return to the complete news index.)

• 自由 (4 June 2009)

  The arc of the moral universe is long, but we can bend it toward justice.

• From Charter Schools to Charter Colleges? (7 April 2009)

  Can the residential college movement learn anything from the charter school movement?

• Visiting Vassar’s House System (2 April 2009)

  A leading liberal arts college considers how to strengthen its existing residential programs.

• The Fierce Varieties of Men (20 March 2009)

  ‘The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world.’

• “You may blame Aphrodite” (9 February 2009)

  You’re always teaching. Even on Valentine’s Day.

• An Early Sighting of “the Collegiate Way of Living” (2 February 2009)

  ‘I cannot but say, I reckon the collegiate way of living in our English Universities, where lads have their particular tutors, as well as each house has a separate master, empowered to keep in order his own society, much to be preferred to the living so at large.’

• Academic Advising in House Systems and Residential College Systems (19 January 2009)

  Decentralized student advising is a characteristic feature of collegiate universities.

• The Residential College Movement in Review (31 December 2008)

  In 2008 the collegiate way of living made encouraging advances around the world.

• Support the Collegiate Way (10 December 2008)

  ‘Not for ambition or bread, but for the common wages of their most secret heart.’

• House Systems as Mutual Aid Societies (10 October 2008)

  What can house systems offer to students in community colleges?

• The Lost Colleges of the University of Coimbra (18 August 2008)

  Miguel Pires Prôa on the residential colleges of Coimbra, translated by Frank Cranmer.

• ‘A Renaissance in Collegiate Education?’ (12 July 2008)

  Donald Markwell on the importance of the collegiate way of living in Australia.

• Ryan’s Collegiate Way of Living Now Available Online (19 June 2008)

  The best volume of essays on residential college life is now available online.

• Bowles Hall and the Collegiate Way of Living (10 May 2008)

  ‘One of the problems of such an institution as the University of California is so to subdivide its student body that the advantages of the small group may be retained without sacrificing the even greater advantages of membership in a large university.’

• The Global War on Taylorism (29 April 2008)

  Education is not an industrial process.

• The Regimental College (22 March 2008)

  ‘Win your world.’

• Every College a Farm, Every College a Manufactory (14 March 2008)

  A residential college is just the kind of place to counter ‘the extinction of experience.’

• The Time is Out of Joint (29 February 2008)

  Occasional learning on the 50th birthday of a 200-year-old geologist.

• A Middle East Ivy League? (11 February 2008)

  If American higher education is to be exported, let’s export the best it has to offer.

• The Collegiate Way Comes to Birmingham (20 January 2008)

  The University of Alabama at Birmingham could be a model for other public campuses.

• “To gather from the air a live tradition” (21 December 2007)

  ‘A British college’s annual holiday tradition contains lessons for us all, writes Robert O’Hara’ at Inside Higher Ed.

• M/S Explorer, 1969–2007 (23 November 2007)

  ‘And the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.’

• “Against Theme Halls” in Student Affairs Leader (15 November 2007)

  Themed housing is easy to sell, but in education what’s easy isn’t always best.

• Small Pirate and Lesse Greeke (16 September 2007)

  If your college has no playful traditions, why would anyone want to belong to it?

• Whitman College Opens at Princeton University (13 September 2007)

  First announced in 2002, Princeton’s new college welcomes its first members.

• Thawing Cold Fear in the New Year (1 September 2007)

  ‘A largess universal, like the sun / His liberal eye doth give to every one.’

• “Golden lads and girls all must” (31 August 2007)

  On ceremony, state funerals, history, and education.

• The New York Times on Residential Colleges (29 July 2007)

  In the Education Life section, Bruce Weber reports on ‘The Residential Collage.’

• New Colleges at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2 June 2007)

  C.W. Chu College and Wu Yee Sun College will be home to 900 students in all.

• The Burden of Bad Campus Architecture (1 June 2007)

  Residential colleges don’t require new buildings, but bad old ones can get in the way.

• “The beautiful and death-struck year” (17 May 2007)

  Is your campus a warm and friendly Shropshire, or a cold London?

• Every College Needs an Auspex (23 April 2007)

  Of birds and titles and liberal education. It doesn’t get any better than this.

• The Question Mark Kid (20 April 2007)

  On crime, history, education, and understanding in university life.

• Ole Miss and the Collegiate Zeitgeist (7 April 2007)

  Residence life on American campuses has ‘come full circle.’

• “What drives us closer to our Vision gets prioritized” (20 March 2007)

  Marketing slogans and vacuous vision statements come and go, but mottos endure.

• 50th Anniversary of the Rice Residential Colleges (14 March 2007)

  Celebrating half a century of collegiate life on the Houston campus.

• The Associated Press Reports on the Collegiate Way (5 March 2007)

  Residential colleges and faculty in residence draw national media attention again.

• An Open Book Revolution for Higher Education (25 February 2007)

  Oregon State University’s public accounting system should be a model for the world.

• “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine” (8 February 2007)

  ‘Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!’

• Collegiate Contests and Intellectual Inquisitions (24 December 2006)

  Teach everywhere, everyday, and they will learn everywhere, everyday.

• Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge (7 December 2006)

  This annual Christmas service embodies many important residential college principles.

• Hogwarts U: The Collegiate Way at Inside Higher Ed (28 November 2006)

  ‘The future of higher education may lie in the English-speaking world’s oldest model of university organization, writes Robert O’Hara.’

• Uncovering Genuine Diversity (20 November 2006)

  A bookshelf is the clearest window into a person’s soul.

