For years, Elon University's learning communities have depended on juniors and seniors to act as unofficial mentors to freshmen and sophomores on their halls. The cross-campus junior-senior cap on housing has affected those who wish to live in learning communities just as much as it has those who wish to live in on-campus housing.
Rising juniors and seniors have felt the push to move off campus to give more spots to rising freshmen and sophomores because of the cap, according to Michael Carignan, associate professor of history and associate director of honors who coordinates the Honors Living and Learning Communities.
“I felt like the junior-senior cap that they imposed this year, and whatever message they delivered to kind of let juniors and seniors know that it was time to go, meant that we got no applications from rising juniors and seniors to live in the (Honors) LLC,” Carignan said. “I think that that’s detrimental to the community we’re trying to build on the floor there. We want different grades represented. I don’t know what we can do next year, but it’s certainly on my agenda to make sure rising juniors at least know that we’d like a few on the (Honors) floor.”
Laura Anderson, special projects coordinator for Residence Life learning communities, sees the lower amount of juniors and seniors returning a different way.
“Before the application even was available to students, the (faculty) advisers were made aware of how many first years had to be in a community and how many spaces had to be reserved for first years,” Anderson said. “Fewer rising juniors and seniors applied than sophomores simply because a lot of them have been in the community for two years and they’re ready to do something else or they want to transition off-campus.”
Even so, the Honors floor represents just one of many learning communities that have felt a shift because of the junior-senior cap. Anderson said Residence Life has not had to turn many upperclassmen away, but Carignan said he has heard from juniors and seniors currently in the learning communities that more of them would have applied if they had thought that there would be spots available to them.
“I’m worried that we missed a chance to keep some more elders around because of the campus-wide formula they had that wasn’t really respectful of the needs or precedents of the Honors floor,” Carignan said. “But if they need beds for first-years and the only ones left over are in the LLCs, well then the LLCs should be expected to adjust to that and sometimes that can work out well.”
Carignan also expressed concern that the Honors learning communities may not have enough freshman applicants to fill the extra spots that rising juniors and seniors did not fill. The Honors hall in Colonnades C typically holds spots for 16 freshmen and the William R. Kenan Jr. Honors Pavilion holds spots for 10 freshmen. This year, there will be four extra spots available on each hall because of the smaller amount of returning rising juniors and seniors. Typically more than enough first-years apply to fill the spots in any given learning community, Anderson said.
“If there was a situation where a community didn’t fill, I’m not sure how it would be handled,” Anderson said. “It might be an instance of getting the students that are accepted in the community to recommend those that they know might be interested because I think that there are students on campus who haven’t applied for whatever reason, but, when given that kind of nudge from a friend in the community, will say, ‘Oh yeah, well I do want to do it. I want to try.’”
Despite the change in the number of juniors and seniors in learning communities, the numbers for sophomores have remained consistent, according to Anderson. Senior Katie O’Brien, student learning community assistant and media arts and entertainment major, said there are several reasons that freshmen usually stay in learning communities as sophomores.
“Mainly people who are in learning communities as freshman are going to want to come back," O’Brien said. “I was in a learning community my freshman year and I think everybody reapplied for their sophomore year, just because you’re used to it. That way, you don’t have to go through housing selection. It’s just so much easier, and hopefully you liked it enough to go back.”