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: House Systems

¶ This topical subset contains news and views on the creation of house systems in primary, middle, and secondary schools—the school-level counterparts of collegiate systems in universities. It also includes reports on those college and university configurations that happen to be called “house systems” rather than “residential college systems.” (Return to the complete news index.)

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

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

• House Systems for South African Schools (28 March 2009)

  ‘Structure is essential for community building.’

• 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.

• Renewing the Harvard House System (3 December 2008)

  Harvard’s president calls for long-term renewal of the university’s residential colleges.

• Houses for an Ohio High School (25 November 2008)

  St. John’s Jesuit High School is establishing a comprehensive collegiate house system.

• Tales of Three House Systems (19 October 2008)

  Non-residential house systems are catching on at schools around the world.

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

  What can house systems offer to students in community colleges?

• Cornell University Names Flora Rose House (15 September 2008)

  The ‘West Campus’ house system at Cornell University will soon be complete.

• Public Schools Urged to Establish House Systems (31 August 2008)

  ‘Cornerstone of private schools helps pupils to settle in.’

• Value-Designed Models of Undergraduate Education (26 August 2008)

  Vance Fried incorporates a house system into his low-cost college proposal.

• House Systems for Under-Performing Schools (7 June 2008)

  House systems are recommended for UK schools as a performance-boosting measure.

• A Collegiate House System for Columbia University? (28 April 2008)

  ‘We need some sort of mechanism for improving campus community and student life.’

• More on House Systems in Secondary Schools (3 March 2008)

  ‘It is a family approach where younger students look up to the older ones.’

• Of Houses, History, and High Places (16 January 2008)

  Residential colleges (and school houses) are permanent societies that grow deep roots.

• Clegg Recommends House Systems for All Schools (9 November 2007)

  The collegiate way, at the school level, is part of a major British education proposal.

• A Collegiate House System for an Oklahoma School (11 August 2007)

  More on the secondary-school counterpart of the residential college movement.

• Harry Potter and the Collegiate Way of Living (20 July 2007)

  Many people come to the residential college idea by way of the Hogwarts houses.

• On the Virtues of the Harvard House System (6 June 2007)

  ‘There I experienced formal dinners celebrating everything from new sophomores to illustrious past House residents, apple pickings and barbecues, and dining hall conversations about politics and philosophy that went on late into the night.’

• House Systems and Communal Dining (20 May 2007)

  ‘Ministers believe social and emotional intelligence classes will help stop children from turning into louts.’

• House Systems in Secondary Schools (7 February 2007)

  The Goleta Valley Junior High School in California has created a house system.

• House Systems and Residential College Systems (10 January 2007)

  Both seek to divide a large school into smaller, human-friendly components.

• House Systems for Community Colleges (18 April 2006)

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

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

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

• Collegiate History: Lowell and the Harvard Houses (1 August 2002)

  Henry Yeomans recounts the origins of the first American residential college system.

• Messiah College Alumni Propose a House System (15 July 2002)

  Graduates of a Pennsylvania liberal arts college recommend the collegiate way.

• Historic Lessons: Creating a Residential College System (14 June 2002)

  Samuel Eliot Morison on Lowell, Harkness, and the origin of the Harvard house system.