University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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adison McKay, a freshman pharmacy student, and BiBnda Powers, a freshman psychology major, study for I a class in the courtyard of the Residential College. You go to dinner and there is always someone there that you know... It residence halls on campus. Since residential college students live together, eat together, and have the opportunity to take classes together, it gives them a stronger sense of unity and cohesiveness. Another component of the residential college is the four houses they are divided into; Athens, Alexandria, Syracuse, and Rome. These houses were created by students, and are put in place to provide challenges, promote excellence, and make relationships with students. Each of the houses compete in challenges for points, and at the end of the year, the houses will compete for the chancellor ' s cup. The challenges can range anywhere from a chess match with single players to a womanless beauty review with multiple players. Each challenge winner is awarded points for their house. These points are added up a the end of the semester and an overall winner is chosen and awarded the chancellor ' s cup. I like living in the residential college because you go to dinner and there is always someone is a lot like a family. -Taylor Cook there that you know, said Taylor Cook, freshman international studies major from Southaven, Miss. You sit down on the long tables and before you are finished eating the table is full and you are laughing and talking with your friends. It is a lot like a family, which is an amazing thing to have here because there will always be times when you need a friend, and I feel like if I ever am in need of that then I have to look no further than my friends here in the residential college. At the residential college, the opportunities for students to get involved are endless. Residents may participate in the residential college student government or judicial panel, and they can also take fitness and cooking classes. Students are highly encouraged to take part in these activities and to exercise their voice in the residential college. With all of the positive feedback and amount of students expressing interest in this new style of on-campus living, Ole Miss might have set the corner stone for a new way of living in residence halls. There is already a second residential college being built next to the current one and will open to a new se- student residents in the fall of 2010. the ole miss

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BiliiililiiiiHiiiliiii Stnrv nv fCfltnprinp .Innnsnn %. Story by: Katherine Johnson Photography by: Jasmine Phillips The brand new Residential College offers students a different look at on-campus living. Coming to college provides students with an abundance of new freedoms they were not able to experience before. One of which, being the privilege of living on their own, away from their parents. At Ole Miss, however, this freedom serves as a bit of a disadvantage because freshman are required to reside on campus. Now, with the new residential college, on campu s housing seems to be slightly more appealing to students. Students living in the residential college are given a choice of apartment style rooms where each student shares a bathroom with no more than one other person. Although everyone loves having private bathrooms, the perks do not stop there. Students are provided with a cafeteria, teaching kitchen, fitness room, library, classrooms, and a computer center. With all of these amenities right outside their bedroom door, students do not have to leave the residential college for anything other than class unless they choose to. While all of these appealing factors may spark every student ' s attention and interest, the residential college is far more that just a building housed with great bathrooms and its own library. The residential college was meant to promote a community of students living together. The intentions are for students to live in the residential college multiple years to make this community stronger and more vibrant versus other residence halls where new groups of students come in every year. The purpose of this community of students is to help promote academic excellence, creativity, and mutual understanding of each other ' s differences. Dr. Daniel O ' Sullivan, associate professor of French and senior fellow of the residential college, lives with his family in the new facility. The senior fellow is the only faculty member that lives in the residential college. He is there to keep the stability of the community in place and to help provide the guidance needed on a daily basis. Students and professors often don ' t understand each other as well as they could, O ' Sullivan said. I am learning more about the pressures that students face, which makes me more understanding of them, and I hope that the members of the residential college will come to understand faculty better. We ' re not, or at least, we ' re not all, humorless, rigid curmudgeons who only care about what we teach and assigning difficult papers and exams. We became professors because we care about developing our students ' minds and building their character. Students are each assigned a faculty mentor who is there to provide them with guidance, whether it be academic related or just personal advice. Faculty mentors are active in the residential college in hopes of helping to guide the students while also providing a chance for a student faculty relationship that would not otherwise be possible. The faculty mentors are encouraged to attend all residential college activities, and they can also eat with students in the residential college ' s cafeteria whenever they choose to. I think the residential college is definitely a positive addition to campus, said Michelle Pesek, sophomore biology major from Dallas, Tx. The residential college community provides personal connections that are sometimes lacking within other 020 the ole miss

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