In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, join Noah and Tristan Morton to talk about Living Learning Communities (LLCs) and how they can be implemented to assist with community and identity development. Noah and Tristan explore different LLCs, structures, and theories as they relate to the topic at hand, share impactful stories, and provide practical advice to Residence Life Staff.
Guest: Tristan Morton (Ze/Zir/Zirs), Independent Scholar
Host: Noah Montague
Listen to the Podcast:
Watch the Video:
Show Notes:
- Residential Spaces Combine Living and Learning in New Ways (Inside HigherEd)
- Learning Partnerships: Theory and Models of Practice to Educate for Self-Authorship
About ResEdChat
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Noah Montague:
Hey, so welcome back to Room Pack’s Res Ed Chat podcast, the platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics at residence life and college student housing. So, my name is Noah Montague and I use he/him/his pronouns. And today I will be your host.
I like to say that I am a storyteller by trade, and the stories that I choose to tell are those that center the student and the college experience. Which make me even more excited about today’s topic that we’re going to be talking about today. So, with that, we’re going to be talking about living learning communities, or LLCs, and how they can impact the student experience.
I found myself thinking a lot about LLCs lately, in that I run a pretty large one on my campus centered in equity and leadership. And I’ve seen how they can work well, but also how they cannot, depending on how they are run and how the students engage with them.
In that space and their design, LLCs allows students with like interests with opportunities to grow, challenge themselves and learn together. Or at the very least, they get to live with their friends through being in a living learning community. And we’re going to talk a little bit more about that today and how to avoid that being the main focus of a living learning community.
But with that, today we’re going to talk about living learning communities, their impacts on student development and how residence life staff and university staff can take their LLCs in stride and implement strong residential curriculums and experiences for their students.
So, today’s guest is a friend and a colleague that I actually met through TikTok, believe it or not. I think about that sometimes, but that’s actually how we met. So it’s extra fun for me to be able to talk to Zier today. So when I first met this person, Zier was a fan, and believe it or not, I’m now privileged to call them a good friend, and I am so excited to get to talk to Zier today. So I’m going to let us start off with letting our guests introduce yourself.
Tristan Morton:
Oh my God, thanks, Noah. Hi. Hello. My name is Tristan Morton. My pronouns are Z, Zier, and Ziers. I’m an independent scholar, but I have been in higher education for the last decade or so doing equity work, specifically surrounding students of color, LGBTQ plus students, international students, et cetera, et cetera.
I’m excited we’ll be here today, and I’m also really excited because I am coming from a lens of not being a housing higher ed practitioner as I’m calling it right now, but someone who has seen the direct impacts of that work by working in an identity-based center. Yeah, I’m super excited to be here. I’m excited to chat with you, Noah, a little bit more about LLCs.
Noah Montague:
Me, as well. I think that the perspective that you’re going to offer into this space is just so exciting, in that you’re not a residence life professional and getting to have that opinion and that experience of how students have worked with us in these spaces, and how maybe you’ve worked with them as well, I think is going to just be such a cool space to be in today. Thank you for being here with us.
Tristan Morton:
I’m so excited to be here.
Noah Montague:
But anyway, to start us off then, we’ve been talking about LLCs. I talk about living learning communities using that acronym. And whenever I introduce a phrase or a word or something that we’re talking about, I want to make sure that everyone’s on the same page as we’re talking about something, and that we all have different acronyms across Student Affairs. And just making sure that we’re all operating on the same definition.
So, I’d love to give you some space to start us out with talking about what is a living learning community, in your opinion and experience? And how maybe, they might differ from a “typical” or traditional residential experience.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah, I would say my definition is a living learning community is bringing together students under a common/specialized either theme interest or identity. Because there’s a multitude of asset ways of how living learning communities can operate.
When I was in undergrad, they were themed by your major. So, one of the residence halls that I lived in was aviation and engineering, which is very interesting as someone who studied gender. And so I think about it in a way that, yes, it’s a common way for students to come together under a shared interest, experience, or identity. But how it differs from traditional higher ed housing environments is really how there is curriculum built into it. Yes, housing programs has curriculum, but it’s specialized in a way to follow students throughout their academic career versus, like, “Oh, you might live in a first year residence hall. You’re with folks that are all the same year as you, but there’s not really anything else connecting them together.” Right?
And so that can mean a multitude of different things. It could mean based on identity. There could be some that are for Black students, for Indigenous students, for graduate students, because people don’t think that there are living learning communities for graduate students.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, and there are.
Tristan Morton:
Some institutions have. It could mean that they’re in a specific academic or social program that’s bringing to them together, like an Honors College. A lot of people forget the Honors Colleges are LLC’s because of how their curriculum is built in a different way. Some institutions call them Residential Colleges, right? Where they’re getting a liberal arts experience at a public institution.
As well as it could be through a specific program that they’re a part of, like ROTC, for example. Like athletics, I would say, is a form of living learning community that people don’t think about a lot because they have a shared identity of being student athletes.
