Quotes from Chancellor Zeppos on why:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2018/01/22/new-vanderbilt-residences-boldly-connect-nashville-and-world/1054517001/
Very impressive!
It is nice to see the two towers go, hopefully be replaced by architectures that are more appealing aesthetically. The move will definitely draw the attentions of future applicants.
Way to go Vanderbilt!
I’ve heard that one of the goals of the residential colleges is to lessen the dominance of fraternities and sororities on campus. The argument is that the Greek system promotes elitism by its concentration of wealthy whites, while the residential colleges are supposed to promote diversity, equality, and all things good by being open to everyone. Has anyone in the administration been willing to give specifics about this line of thought.
Smart move.
@oldandwise : Maybe look through VU’s strategic planning documents. It is still in progress and I imagine some tidbits are still public. Admittedly, I do not think that goal is realistic, because a “residential college” vibe must receive buy-in from new and current recruits. Otherwise they will simply be just nice buildings with nice accommodations, the more intellectual activities or things (besides dining, again accommodation and quality of life oriented) could be avoided. People use the rescolleges as a nice place to hang and sleep sometimes while mainly socializing at Greek Parties or something. I think for an idea like that to work, again, students would have to buy in to the “culture” that a residential college is supposed to breed. And then…it raises the question of why it is not possible (there at least) to lessen the influence of Greek orgs with a more traditional system. Other schools have done a good job of it (Stanford and Chicago for example, and several more). The reshalls either have themes or are known for certain perks or specific cultures OR the schools themselves have sort of a different culture such that Greek life does exist and may even be well-subscribed to, but some many other things are happening to those not involved that other clubs and stuff have equal or even more influence so the effect of Greek life is not “felt” the same way by outsiders. I think some things take more than just buildings…it takes cultural change, sometimes big cultural change. Now what the residential college will allow VU (or any school with it to say) to begin claiming is:
“Hey look, we’re like Yale or Princeton now!”. It probably isn’t true (there is way more to being those two than having a specific reshall arrangement. Even the academics and curricular offerings are often surprisingly different), but some may buy into that a least. They can care less if it actually “feels” similar so much as the houses existing. So honestly much of this may be marketing…newer accommodations draws more applications because applicants are very much into aesthetics perhaps even more than substance. There is likely some strategy beyond the marketing aspect, but no doubt a lot is almost always “we are renovating or building new non-academic stuff to impress recruits on tours” and it does work. I wouldn’t even worry about whether the institution has an ulterior motive in the background because the recruits are often oblivious to that or do not care as much about those ideals as we would think. They just see: “They are building us great looking places to hang out and lay our heads down and it makes the campus even prettier”. And in reality, many may apply to VU and some other great southern schools perhaps because things like Greek life are influential and make the place fun. Turning that base of applicants (which may be significant) into applicants that care more about diversity and intellectualism will likely take more than new housing with faculty in them. They would have to design some new academic programming or messaging that jumps out to the types of recruits that do not care as much for the current “vibe”. While I hear that the influence of things like Greek life and the “vibe” have kind of toned down over time, it still stands out in comparison to competitors and enough to attract lots of those applicants who desire that vibe AND are qualified for admission. Without other major changes, culture change is an uphill battle.
They mention the residential college system in here:
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/strategicplan/Academic-Strategic-Plan-for-Vanderbilt-University.pdf
They allude to what you’re saying but of course you won’t be bold enough to specifically talk about Greeklife in the plan.
One thing I don’t care for that much (VU needs to think harder about this) is the Immersion Vanderbilt. If you truly want to combat elitism, then do not roll out a capstone that may only require students to simply do an internship or complete a course abroad. These can be less academically intensive than an honors/senior thesis or departmental research projects and people with lots of money will use it for these seemingly less intensive routes. It will likely preserve the status quo academically. There is such a thing as “too flexible” as the things that count are things that likely already happen a lot…looks like just another catchphrase trying to be passed off as an initiative. Nonetheless, it looks like an attempt to strengthen intellectual engagement (basically ensure that they are doing other more intellectually enriched things that compete for the time spent on “other things”). However, again, too much flexibility can be the devil in that regards. I have seen other strategic plans that mainly aim for the implementation of things at the departmental/discipline levels to ensure that “capstones” were basically done by everyone and had some tangible and presentable component in the end. They will get more progress in this area by seriously working on the specifics of these programs than building a residential college system.
I have to disagree with this post completely. The freshman commons is now engrained in the culture and sophomores and upperclassmen want that continued experience. They have been recruiting that type of student for a while and can pick and choose for diversity and intellectualism. The residential colleges expansion is just giving an outlet to a culture that they have already recruited for. The financial aid changes, Freshman commons, building the Wondry, along with Sybbure program and now residential colleges expansion are consistent cultural messages that intellectualism and diversity are already present in the culture. They made it that way by who they picked for admission. They only let roughly 10% in - they can fill that class with whatever profile they want.
