What if you could live in a residence with all of your colleagues from the same faculty? AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Johannes Rebane is looking into the concept of themed housing for students, which looks at merging everyday learning with everyday living.

The concept entails taking sections or floors of residences and applying specific themes to them so that students who are interested in the topics can apply for the housing, and have a convenient environment in which they can interact and learn from others with the same interests.

Rebane illustrated themed housing as an opportunity to amass students who share certain qualities and enable them to explore their interests in a new way.

He sees this as a way to “promote some of the key strengths we have” here at UBC, by grouping together students who share interests that could range from sustainability to engineering. The program would also provide opportune environments for students to create “tangible results in these [specific] areas,” because they will interact with each other more easily.

“It’s about bridging the gap between what you learn in the classroom and what you can learn at home…as opposed to segregating [the two],” said AMS Campus Development Commissioner Selena Shannon.

Rebane noted that right now residences are typically seen as a source of “noise, partying and social disruption,” when they could also function to support learning without taking away from what one would see in a typical residence.

This is a “university-wide initiative to look at teaching innovation…What better way [is there] to innovate teaching than to take it away from just the classic classroom and bringing it into where students eat, live and laugh?” asked Rebane.

Rebane hopes that students will have a convenient place to talk about their passions, develop networks, and be able to bring those passions and skills to use post-graduation. It would also create a deep culture among students that is both fun and rewarding.

These shared cultures will make it easier to connect external resources and create “more hubs of interactivity,” noted Rebane, adding that it would be much easier to bring in a professor or guest speaker on a certain subject than it would be in a regular residence, where you have many different students with different interests.

Those who don’t live on campus can also become involved through guest speaker sessions and other events put on by the programs.

It’s about more than “just learning from your multiple choice exams and…essay questions. You’re being taught the skills to learn in everyday life,” Rebane added.

Shannon anticipates that students living in a university residence such as Totem or Vanier next year may be the first to apply for an experimental round of the program.

“There’s a big opportunity for us to jump on board with this,” noted Rebane, regarding the addition of 550 beds to Totem Residence and the continuous development of new housing schemes.
Themed housing would not cost students any more than regular housing, as it’s merely a matter of shifting the programming to the resident advisors who already coordinate housing activities and making them more focused.

This idea of themed housing is not a new one by any means. In fact, UBC seems to be lagging behind most other major universities in Canada and the US in regard to its implementation.
Other notable Canadian universities employing similar concepts include the University of Western Ontario, McGill University and the University of Alberta. Though not all school residences encompass specific themes, many of the programs share the underlying philosophy.

University of Toronto Community Development Coordinator  Beth Spilchuk said that the Living Learning Communities at her campus offer two themed programs: an Eco House and Scholars Housing, with the main priority of promoting learning beyond the classroom. Spilchuk said that the Scholars Housing “facilitates study sessions, and is really focused on building [students’] résumés and applying for grad schools.”

In terms of the success of the program, Spilchuk said that the campus “is very academic [and] I think I could see the Scholars Housing grow more…and become a larger Living Learning Community.”

“The [residences] are pretty much full and…students are really enjoying it.”

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