And it really brings together not only a true sense of belonging, but a very strong foundation of identity and where they want to go, what that might look like. And so it’s more than just the traditional experience of just like, “Oh, I’m just put somewhere with folks of all different majors, all walks of life.” Which you still get that in living learning communities; it’s just a little more specialized to what you kind of want to get out of your college experience. And I wish that some college campuses would’ve more of them than less of them, depending on what it is. But I would say that’s my brief definition.
Noah Montague:
I don’t know that I could have explained them better than that, but doing my job for me. But I think that the thing you talked about that I think that I want to highlight in particular, that I’m thinking about both … You talked about a lot of different kinds of living learning communities that can exist. Whether they be major-based, identity-based, experience-based. I love, in particular, you’re talking about Honors residential colleges and what those look like. And that we often don’t think about them as LLCs in the same way, often because at my university, we call them stakeholders. Like Campus Partners that are not in Residence Life that have a “say” in how things are run. In residential Colleges, oftentimes they’re running the whole show.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
And [inaudible 00:07:46] is kind of following in that space. So, I appreciate the mention of that because students in those communities are still in a living learning community, and are still getting that experience. But also this notion of having more LLCs as a benefit. I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit more to that real quick.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah. As someone who didn’t have really a living learning community in my college career, like, yeah, I lived in a building that had these majors that lived in it. But as someone who wasn’t in that field, it felt very disconnecting and there really wasn’t a place that I could go that made sense.
So, I went to an institution in Michigan for a couple years and then I went to a different institution in Michigan for a couple years. First institution I was at, it was really based on major. There was kind of traditional trends of where the halls would be. So, there was a set of two gendered residence halls that was for, basically, fine arts students. They had studios, practice rooms, things like that in them. There was the engineering and aviation because this school has one of the aviation programs in the country. Others were geared towards where all the Honors College kids would be, but there really wasn’t anything else for folks that wanted to find a sense of community in an easier way.
And so, I always think that it’s always important and vital to try to have those spaces, if applicable. Because some institutions, they don’t have the people, they don’t have the budget to do it. Even if it starts small as a floor, or even just a set of rooms to see how it could work, I always think it’s really important to see. And being innovative of what that looks like. It doesn’t necessarily need to be around racial identity or gender identity, but if it’s like, oh, these students are all environmental majors and they all want to live in a house that is about environmentalism, I think that that should happen. And colleges should be the ones that suggest that and be able to put it together so that it’s still connected to campus.
And I think about the unique challenges that smaller institutions have, like liberal arts colleges have, but they do it very uniquely where they have different houses. I used to work at a liberal arts college in Minnesota where they had a Japanese house, which was around Japanese language culture and experiences. There was a vegan house that was about, literally, the identity of being a vegan and those ethical practices of sharing food, community, environmentalism. Things along those lines. And there was all of these different facets. They were technically run by the college, but not. It was kind of like this hybrid kind of format.
And so I think about larger institutions that have the resources, but don’t have the infrastructure to put it in place. And especially those midsize and smaller institutions that also might not have the same opportunities to build it. But I also think it’s so important because a lot of times students feel very disconnected when living on campus, paying a lot of money to be there. I feel like LLCs can really bring that true campus connection and community to students that feel really disconnected when they’re forced to live on campus, or they have to live on campus because of proximity, location, etc, etc. So yeah. But I’m interested to know more about what you think about this, too.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. I love the point about the resources and what is available. I’m currently thinking very much about, one of the things you spoke on related to that, made me think about staffing and what that looks like with living learning communities. And having these specific spaces for students to engage in ways that they want to and that they should be able to, and having universities be able to do that. And what that looks like for staffing.
For me specifically, I am very passionate about leadership development for students and working in a leadership-based living learning community then works really well for me. And then what that looks like for maybe if I wasn’t passionate about that area. Because we don’t, at least at my institution, when I applied for this job, I was applying for a Resident Director job. I was not aware of what living learning communities even would be at the school. Let alone, which one I would be responsible for.
I talked about leadership development in my interviews because it’s something I’m interested in, and my placement worked out that I got placed in this community and was able to be a part of it. And what that looks like for those smaller and midsize institutions, and what happens if a staff member isn’t passionate about that topic? They have somebody come in … You talked about ROTC, you talked about identity-based groups. If there isn’t a staff member to take the lead on that, what that then looks like is perhaps a complication when it comes to living learning communities.
And, of course, Res Life is the ultimate well-rounded office in that we do a little bit of everything. But one facet of my living learning community is that I teach leadership theory as a part of that, and I did not know leadership theory coming into this job, which then I researched and was able to then implement and teach and work through that process. But thinking about that space when it comes to living learning communities, I think is really interesting in the context of the resources space you were talking about as well.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, that’s super-duper interesting. I appreciate that. And you kind of got into my next question a lot, too, in what your experience working with Living Learning Communities has been. So I think that we can start talking a little bit about that next piece of how living learning communities, how you have seen them impact students. Like, how has it impacted sense of belonging? If you have any stories to share. How have living learning communities, in your experience, impacted student sense of belonging and identity development?
