Incoming freshmen next year may have the opportunity to live in a community that will help them balance studying and gaming. 

The university will be adding new Living Learning Communities (LLC) for the residence halls in the 2020-2021 academic year.

The new LLCs include a Creative Expressions, which is for all majors who enjoy creating art or music, writing or acting along with an Outdoor Adventure LLC, which gives students the opportunity to hike, bike, rock-climb, fossil-hunt and bird-watch. This is for all majors.

A new Service and Leadership LLC will teach students about community service, leadership and making the world a better place.

The final one that will be added is an E-Sports and Gaming LLC. 

“I think (it’s) going to be really popular,” Director of Housing and Residence Life Amy Price said. 

This LLC is for all majors and includes e-sports, console games or tabletop games. The LLC is meant to help students balance studying with their hobbies.

This academic year, students who lived in Ruston, O’Bannon, Governors and Newman halls had the option of eight different LLC options. They could choose from the categories business, education, exploring majors, global community, honors, liberal arts, nursing and health professions and Science, Engineering, Math and Technology (STEM). 

When students live in the LLCs, they are able to take classes with people who live in the same communities as them as they live and learn together. They’re offered special classes taught for their cohort, special programs and service opportunities. 

“So, that’s a true living community,” Price said. “You live with the people that you take a few classes with.”

Price said a group of people from the university put together a task force to get student feedback on what they wanted to see in the living communities. Director of Honors Program and Living Learning Communities Sarah Stevens chaired it. The group consisted of Price, Stevens, Associate Director of Housing and Residence Life Juls White and a representative from each college.

The representatives were Mary Doerner for College of Nursing and Health Professions, Andrew Dill for Romain College of Business, Edmir Wade for Pott College of Science, Engineering and Education, Denise Lynn from College of Liberal Arts and Karen Huseman of University Division.

“We compiled data and then we conducted some one on one meetings and some group meetings with students, getting feedback and interest and seeing what they wanted to have,” Price said. 

After the LLC Task Force collected the data, they made several drafts of proposals and took it to the Provost Council for approval. Stevens and Price had to present the topic to the council on Sept. 24. During the presentation, the council reviewed the proposal and asked questions and then made the decision to move forward with it.

Now that it is approved, they are starting to publicize the new LLCs.

Most of the LLCs from this year will remain, but the global community LLC will be moved from the residence halls to the apartments so students can remain in the LLC after their freshman year. Price said this is something that international students could enjoy.

Each LLC has an LLC mentor. This way there’s a full-time staff or faculty member there for the group.

“That is the link between that group of students and the program or the community,” Price said. 

Price also said that there are many positives to living in an LLC.

“Students that participate in the Living Learning Communities often see a higher GPA and have higher satisfaction with their college experience,” she said.