The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1 - 24

William Frazier • Myron Eighmy

nity and the same-hall control group on survey items that were related to the work of the residence life student staff and the students’ residence hall learning experience. The learning community was significantly different from the control in the areas of being helped to build

come to rely upon each other for the assistance they felt they needed. The engineering/architecture students were most appreciative of the staff’s ability to help them form relationships with other students in their major and learn more about their major. The resident assistants in the learning community were able to make adjustments in the programming so that it assisted in the students’ academic and social adjustment to the university. The wellness learning community had a different organizational structure in place than that of the other two learning communities. Not all of the students on the wellness floor were there by choice. Some of the students were placed there in order to fill the open bed spaces at the beginning of the school year. These students felt they should not have to comply with the wellness community policies. In addition, students who had signed up for the wellness learning community felt they were not able to experience the environment they had been promised. This negative impact was evidenced in the survey results by the wellness community’s standard deviations being higher than those of the other two learning communities on most items. The difference in organizational structure was clearly reflected in the results from the student interviews and survey responses. Compared to the other two themed residential learning communities, the wellness community did not have as many intentional interactions between the faculty, staff, and students. Although their residential facilities were identical to those of the other learning communities, students living on the wellness floors and

The engineering/architecture students were most appreciative of the staff’s ability to help them form relationships with other students in their major and learn more about their major.

relationships with faculty/staff in the major and having a positive living experience. The engineering/architecture student satisfaction with residence hall staff was higher than that of the control group on each of the survey items. Students participating in the engineering/architecture community expressed satisfaction with the overall learning experience at the university. One of the students living in this community stated, “Our RA knows what’s going on. He has been through the tough classes and knows a lot about the instructors.” Though students participating in the community had a positive learning experience, they did not feel that they developed strong connections with faculty and staff outside the classroom; interviews with the engineering/architecture students revealed that strong interpersonal bonds had formed among the students and they had

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 38, No. 2 & Volume 39, No. 1