Tristan Morton:
Yeah, I would say that it is probably the core experience that a lot of students have in college. So, at the liberal arts institution I used to work at there was a … We actually oversaw the … Which I’m realizing now, I actually do have direct experience with this. Is that we actually ran a living learning community for students of color. And they had a house that was literally not even a block away from our office. We would host events there. One of my colleagues oversaw the program. I was running the LGBT, like, center at this institution.
And so what we ended up doing was, it was the majority of ours first time actually working with a living learning community where we built curriculum, we built experiences. My colleague who ran the program, she was amazing and did it and I just showed up and helped when I could.
But we did everything from, we made interview questions, we went through the selection process. So, actually now realizing I knew more than I think. But what those students really shared with me was how, as students of color, their time at this PWY really changed their perspective of how they viewed the world. This is a very social justice based institution. More than 30% of the student population was, I believe they used the term ALANA: Asian, Latina A, Black, Indigenous folks of color. I believe that was the term that they used. And for them it was really connecting across differences.
This also was a big space for international students. Over 30% of the campus was also international students, on top of students of color. And so, a lot of them were able to connect with different cultures that they never got to interact with. We had a big African, South Asian population on campus, so they got to interact with different cultures and experiences that they never had. Domestic students were able to interact with international students in a unique way. And what I saw was, truly, they felt like they were a family. It was 20 of them living in this house together that had no AC. I was like, “This is rough.” As well as cultural student orgs rented out the space to have programs and events in, as well.
So, they truly were engulfed in culture at all times. They were engulfed with different identities, different experiences. And I remember we throw a cultural block party every year at the house so that students can tour it, experience it. And one of the things that we did was the students wanted to do a hot noodle eating challenge, right?
So, East Asian students were like, “These are the brands that we should have of these noodles.” And we were like, “Okay, let’s see how this will work.” And what we ended up doing was we had a whole bunch of different cultural foods there. So, where the town is situated, there’s a large Hmong population, which is a cultural group out of South Asia. We had food from them. There’s a big Somali population. People are about to clock me in this podcast who listen to it. When they hear Somali, they know where I’m talking about.
We have Sambusas, which is a type of samosa, which is fried bread, stuffed with either potatoes, beans … Not beans. Peas, meats. It’s so good, it’s so flavorful. As well as tamales. We had papusas, which is a Salvadorian dish.
And it was really a way that this small population of students on this very tiny campus could feel so connected with one another. And they had so much fun. It was probably one of the funnest times I had as well, seeing how much they supported each other. And in the house, too, there was a mentorship program for them. So students that have lived in the house for multiple years got to mentor students that, if I’m remembering correctly, mentor students that were new into the house. So, they had immediate connections with folks. They had direct line to our office to be able to get support from us. Not just this main staff person that worked there, but all of us.
We were a team of five at the time, four or five. And it really felt, for these students, how impactful their experience was. And I know that a lot of them are still really close friends to this day. And I think about that in a lot of student’s living learning communities and experiences from being in Honors Programs that they’re still deeply connected, to different programs that I didn’t even know existed. Or just these really cool experiences.
I did a bit of deep diving to be like, “There might be other LLCs that I don’t know exist,” and I was right. I found a few that I was very intrigued by, but I feel like at the end of the day, the sense of belonging that students get is so powerful. It literally will change their entire college experience if they’re able to be a part of one. Whether there’s conflict or not, because, of course, you’re in a housing environment with all of these different folks that are between the ages of maybe 18 to 25. Some are very non-traditional living in these spaces, right? Older or younger, right? Being able to navigate conflict, navigate different identities and how that really makes students well-rounded people when they leave. I know that if I was in those environments, I’d probably be saying the same thing of like, “I know that my college experience would not be the same if I did not live in this community.” And so that’s what I think about.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, I loved hearing how similar this LLC that you’re talking about is to what I do at my institution. I don’t think that I knew just how much overlap there is. So I’ve mentioned my living learning community that I currently oversee, that I’ve worked with for the last four years, a couple times so far.
It’s called Scholar Leaders. It is a 40, going on 40-year-old living learning community. It’s the oldest, the most historic living learning community on my campus. And that is even more interesting to talk about the history and everything going into that, and the alumni, and that whole space.
But thinking about what you just shared and my own experience, I also run the interview process for my students to get them in. I build the interview questions, I build residential curriculum. I pick speakers to come and talk to them. And think about all of those things as we’re thinking about what students are in my community, and what they’re learning from it.
So, I also work at a primarily White institution. That said, my living learning community is majority students of color. And it is very, very, very different than the larger Miami population. And they learn that very quickly, whether it be our first all-hall meeting when they’re all looking at each other, and/or, as they start getting to know each other and their experiences. Because we also have a very large LGBTQ population with my living learning community.
Which then has prompted me to think about different things as far as what presenters I bring, what identities I bring into that space, and who we’re hearing from and who … I think a lot about who owns the knowledge that we’re talking about, and what that looks like, and encouraging that community to seek that space.
