The West Campus Program Planning Group has recommended that Cornell University establish a living-learning council of faculty, students and staff to oversee five self-governed living-learning houses for upperclass students on the university's West Campus.

The draft report by the West Campus Program Planning Group, "A Vision for Residential Life," makes nine specific recommendations that are designed to provide a programmatic plan for transforming West Campus into a supportive living and learning environment for approximately 1,800 upperclass students. The report is available electronically at http://www.campuslife.cornell.edu/Residential_Initiative/.

The recommendations outline a plan for establishing the West Campus Living-Learning Council to oversee the five living-learning houses. Each house would be headed by a faculty house dean and self-governed by a house council of students, faculty and staff. Resident graduate and professional student tutors would replace undergraduate resident advisers in the houses and would be supplemented with house peer counselors. A recreation facility would be constructed on West Campus, and dining services would be available in each house.

"I want to thank the planning group members for their thoughtful work and dedication to this effort and congratulate them for developing an excellent set of recommendations," said Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services. "Their work provides us with a clear direction to pursue for West Campus, a direction that will transform the opportunities available to our students after their first year together on North Campus. I look forward to the campus discussions and hope that we can move forward soon to make the living-learning house idea a reality."

Murphy said that, when finalized, the recommendations will be incorporated into the self-study that is part of the routine reaccreditation process Cornell is participating in now.

The planning group, chaired by Isaac Kramnick, the R.J. Schwartz Professor of Government and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, and composed of eight faculty members, four students and three administrators, was established by Murphy in fall 1998. The committee was asked "to give programmatic detail to the visionary goals" for West Campus recommended by an earlier committee chaired by John Ford, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students.

That report, "Transforming West Campus," envisioned a post-freshman year environment that more closely integrates residential and academic life, with a foundation of faculty involvement.

"These recommendations build on the vision and concepts put forth and accepted in the Ford report," Kramnick said. "Living-learning houses will help provide a greater integration between academic and residential life. This is something the Cornell faculty has been interested in for many years and reflects a shift in attitude among students, both at Cornell and nationwide. It also coincides with President Rawlings' conviction that a first-class research institution must provide the best in undergraduate education."

Last fall President Hunter Rawlings announced that Cornell had received a $100 million pledge to help make that vision a reality by linking the living and learning environments for undergraduate students on West Campus.

Rawlings has made the strengthening of undergraduate education in a research university context a hallmark of his administration. In fall 1998 he announced a major initiative in undergraduate programs, facilities and financial aid. The programmatic and architectural renovation of West Campus is a cornerstone of that plan. It complements the plan to house all freshmen on North Campus by fall 2001, to provide them with a unifying, supportive first-year experience.

Kramnick said the living-learning units, which are expected to house approximately 1,800 upperclass students, "will add an ingredient to the traditional Cornell menu of choice." Many upperclass students will continue to choose the Greek system, other residence halls or to live off campus.

He added that the new houses will not be theme houses or college-affiliated houses but will house a mix of students from all colleges and with a variety of interests.

The draft report recommends:

• Creation of a West Campus Living-Learning Council, to provide oversight and direction of the living-learning units. The council would have 10 faculty members, including a faculty leader (house dean) and a faculty associate for each house. The council would include five undergraduate students, one graduate student and five staff members.
• Academic programming: The council should explore ways to encourage formal academic offerings, such as house-based classes, seminars, sections and study groups. Examples of classes that might be offered include sophomore writing seminars, recitation sections of large classes, informal seminars by faculty fellows and talks by distinguished visitors.
• Dining: Each house should have its own dining hall.
• House governance: An elected house council for each living-learning unit should be established, comprising students, faculty and staff, with responsibility for intrahouse programming, policies and rules.
• Graduate resident tutors and undergraduate peer counselors: Kramnick said students on the committee strongly urged that undergraduate resident advisers be replaced with graduate and professional student resident tutors, to best facilitate the integration of living and learning for upperclass undergraduates. A House Peer Counselor program also would be created.
• Recreation: A recreational facility should be constructed to provide a center for program activities.
• Transition: The efforts to seek broad student and staff input into implementation of the work planned for West Campus in 2001 should be continued by Campus Life. Also, construction of the first living-learning house should begin simultaneously with construction of the recreational facility to signal the vitality of the West Campus program.
• Transfer students: The needs of transfer students should be met through programming in the living-learning houses.
• West Campus "neighborhood": As living-learning units are established, they should be encouraged to develop relationships with residents of nearby fraternity and sorority houses, co-ops and students living independently in the neighborhood. The house council should found an Outreach Committee.
• Murphy said the committee report is being presented to the faculty senate and the student assembly this week, and based on their comments revisions may be made to the draft before it is presented to Rawlings.

Murphy said that when the report is finalized, the next steps will be to work with the president and provost to appoint the living-learning council and then to start work to understand the facilities implications of the recommendations.