• Avoiding Self-Parody (15 October 2006)

  They’ll always make fun, but that doesn’t mean we have to provide them with material.

• Coach Odysseus (9 October 2006)

  An ‘image of excellence’ for college sports? Excellence in corruption and violence, says Robert O’Hara in The New Yorker.

• Murray State’s Residential Colleges at Ten (5 October 2006)

  A collegiate system in Kentucky celebrates an anniversary.

• Small Pirate and Lesse Greeke, Arrr (18 September 2006)

  Fill your college with joy, love, laughter, and pirates (of doom).

• Tea: The Foundation of Residential College Life (28 August 2006)

  Begin with tea, and everything else in residential college life will follow.

• Half of Top 25 Universities Have Residential Colleges (20 August 2006)

  And none of the bottom 50 universities in the US News rankings do.

• Stanley Kunitz, 1905–2006 (15 May 2006)

  On residential college newsletters, and teaching with-out the curriculum.

• Psychological Resilience and Adult Support (3 May 2006)

  Strong adult support can cancel out the effects of ‘bad’ genes.

• House Systems for Community Colleges (18 April 2006)

  Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia has a collegiate house system.

• Mississippi Announces Residential College Plans (17 April 2006)

  The first colleges will be created in the next two years, says The Daily Mississippian.

• Secrets, Buried Treasure, and Collegiate Identity (22 March 2006)

  ‘There is a need in people to live with a secret place in their homes.’

• A Residential College for the University of Vermont (25 February 2006)

  The honors program at Burlington establishes a pattern for others to follow.

• “All I ask is a tall ship” (28 January 2006)

  On the Challenger, collegiate memory, and liberal education.

• Festival of Lessons and Carols from King’s College (21 December 2005)

  This annual service exemplifies many important residential college principles.

• Residential College Plans Advance at Ole Miss (10 November 2005)

  The University of Mississippi may be the next American Oxford.

• Cornell University Starts Along the Collegiate Way (24 August 2005)

  An important turnaround is underway on the Ithaca campus.

• Four-year Colleges for Princeton University (26 May 2005)

  Princeton’s two-year college system is expanding to include all four classes.

• Craving Community: Learning From Harry Potter (2 April 2005)

  The boy wizard has a lot to teach us about the value of collegiate life.

• Ribbons, Signature Pages, and Institutional Memory (15 March 2005)

  Simple ways to sustain loyalty and a sense of belonging in a residential college.

• Teaching With-out the Curriculum (20 February 2005)

  The residential part of residential college life provides special educational opportunities.

• A Week in the Life of a Residential College Master (14 January 2005)

  From pastoral care to plumbing, a college master looks after it all.

• Social Capital, Memory, and Collegiate Inheritance (9 January 2005)

  On life, death, and entering into the inheritance of a place.

• The Collegiate System at the University of Durham (20 December 2004)

  Durham’s colleges are an international model worthy of emulation.

• Why the Residential Part of a College Matters (20 September 2004)

  Because ‘teachable moments’ can’t always be scheduled in advance.

• A Death in the College (18 September 2004)

  Grief is the price we pay for love.

• Collegiate Ideals in the London Times Higher (20 August 2004)

  Bob O’Hara on the collegiate way in the London Times Higher Education Supplement.

• Harvard Residential College Proposals from Years Past (20 June 2004)

  Frank Bolles and Abbott Lawrence Lowell on the origin of the House System.

• A Collection of Published Residential College Histories (16 May 2004)

  A library of local histories with an international collegiate appeal.

• Residential Colleges for Oxford (Mississippi) (10 April 2004)

  The University of Mississippi considers the creation of a residential college system.

• Tip-of-the-Month: Poems or Quotations-of-the-Week (6 November 2003)

  It’s a simple way to add richness and grace to any residential college community.

• Looking Beneath the Smiles, and Thawing Cold Fear (12 August 2003)

  ‘A largess universal, like the sun / His liberal eye doth give to every one.’

• Residential Colleges Offer the Best of Both Worlds (4 May 2003)

  Good advice from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

• The Washington Post Features Residential Colleges (25 February 2003)

  Eliot Applestein tells us about ‘a neighborhood in a dorm.’

• Social Cohesion Helps Prevent Psychological Injury (10 January 2003)

  The work of military psychiatrists has much to offer university educators.

• The Middlebury Campus Profiles the Collegiate Way (4 December 2002)

  The Middlebury College student newspaper reports on the residential college movement.

• The Chicago Tribune Reports on Residential Colleges (10 November 2002)

  Patrick Kampert asks, ‘Is there a doctor of philosophy in the house?’

• The Boston Globe Reports on Residential Colleges (30 September 2002)

  Jenna Russell interviews residential faculty at Wheaton College and Assumption College.

• Bremen’s Blue Print: ›Colleges – ein neues altes Konzept‹ (21 August 2002)

  The collegiate way of living: an old idea for a new German university.

• Collegiate Tip-of-the-Month: Closing the Academic Year (18 May 2002)

  Welcoming committees, summer plans, commencement, and more.

• Collegiate Tip-of-the-Month: Host an Art Show! (18 March 2002)

  Your college is bursting with talent—here’s how to put it on display.

• Residence Life at UT–Austin Has Little to Offer (12 November 2001)

  When students tell you ‘high school was better’ then something is terribly wrong.

• Ryan’s A Collegiate Way of Living Now Available (4 September 2001)

  Mark Ryan’s collection of essays is the best book in print on residential college life.