But most recently thinking about this idea of student sense of belonging and identity, I had one of my students, a Black trans man in my community come up to me recently and tell me that this is the first time on our campus that he has ever felt seen in his entire time being here. He’s also a transfer student. He’s gone to a couple of different schools, largely due to that experience of not feeling included and seen and valued and a part of a community.
But he took time out of his day to tell me; that this is one of the first places, is the first place on a college campus that he has felt included. And he actually applied to come back and work with us again next year. So he will be again on our team –
Tristan Morton:
Oh, I love that.
Noah Montague:
… because I created a way for students that wanted to continue to participate, to come back and then help build the community for the next group of incoming students coming in. And that was a really cool space to get to be in, to hear that from him, as well as hearing that directly.
We talk about student affairs and residence life and just student life in general, being a very thankless field. But getting directly and hearing, “This mattered to me. This thing that you did,” I don’t think would’ve come without the living learning community aspect of this is a group of students who are choosing to live together because they value the same things. That, in and of itself, is kind of surreal to think about when it comes to that space, because talk about learning partnership model.
Tristan Morton:
Right?
Noah Montague:
They’re choosing this experience. Whether they’re an incoming freshman reading about an LLC, or an upper-class student applying to get into an upper-class LLC. Students are choosing to involve themselves in an educational experience through involving themselves in a living learning community. And I think that that is something that I think about a lot in this topic, too.
Tristan Morton:
I think that’s so beautiful to hear that, especially transfer students. As someone who also was a transfer student, it’s so hard to get connected because you’re literally like, “I already know I’m not doing the whole first two years kind of mess, where I’m trying to explore. I’m like, I’m trying to get my degree. I’m trying to go, so I’m trying to get the point A to point B.”
So, knowing that this student, especially with the identities that he holds?
Noah Montague:
Mm-hmm.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah, he holds, felt so connected and shared that with you, is so beautiful. And you’re totally right. A lot of Student Affairs is very thankless, especially housing. And I think that’s so beautiful to see and to know that that has happened. And I know that probably you’ve had, especially even working with RAs and other students, they’ve seen that as well as in their leadership that they’ve been able to have from you too, which I think is so beautiful.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, it’s been really special. And I’m thinking in this moment, this is not anything I plan to talk about, but thinking about even retention of staff when it comes to living learning communities.
Tristan Morton:
Oh, absolutely.
Noah Montague:
And the reason that I work at my school currently is for this living learning community. And I think that that is worth noting within this conversation, as well, and what living learning communities can bring to staff.
I would not have learned what I have about leadership development. I would not have learned what I have about service. I wouldn’t have learned what I’ve learned about equity work without working directly in an equity-based leadership LLC on my campus. But it’s surreal and it’s special to get to be a part of that. And I think we’re kind of talking about a lot of my questions already here too in this.
One of my next ones was about if you’ve seen any personal transformations or standout stories from students in living learning communities. And I know you’ve talked a little bit about that in a larger lens, but I’m curious if you have any stories that are coming to mind as we’re talking.
Tristan Morton:
I’m trying to think. I think as someone who’s worked in identity-based centers, I feel like it varies so much. And knowing that since I mainly worked in a gender and sexuality center, they’re not considered living learning communities, which that’s a whole other podcast on that.
But one, so it’s a story that I heard, that someone told me and shared with me about a living learning community that … Like, a living experience that they created. So, at Michigan State, there is a very unique living learning community or residential experience, I think is what they call it, that’s specifically designed for trans students.
Noah Montague:
That is awesome.
Tristan Morton:
It’s really cool. And so the staff member was telling me about, like, they built this curriculum themselves, right? And so what I got to hear from the staff member was just how much passion and care they have for this project, which is one of very few probably in this country.
And so, that story really comes to mind for me as a trans, higher ed professional who never got to have that experience, right? And knowing that the person running this program might have a similar identity to this community and seeing, like, “Oh my God. My identities are being reflected in a way that I’m able to serve a new generation of students that never got to have this.” Right? And I think about how I am able to see those points of access with the students that I get to work with.
So there was a student that lived in the house … There were several students that lived in the culture house that my office oversaw when I was working there. And there are several students that come to mind when I think about this programming experience. But what comes to mind for me is the process. So there is many … I’d have to do a quick Google search; many living learning communities at this institution. So, there was an eco house, the vegan house I told you about, the Japanese house, the German House; very similar experiences. It’s about the language, the culture, and the experiences that students might have, whether they identify as that or are studying it.
So, I remember my staff. I supervised four students, four to five students. They were going through the process of where they wanted to live because on this campus you have to live on for two years. You’re mandatory, you have to live on two years. Then after that you can figure out where you want to go. So, the experience that my students had trying to navigate and figure out what living learning community that they wanted to go into, it was actually a really cool experience to see.
Some of them were already living off campus. They were like, “I’m not doing this. This is kind of my thing.” But we had other students that were first years and second years that were like, “I really want to live in this building.” And so on their housing website, it says, “These are all of the living learning communities and spaces that you can be in. The capacity of them”, which I think is so good to have. And then if there was a separate application process or not. The Cultural House had its separate application since my office ran that.
