Office of Residential Life is working on proposals for more humanities-themed housing on the hill

The Office of Residential Life is discussing the possibility of creating a humanities-themed housing community in Hitch Suites. The residential complex would primarily consist of language-themed buildings.

The idea was influenced in part by the annual ORL student satisfaction survey, in which humanities students expressed interest in having more learning opportunities on the Hill, said ORL Director Suzanne Seplow.

Seplow said the primary goal of themed housing is to bring academics to residential life, while simultaneously bringing together students with similar interests.

Several humanities departments have expressed interest in working with ORL to house students by their academic interests. However, the Dean of Humanities declined to comment on which departments will participate in the housing as the plan is still being discussed.

Finalization of the themed housing will occur after more humanities departments develop their plans with ORL.

Susan Bauckus, a staff research associate of the UCLA Center for World Languages, said the Russian department is interested in offering a block of Russian-themed housing in Hitch next fall.

The block could include talks from professors in the department, access to Russian television and Russian cooking lessons, Bauckus said.

The humanities housing option would continue a tradition of themed communities begun by ORL several years ago. There are currently five community housing themes students can choose from on their housing applications, including African Diaspora Studies and Global Health Theme.

Although the current themed housing concepts bring together students studying several different subjects, some students expressed concerns that the new humanities theme would separate students by field of study.

“It’s ultimately beneficial for everyone to have a good mix of humanities and science students living together. The English major gets help from the computer science major when he debugs her computer, and she in turn proofreads his research papers,” said Haley Bartels, a first-year English student who does not live in themed housing.

Alice Twu, a first-year linguistics student who lives in the Sustainable Living Theme Community, said she did not intend to live on a themed housing floor when she filled out her housing application, but was pleasantly surprised by the experience once she moved in.

“We have stronger connections on our floor because we have something in common to bring people together,” Twu said.

Twu added that unlike most floors, student participation in floor activities still remains strong even after fall quarter.