I also disagree with post #4 & #5 for the reasons listed in post #6. I can’t help but wonder why anyone would work hard at speculating and being unnecessarily critical of a significant milestone to Vanderbilt University.
VU has experienced a renaissance under the leadership of Chancellor Zeppos. The culture, diversity, intellectualism, campus, faculty, talent of the student body, and the academic community at VU are second to none.
IMHO the Greek organizations at VU are far more inclusive than the final clubs and dinner clubs at many universities with residential colleges. Most metrics would also argue that Greek students are as intellectual as their non-Greek peers (higher graduation rates, lower drop out rates, higher GPA’s, improved peer and school connectivity, etc…).
Residential colleges enhance the academic community, help students stay connected to peers and the university, and yes, they are beautiful.
Did not read the whole plan, but from the original announcement a few months ago, it seemed to me that the school is trying to knock down some old buildings/small houses currently used by Greek houses, parking lots, reclaiming green spaces, reduce traffic, making even more park like campus, all the while to increase the learning experience and interaction among students, faculty, and visiting scholars. Like killing so many birds with a single stone. @honeyharasho After hanging around the CC for a while, eventually you would learn to skip certain people’s comments as the messages are about the same each time. I sometimes wonder why with that great talent and energy in analyzing skills, why not send these valuable points to the decision makers, mainly the board of trust and top administrators, but instead wasted on the CC with strangers.
Honeyharasho, you have misread my comments as criticism. There are many college administrators seeking ways to diminish the role of traditional Greek life. For instance, the members of SAE and KATheta here are almost exclusively wealthy whites, and they are seen as unwelcoming to many of Vandy’s other students. Yet those two organizations and their fellow “top tier” Greeks have an outsized influence over the social life here. Accordingly, it’s a forward-thinking idea to develop an alternate social arrangement that is both welcoming and egalitarian. But the allure of elite, exclusive groups is hard to root out, as Princeton and Harvard have found.
@honeyharasho : You read that as criticims…many schools have done similar things…I am telling you the “real” reason why many are attracted to options that upgrade accommodations. It certainly isn’t a bad idea. I am just saying that it is not fully for cultural reasons. I also think it is ridiculously naive to say that most students are drawn to places with NEW residential colleges or NEW dorms with themed halls because they are mostly interested in the culture occurring within them. They are interested in the overall vibe of the school and at many places Greek life and Sports still play a large role in how a school “feels” as well as attracted to “newness” and shiny facilities (bet on the fact that many applicants, then admitted students, then matriculated students do not even know of all the programming and even if they were aware, not all participate beyond the mandatory). If some can buy into what happens in them and want to continue on, that is nice, but let us not pretend everyone completely buys into this model and that it currently, in its relative newness, competes with another scene, or that it has already eclipsed the other reasons people usually choose the school over others. Let us just keep it real. Elite schools do not start building expensive new dorms for nothing. The programming may be in the background, but at the end of the day nicer facilities attracts students. Secondly, it is apparent that they do want to target oldandwise’s goal. I am saying it just will not be easy.
@oldandwise: They were targeting me and read it as criticism…I was simply speculating on the primary reasons (which are okay, because it works) AND the possibility that they were also targeting what you mentioned. It is ridiculously naive to say most of the students are attracted there because of the “new culture bred by the commons” or even attempt to claim that diminishing Greek life’s influence or “feel” isn’t a long term goal. People write on here all the time why they consider certain schools, and usually it has nothing to do with that sort of thing other than the dorms being nice and getting nicer. However, your reasoning may be in the background as well, but like you said, it isn’t easy. If it isn’t easy at those schools, it isn’t going to be easy elsewhere. Some of the folks on here act as if EVERYONE currently there and applicants have already FULLY bought into and heavily participate in the currently incomplete residential college system which is just silly. It will serve its purpose, but they must work aggressively to get more buy-in and interest beyond them just being nice dorms or they will struggle way more than H and P. Yet some people here act as if they have already “arrived” to an H and Y feel. I mean, do you think they have? I thought that was something that not only takes new buildings, but lots of time, and a BIG change in culture, that as you say, is incomplete even at those places.
@bud123 : That is ridiculous…I love the pride, but let us not pretend schools in this tier do not have work to do. Also what is “talent”? Seems to be defined differently by different schools and is also treated a different way depending on the school’s resources. I also think “intellectualism” can be measured indirectly. Some schools in this tier (as well as some above) have some work to do.
Residential colleges, learning/living communities are definitely a big trend in higher ed these days.
Many of Vandy’s peers schools already have this (Harvard, Yale, Rice, Notre Dame, etc.), and others have more recently adopted it like Vandy has (Dartmouth). There’s lots of reasons to adopt it.
One byproduct of a strong and established rez college system is that it provides some of the same things that greek houses provide. I’m sure that admins at Vandy are aware of this potential affect and are would be just fine if that is how it works out. But Vandy’s greek system is already pretty muted (despite the significant number of kids who join), especially the fact that the houses are non-residential. And no one knows how strong the house system loyalties will be until it has been fully up and running for a while.