But I remember a student I had who is studying to be a lawyer. I believe was pre-law at the time and was trying to decide where they wanted to live. She decided, if I remember correctly, she wanted to live in the eco house because she had wanted to really connect with folks around environmentalism: what that looks like as her identities as a Latino woman from the south, and really trying to figure out how to be in a community with minded people.
And so she was really stressed about that process. She’s just like, “I don’t know. I don’t if I’m going to get in.” And I was just like, “You’re going to get in. You’re going to be great.” Because students have to write an essay of why they wanted to get in.
She got into the house, ended up living there for the rest of her college career and ended up getting a lot of good, deep friends from that community. They cooked regularly. I think everybody had to cook every once a week. It basically ran like a co-op, but on a college campus where they had responsibilities. They had to clean the house. They had to make sure that if conflicts arise, they had a plan for it. They did have a staff member that oversaw the house. Like, a hall director that oversaw it, just in case they needed a staff member to intervene in any way, shape or form.
But I know that the student would not be who they are today if they did not have that experience. As well as several students that lived in the Culture House that really felt that sense of belonging, sense of community.
I think of a student, oh my God. Oh, what country is this student from? They were one of one or two students from this country to come to this institution. If I remember correctly, it’s a very obscure Southeast Asian country, and the student was a music major, wanted to be a pianist. I believe it was a pianist. And really wanted to travel the world and perform music.
And that student always inspired me and always talked about that if they did not have the Culture House, they would’ve left this institution. They would’ve immediately left. They would’ve went back to their home country because, for folks who don’t know, at this institution, international students have to prep many years in advance to even attempt to get into this institution to be able to come. So, their formative years in primary school, secondary school, whatever that may be in their country, was focused on this, to get here.
And so getting here and actually seeing that experience can look very, very different. And so, knowing that the student was one of two, if not the only one, was the first ever from their country to come to this institution, the amount of pressure that the student was under. And knowing how connected he was to this community and the office that I worked in, really just showed how well-rounded he was.
I miss him a lot. So it’s made me really think about a lot of my former students and how these living learning communities, whether with a big curriculum, or just oversaw by an office, or just a floor of folks with shared identities, can really change and impact someone’s experience and make them, honestly, a better person.
It teaches them conflict resolution skills. It teaches them soft skills that a lot of people forget exist that we need to do. We need communication skills, not just from a communications class and these high theoretical standpoint. Conflict resolution, being able to understand differences, knowing harm reduction and trauma-informed responses.
You might not have these big jargon-y names for them, but you’re learning them because you’re in this community sharing a room with someone else that you’re naturally gaining, but you just don’t know what it is. But there are terms for them that exist already. And so, I think about them a lot. I love them. They’re so great. I hope they’re doing great in the world.
Noah Montague:
I love that so much. I have so many students that I’m like, “I hope you’re doing well.”
Tristan Morton:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
For me, though, I am thinking about a few students in particular through my living learning community. In particular, I had a student who was in my general … So, I oversee four different residence halls on my campus, two of which are in the living learning community that I have. This student lived in one of the buildings that was not associated with a living learning community, so I get to see actively both experiences at the exact same time, which is very interesting.
But he ended up applying for the Scholar Leader Program living learning community, and he did not plan on applying. I nominated him for it. We talked about it. This is a student that I’ve now had the privilege of working with for two years and will be working with for a third because he’s coming back, which I’m so excited about.
But we have had countless conversations, him and I, about how he never thought that he even deserved to be able to call himself a leader, let alone leadership development and learning and running anything. I’ll get emotional talking about him. I’ve worked with him for a long time. But getting to see his growth from not going to anything, not involving himself in anything, and telling me every time that we met how much he wanted to. That he wanted to be involved, that he wanted to engage, but for whatever reason, identity included, he is Hispanic male, he is disabled. He feels that he can’t engage or doesn’t have a right to engage in a lot of different ways, and we’ve worked to unpack a lot of that for him.
But now he applied for the program. He got in. Never thought that he would get into the living learning community, and we talked about that as well. And then he stepped out of his comfort zone and applied to come back, which we didn’t even expect, myself and my staff. When he applied, he came and met with me and said … And I don’t think I’ll ever forget this. He looked at me and said that he stared at the application for at least a week and didn’t think he was going to put it in. But getting to watch him be more confident in himself, be confident enough to try.
I was talking to another student recently, actually a student’s parent because I ran into her and she was talking to me about how her student had applied for something that he was very excited for and he was so nervous about that application. And I talked about how exciting it is to want something enough to be nervous about it. How exciting it is to care enough to want something. Then I realized that the parent that I was talking to was the parent of another one of the students in my LLC, and he had also applied to come back and he had also gotten in to come back. And I realized that what she was talking to me about was how attached and excited and nervous he was about being in this space. And I think that’s when I realized … We’re going to pause because that noise was loud from my dog. I’m going to write down this time.
Tristan Morton:
Oh, if it’s Ho-Ho, I did not hear it.
