By Russell Garth
Special Assistant to the President

Many independent college and university leaders speak of community—an often palpable sense of the educational commons at CIC institutions. But recently, I've become aware
of a more pointed use, "learning communities," on CIC campuses. This idea is not new, but it has made greater inroads in larger universities and community colleges than in private colleges. Indeed, I first learned of this concept years ago, at the federal Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, when we funded a research university to establish a Federated Learning Community, which "federated" or clustered together three jointly-planned courses, signed up a cohort of students for this entire block, and created a few additional opportunities for this temporary community of students. The point was to create intellectual integration out of the specialized fragmentation of the university curriculum.
    My sense at the time, obviously simplistic, was that this extra effort was unnecessary for small to medium-sized institutions where "community" was a given. So it's been interesting to see how independent institutions today are using this concept. Stonehill College (MA), for example, makes required learning communities for sophomores a key part of its integrative Cornerstone Program. Each community is based in a cluster of three courses, two disciplinary ones linked with an integrative seminar team-taught by both professors. This sophomore component follows four required (but not linked) Western Heritage courses for first-year students, and explicitly seeks the educational coherence that can emerge from a learning community approach.
    In the 1990s, Saint John Fisher College (NY) experienced an enrollment decline as more students attended community colleges for the first two years before transferring to Fisher. To give prospective students reasons to attend all four years, the College began offering several optional learning communities in 1996. A skills course, usually writing, is clustered with one or two other disciplinary offerings, and cohort sizes are limited to 18 students. Learning communities are now mandatory for all first-year students, and three financial aid programs are connected directly with specific learning communities”—focusing on community service, first-generation students, and science scholars. The College has enriched this initial year for students with a one credit-hour Freshman Seminar, Freshman Advisors, and Peer Advisors. And enrollment has climbed significantly.
    Johnson C. Smith University (NC) also began with 100 first-year students, randomly selected and divided into four cohorts, taking four courses together. The goal was to improve retention from the freshman to sophomore year. The University has used a similar approach in the sciences and the honors college. This semester, for the first time, several disciplines have linked pairs of introductory courses (for example, economics and Spanish, and music and communications arts). Grand View College's (IA) use of learning communities has been motivated by both retention and a large number of commuting and transfer students. Explicitly seeking to create places within the curriculum that could contribute to a sense of community, the College recently defined design principles for its new course clusters: involvement of two or more departments, a unifying theme, active student collaboration, development of writing and critical thinking skills, use of both classical and new texts, and longer blocks of time.
    Not surprisingly, some independent colleges have stretched this notion to encompass more than just courses. At St. Lawrence University (NY), learning communities have been required since 1988 for all first-year students, in groups of 30-45, who not only take one team-taught, 4 1/2 hour course together but are also housed together, creating opportunities to use residence hall common space for related activities and to extend interaction beyond the classroom. The results of this program have surfaced in the University's unusually strong freshman showing on the National Survey of Student Engagement.
    The College of Saint Benedict (MN) and St. John's University (MN) are jointly experimenting with learning communities that involve activities in addition to courses and, in a few cases, do not involve courses at all. For instance, an environmental study community involves four courses and considerable off-campus activity, while an Asian studies community entails no specific courses but an Asia Club, campus speakers and cultural events, international study opportunities, internship and career opportunities, and presentations on student and alumni experiences in Asia.
    Interesting…and important. Even at independent institutions, which enjoy a clear head start on a sense of community, thoughtfully implemented learning communities can heighten the very experiences that many students sought when they chose that institution in the first place.

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Last updated: July 5, 2002
Copyright © 2002 The Council of Independent Colleges