Dartmouth (which has residential greek houses and bigger greek issues) was much more clearly trying to take a bite out of greek life.
The admin knows they won’t get buy-in yet because a minority of upperclassmen (200/~1700 per class) live in kissam, and people constantly move out/in to be with their friends (since most friend groups get split up since it’s hard to get in). They can’t get any buy-in right now since everybody, greek or non-greek, leaves kissam most of the time when they want to have fun (since most of your friends are going to be in other dorms anyway). In ~8 years, once they have kissam, new vandy barnard, and new towers (and maybe even new branscomb) up and running, they’ll be able to stick most of the students in comparable residential colleges. People won’t just want them because they’re the nicest dorms on campus, they’ll actually have a choice between options that are relatively equivalent. And whole friend groups will stick together. This means they’ll be able to emphasize different “personalities” for each one and sell programming more.
Once they can do that, they’ll close in on greek life and push residential programming a lot harder. Greek life will still exist to keep the alumni pitchforks from coming out, but it will be very heavily regulated. They’ve already talked about next moves - some houses are being knocked down soon to build smaller spaces, houses are changing from being residential only for officers to being completely non-residential, and they’ve even discussed pushing rush to first semester sophomore year.
They’re probably trying to keep a special balance. They know that one of the appeals of the school right now for many students is the greek life/partying/SEC sports, and so on. Whether it’s true or not, there’s the idea that Vanderbilt is a lot more “fun” than the ivies - maybe a similar vibe to northwestern/notre dame/duke - and they’re able to sell people on that idea. But they also want to attract more of the top minority/“intellectual” vibe talent that’s wary of nashville/the south/“southern” frats and srats. So they’re probably trying to make more options available without diluting what makes them unique - if they went hardcore trying to be Princeton lite, it might make them less popular.
On 9/8/01 S & I were in Nashville for an information session & tour at Vandy in the morning and downtown info session for MIT, S’s top choice at the time. I remember the date because the world changed the next week. Anyway, the admissions officer giving the information session spoke about the plans for the Commons and residential colleges at that time. VU has been working towards this goal for a long time. I work in academia, so I know how long change takes for even small things. I think their commitment towards diversity and to de-emphasizing Greek life has been a large part of their strategic plan for the last 20 years.
While the Commons didn’t materialize didn’t S’s undergrad years, it did come to fruition during D’s undergrad term. It’s been a complex process of replacing the old residence halls with new since VU typically lets only a few students have waivers to live off campus, but they are peddling hard and fast to make these changes happen. For example, when Towers come down, there will be more off campus housing waivers, but they are also working to channel more funding into study abroad to take pressure off of campus housing.
@fdgjfg : I’m thinking VU could maybe do its residential college system but then mix it with the concepts Stanford has implemented for its (non-residential college) system. Could be something that works well in the context of VU: https://web.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/sues/SUES_Report.pdf and what it is trying to do. The “different personalities” thing I think is really relevant and something that could work/resonate with those considering VU who want something a little different (or for those already there). No need for y’all to make such suggestions to admins because they clearly already look to others. I just think that some admins at other elites are ambitious, but may not consider the context of their own school enough (or maybe they will not publicly acknowledge the details and reality of that context).
Northwestern? Uhmm…that one apparently is more like an Emory, WUSTL, or even JHU type of feel but with a touch of sports fervor (I had a roommate my sophomore year who transferred from there and was not a STEM major and he said the two were extremely similar, just NU had sports so sometimes they would get some minor “rah rah”…but he said it had the same highly academic/intense student body type of feel). NU is known to be a comparative grind. I would not put it with ND, Duke, VU, and Georgetown.
*I do not buy the concept that schools like Duke and VU have “muted” Greek life. What are the benchmark schools, large publics with huge scenes or other peers with a decent subscription? If the former, maybe, but compared to the latter, probably not so.
@2VU0609 : Apparently any type of major organizational change is extremely rough when you don’t lay the groundwork or take it slow. I recently read about how Duke bombed at voting on a major update to their gen. ed. requirements. Students nor faculty were having it. They wanted to make it more rigid in key parts it seems…like a capstone, a 2 year series of connected courses…kind of like Stanford I think? And that took a long time to roll out. When it comes to organizational change and curricular reform of all things, you cannot just spring that sort of thing on anyone, especially when students and faculty are used to the advantages of flexibility. I would imagine changing architecture to induce social/intellectual change is perhaps easier than making legit curricular changes. Talk about a hard sell. With good marketing, I imagine folk can buy in to a residential college system over time.
Vanderbilt has had a residential college system in place for a while now. It was restricted to the freshmen at the commons and now they are just giving underclassmen the option of continuing…
Vanderbilt is really distinguishing itself amongst its peers - Nashville’s growth, awesome weather, SEC, happiest students, opportunities for innovation and intellectual and personal growth. Feeling some alma mater pride…