Noah Montague:
Oh. Well I paused, so I’m still going to write down the time.
Tristan Morton:
Perfect.
Noah Montague:
But what I realized from that conversation and hearing from this parent and hearing from the student, the nature of students wanting something and wanting to be a part of a community is such a unique, I think, part of a living learning community because it helps them feel at home and where they’re living.
It’s not just their dorm room. And we in Residents Life, we try very hard not to even call them dorms. We stray away from that language as much as possible. But living learning communities allow a space to not just be the place that they’re living.
Which I think is perfectly segueing me into my next question around what, to you, Tristan, makes a living learning community more than just the housing assignment?
Tristan Morton:
I feel like a lot of it comes to what you’ve already shared, which is the people that help create it, the people that are investing in it and the students that want to engage in it.
So, in my research, I found this article by Ashley Moe Reader, which is titled, Residential Spaces and Learning Combined Living and Learning in New Ways. And so it’s like, they shared this topic, and it’s in Inside Pirate, for one. And it’s the 10 memorable themes for colleges to consider.
For a very important concept, this article did come out in 2023, so some of these places might exist still, might not. But I think one thing that makes a living learning community so great is how innovative people are with the ideas of what they want to do. So, one which I literally found, which is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, it’s at the University of Minnesota and it’s called Fetch, which is Fostering Education and Training Canines in Housing. It’s for people to live with service dogs that are in training. And it’s, like, with a local organization that works with folks. Yeah, Can do Canines, that work with students.
So, a student is paired and cares for a service dog that lives in their room for part of the year. Gets them, learns more about the process of how dogs become service animals for other people. And there’s no requirements to be a part of it. You don’t need to have a disability, things like that. No education requirements, but it’s really for students to learn more about this industry, which I’ve never seen before, right? Which I think is so cool of we want to work with a local organization to help bring this together. And I only just found out about this while I was researching for this podcast.
There is another LLC that’s popping up, I would say more in college campuses. So West Virginia University has a sober living learning community.
Noah Montague:
I’ve been seeing those pop up a lot more.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah. Knowing how a lot of students are coming in to college in recovery, or they might realize that they’re addicts and struggling with addiction. Knowing that more of these spaces are popping up. And actually, fun fact, one of my old professors is a professor at West Virginia University in their Leadership Department, so probably works very closely with those folks in housing.
And that institution is a big military institution. A lot of students are veterans that are there. And so, knowing that that community exists and there’s these guidelines to be a part of it is huge. And I think that that is so great to see.
Another one, which makes me so tickled that it even exists, there is a living learning community for a marching band, which is at Southern Arkansas University. Which as someone who did marching band in college, wish existed.
Noah Montague:
My undergrad had a marching band living learning community as well, which was –
Tristan Morton:
Which we have the same alma mater, just in two different contexts.
Noah Montague:
They had one. They had one.
Tristan Morton:
Jealous. Jealous. And Syracuse University has a disability pride living learning community. And I think knowing the importance of them and knowing how folks are trying to innovate them, and they’re not just based off of just some requirements, but it’s just like, how can we advance and do things a little differently? What does our community need? How can we do that? And it can even go down to, because I feel like a lot of times people think of living and learning communities as just the theme, but it’s so much more than that.
It’s about the facility that it’s in, how it’s being curated, how it’s created. How is the university and the institution investing in these spaces? Because a lot of times it’s either, “Oh, we’re going to get this new shiny residence hall. We’re going to have the Culture House that hasn’t been updated in 45 years fall to the wayside when there’s a new shiny residence hall building on campus that these students don’t get to really access because they’re not living in those spaces.” Right?
And so, I think about it being more than just a theme, and how there are so many institutions that are trying to be more innovative of what that looks like from agricultural, to medical, to whatever that may be. Folks are trying to figure out what that might look like and people invest in it.
A lot of times I feel like living learning communities come about not only from the staff that work there, but also from the alumni that have gone through that and advocate for these to happen. And so I feel like all of those culminate what it really feels like and truly is to have living learning community and the components that are needed for it.
Noah Montague:
Definitely. And I love that we’re delving into this conversation of care so heavily, especially with alumni. Because the concept of alumni feeling attached to a living learning community, maybe a few years ago, isn’t something we even would’ve been talking about.
Because now, again speaking from my own experience, 40 years of my living learning community come next year, 2025. 40 years.
Tristan Morton:
Wow. Congratulations.
Noah Montague:
Thank you. Thank you. It’s like my birthday, but better. Question mark.
Tristan Morton:
Well, who knows?
Noah Montague:
Who knows. But getting to hear from alumni from the ’90s, from the ’80s about what being a Scholar Leader meant to them at the time that they were a part of it. And then listening to that and being able to bring them in and bring those voices and bring that learning back to my students and create that space of continuity. It’s such a fascinating thing that I have been able to do in my time here. Not every living learning community has that. I’m aware that 40 years is atypical for the community, for sure.
