The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1 - 95

LLPs Historical Review

as business or leadership, which can involve
several different majors and careers. This
creates challenges in developing targeted programming and student engagement. One way
UNL Learning Communities have met this
challenge is through the use of upper-division
peers in the role of paraprofessional staff.
At UNL, students serve the LC program
in two ways: as an ambassador or as a peer
mentor. Ambassadors attend recruitment
events and talk with prospective students about
LCs and what to expect while participating in
one. Ambassadors answer questions about LC
participation and attending UNL and encourage students to participate. In sum, they represent the LCs to both potential and incoming
students. Peer mentors assist students once
they arrive on campus, aiding in their social
and academic transition to college. They plan
events, engage in meaningful student interactions, have the option to live on the same residence hall floor as their LC, and offer guidance
to students in their learning communities.
Feedback from LC students suggests that their
peer mentors serve an important role, one of
friend, counselor, and role model.
The final challenge UNL Learning Communities continue to face, as does every
college and university in the country, is competition with other campus programs having a
required residential component. In order to be
in a UNL learning community, students must
live on a designated residence hall floor. This
prevents them from participating in other programs that also have a live-in requirement. LCs
also compete with campus fraternities because
fraternity members are allowed to live in fraternity houses in their first year, which is in direct
competition with LC participation.

FAST FORWARD:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
PRACTICE AND RESEARCH
We offer several recommendations for practice
and research, based on our review of the literature and insights from the LC program at
UNL. Our first recommendation for practice
calls for LLP staff to be strategic and creative
in how they utilize the efforts of faculty partners. We know that faculty involvement in
LLPs is critical to the success of students, but
there are challenges in gaining faculty involvement (Magolda, 2005; Sriram & Shushok,
2010). Thus, we recommend that university
leadership encourage collaboration between
residence life and faculty in a way that benefits
everyone involved. When considering the expectation for faculty to contribute to research
and scholarship, an option could be to recruit
faculty involvement in LLPs that include a
theme or focus relevant to a particular faculty
member's scholarship. For example, one of the
UNL engineering LCs recently shifted from

One critical component of LLP
success is the interest and
investment of participating students .
Popular culture-the films, novels,
television programs, and music that
permeate the collective Zeitgeist-
can be useful in attracting students
to a program . . .
V o l u m e 4 4 , No. 1 * 2 0 1 7

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1