But even thinking about other things that I’ve seen, I love a lot of the examples that you gave, in particular, too. At my current campus, we have Love, Honor, Pride as an LGBTQ living learning community specifically for students on campus to live and be together in that space. There’s specific programming, specific opportunities, specific connection and an opportunity for students to continue past their first year in it, which I think is so, so important when we’re thinking about how we are creating LLCs that are more than just a housing assignment. Because we want them to feel at home in that space, so there should be a way for them to continue to be in that space. That’s something that I’m thinking about a lot.
I also think about, you talked about different military communities. I briefly worked at Virginia Tech, which is a very large military school. They have a massive living learning community called The Core, specifically for their ROTC and Army Reserve students living in that space together. And they actually have a specific process for hiring Ras, separate from the traditional Residence Life process. Like, Residence Life helps with that, but they kind of run their own thing in tandem with their residence life office to create that experience and that space for their students so that the RAs for that community are also familiar with the experience of what it means to be in the army, or what it means to be in ROTC.
So, that is also a super interesting part with living learning communities for me, is how the universities are supporting them. What infrastructure exists to be there for students in those spaces, and how are they implementing that? And that changes when it’s a housing assignment, versus when it is an experience that students can attach themselves to and identify with.
We’ve been talking about identity a lot within this conversation, too, both in that a lot of living learning communities do center different identities, if that is what we’re talking about. But also at my current institution, in addition to living learning communities, we have this idea we’ve been doing for the last few years called Student Created Communities. So rising sophomores are able to submit ideas to our department and be like, “I want to live with this group of people. This is our idea. This is what we want to do together.” And then we’ll provide them with funding to then do that thing.
Tristan Morton:
That’s really cool.
Noah Montague:
It’s really cool and I think it’s relatively unique and a relatively new idea. But for example, currently I have an architecture student created community, so it’s all students in the architecture program in their second year, living together in one of my buildings. And I provide them with funding to do events for themselves to bring their community together.
Next year, I’ll be welcoming four different Student Created Communities into my space. I know, I’m so excited. One of them is … Four of them exist. One of them is just around food. They want to explore different cultural food together and –
Tristan Morton:
Oh, I love that.
Noah Montague:
… learn about food. But the one that perhaps I’m most excited about, but I’m interested in all of them, of course.
Tristan Morton:
Yes.
Noah Montague:
If them are listening, but I have the Thread Poet Society, which is a group of students who want to learn how to sew together. And they want to make their own clothes, and make their own clothing together, and be a part of that, and be sustainable in their clothing development and what they’re making. And they had the ability and the funding and the support from my institution to be able to say, “We want to make this group as a group of students who know each other already. We want to live together and this is what we want to program around and care about while we’re living together.” And I think I’m going to get to buy them sewing machines.
Tristan Morton:
I love that.
Noah Montague:
[inaudible 00:51:37] get to do that kind of space together, because what they chose that they want to do. And I think that that’s just such a cool and intricate and really different approach to LLCs, as well. Because we also have our traditional LLCs in my institution, but with this additional space of, “Okay, here are students that want this experience that we don’t have. Let’s help them make that.”
And I think that, in and of itself, is kind of what we’re talking about with Living Learning Communities is, how are we best serving the students that we have and making them feel that they belong at an institution? Which is the purpose of these, in and of itself.
Which I think brings me to my second to last question for you, Tristan. What are some equity-minded practices in the design or selection of living learning community themes? We’ve been talking a lot about equity and identity, but when picking the themes, the locations, the selection, what are some equity-minded practices that are coming to mind for you?
Tristan Morton:
I think your example is the perfect answer to this question. Because knowing that students can pitch an idea of a living learning community, I think is huge, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.
And so, I feel like it takes a lot to be able to build a living learning community. And I always go back to, have you asked the students what they actually want? For one, first and foremost. Because we make a lot of assumptions in Student Affairs and higher education about what students want and need and then how it transpires.
So, I also think too about, like, if you don’t have living learning communities, the equitable thing to do is ask yourself why? More than just, well, we don’t have the funding or the infrastructure, but actually why? Do students feel disconnected from the campus experience because of that?
My alma mater was a commuter campus and still had living learning communities. Right? And so, trying to figure out what that might look like, how you can get buy-in from students, and if that’s what they want. Because some students might be like, “It’s a point A to point B type of thing”, which I totally understand. And if you have a institution of living learning communities, how are you continuing to innovate them and not just rely on them existing? Knowing that the LLC that you oversee is coming up on 40 years, like, is it how it was 40 years ago? Is the students the same as 40 years ago?
Noah Montague:
No, they are not.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah. And so I think about how can we continue to innovate and not just rely on the name itself? The processes might be the same, the themes might be the same, but thinking about what more do we need knowing that we’re in a really big tech age, too? I think about how students are interacting with each other/ not interacting with each other in a COVID world, because COVID is not over.
Noah Montague:
Nope.
Tristan Morton:
So, I think about how major current events have very much disrupted how students experience community. And so, thinking about how current events are impacting not only students, but the people that are trying to build these communities or sustain them.
And so, I think a lot of what I think about is, it feels very philosophical of what I’m saying, but they have real tangible impacts. It could be as simple as you might have a Latin A living learning community and you have artwork on the walls and none of them are Latin A artists, for an example. They just might be very much symbols and imagery from these specific Latin A cultures, but are you actually getting it from Latin A artists? Are you building a space with intentional cultural items that are easy to get?
There’s these giant blankets … With the example I’m giving of Latin A Living Learning Community. There’s these giant blankets that you can get at most … I won’t say most; some Mexican markets, there’s these giant blankets. Most of the time they have roses on them, right? Rosary, the religious figure, Mother Mary on them and stuff. And how that small blanket that probably costs 25 bucks can transform a space.
So, I think equitably thinking more than just the theme itself and how that theme is actually going to be replicated, is a great way that I would say to think about it. I know some folks might push back on me. It’s totally okay. But I think about that a lot in how the smallest amount of things that a student can see physically can impact their experience in how they engage with the programs and the curriculum within these communities.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, I completely agree with you. Some might not, to your own point. I completely agree with you. I’m currently thinking about a conversation that I had with one of my students in my living learning community at the start. Maybe October, November, I had a conversation with a student. Student of color, another trans student of color in my community, talking about the program itself. And I use LLC and program pretty interchangeably for my Living Learning community because it’s been here for so long, and LLC feels like not the whole thing somehow.
But anyway, with this student in this conversation, they came to me and said, “Noah, when I applied for this program, this is not what I thought it was going to be. I think the name Scholar Leaders, the history of it, the idea of leadership and what I pictured as a leader, I didn’t see myself in that until I got here. Until I was then in the community, seeing the students, seeing what you do, seeing what your staff do.”
A trans person of color at a primarily White institution, a historically white institution applying for a 40-year-old leadership LLC, he was worried about what it was going to look like after he got in, whether or not it would be a space for him. And then they realized that it completely was, after they got here.
And I’m thinking about that a lot with your answer of how we are operating within the system, the language, the spaces that we have for living learning communities. I can’t change the name of it, I can’t change the history of it. It has been here that long and the students that are currently applying and are in it are very different than the ones that did in 1980 when it started.
And that legacy is still there and a part of it. And what we do now also has to be different because the students that we have are different. And that changes for LLCs that have existed for five years, for 20, or for one year.
And I think that is the equity-minded practice that I would add to the conversation is, who are the students in the community? Is this space accessible to them? Is it what they want it to be? Is it the right community at the time that they’re having it?
Tristan Morton:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, I think that’s what I would add to that.
Tristan Morton:
That’s beautiful. I love it.
Noah Montague:
Thank you. I appreciate that. But I guess then, Tristan, my last question for you, thinking about tangibility and tangible advice … We’ve talked maybe a little bit theoretically throughout this conversation, but we do research and that’s kind of our thing.
Tristan Morton:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
But what is some advice that you might give to Residence Life staff working with living learning communities? Maybe one piece of advice that you might give.
Tristan Morton:
That’s a good question. I would say never forget your why. I feel like it’s really corny and really cheesy to say that, but as folks that support living learning communities, whether directly affiliated with, have a close identity or not, remember the why of you’re doing it and how vital community is for everybody. Because the students benefit the most, absolutely. But you, as the staff member or members, overseeing these communities, also benefit from this as well. That you benefit from the success, the failures, the laughter, the distress, the eye rolls, all of it. And so, I think never forget why this is important, and why these exist and they exist for a reason. So, I’ll leave it there.
Noah Montague:
Mm-hmm. I think that my piece of advice, in addition to that, because I was going to say something pretty similar, so I’ll come up with something a little different. But thinking about, we’ve talked a lot about care, and in a previous podcast episode I talked about how a past supervisor of mine, Andy Obergamantia, talked about how if you enter a space with students, caring and showing students that you care, you’re already doing 90% of the work.
I think that a lot when it comes to living learning communities, because it is very easy to just let them be the theme.
Tristan Morton:
Right?
Noah Montague:
It’s very easy. It would have been very simple for me to say, “This is a leadership community. We’re all going to lead together. The end.” And not invest in ways that I have worked to, that I have seen be beneficial for the students.
So, I think that leaning into that learning, listening to your students, is the advice that I would give. Because we don’t know everything. And maybe t 20, 30, 10, 5 living learning communities that you have are not the right ones.
Tristan Morton:
Right? Absolutely.
Noah Montague:
That one is, I think is the advice I would give.
Tristan Morton:
I love that. That’s beautiful.
Noah Montague:
Thank you. I have my moments. But that just about wraps up our time together today. Tristan. Thank you so, so much for joining me. I hope you had fun.
Tristan Morton:
I did. I had so much fun. Thank you so much, Noah. Thank you for having me.
Noah Montague:
But yeah, thank you for joining us. And thank you all for joining us as well on this episode of Res Ed Chat. If you have an idea, or a topic, or a person that you would like to have join us on the show, please let us know by reaching out to Roompact. But for now, I will see you all later and keep caring for each other. Bye, folks.
