West Virginia Universitys unique living-learning residential college experience that brings academic guidance from close faculty contacts with social and cultural activities and special academic opportunities literally under one roof has expanded this fall.

Four existing residence hallsBoreman Hall on the Downtown Campus, Braxton and Lyon towers on the Evansdale Campus and Fieldcrest Hall near the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Centerhave been transformed into residential colleges.

The expansion follows the overwhelming success of Lincoln Hall, WVU s first residential college that opened last August, said David Stewart, associate vice president and dean of students.

The residential college concept found at Lincoln is based on WVU s Resident Faculty Leader (RFL) program, where faculty members and their families live in or near the residence halls as mentors and neighbors. Its all part of WVU s student-centered philosophy of creating a small but diverse learning community within the framework of a larger institution, WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr. said.

Its the philosophy that a big university need not alienate students from faculty and that a learning atmosphere will be better if students feel a sense of belonging to the campus,Hardesty recently told The New York Times.Its the idea that to improve in the classroom, we have to improve outside the classroom.

Stewart said the feedback to the residential college experience has been very positive.

I think the students have really bought into the whole idea of Lincoln Hall being a special place,he said,and the potential for faculty-student interaction is very positive.

Like Lincoln Hall, Boreman and Fieldcrest halls will feature faculty fellows from a variety of disciplines who will serve as mentors and teach freshman seminars. The roster includes Pat Conner, director of the WVU Press, who will lead a seminar onModern Dilemmas in Classical Contexts: Greek Tragedy,and Jim Nolan, associate professor of sociology, whose seminar is calledNeighborhood Crime and Disorder.

Associate members from the University and communitylike Jennifer McIntosh, executive officer for social justice, and Peggy Kovac, WVU s health education program coordinatorwill interact with students and discuss mental and physical health, financial management, civic leadership and other issues aimed at helping students succeed at WVU .

Students represent different majors and academic backgroundsthe makeup is about 80 percent freshmen and 20 percent upperclassmenand each residential college has chosen a theme, which will be reflected in a coat of arms, currently being developed, and other items such as T-shirts and pajamas, as well as programs and activities.

Boreman will have a liberal arts theme, focusing on philosophy, science and religion, said

Stewart, who, along with his wife, Shawna, serve as RFLs there.

Richard Montgomery, associate professor of philosophy and humanities, and his wife,

Marilyn, fill those roles at Fieldcrest Hall, which has the theme,West Virginia and the World,celebrating the state of West Virginia and its Appalachian heritage.

Stewart said Fieldcrest was selected to be a residential college because it houses fewer students than other WVU residence halls, and it is one of the newer student housing facilities.

Many of the facilities within Fieldcrest will be conducive to a residential college: things like a library, a study room, a multimedia classroom,he noted,and it has some nice gardens connected to it.

And we chose Boreman because many of the things weve been doing here really for the last seven years or so at Boreman have been sort of experiments in terms of a residential collegethings such as faculty involvement in developing different programs and activities, the development of student clubs and organizations within Boreman and strong emphasis on student participationplus Boreman also has undergone a number of renovations,he added.

Upgrades include more offerings in the rec room: a pool table, air hockey, foosball table and ping pong. The fitness and multimedia rooms are undergoing makeovers, too, Stewart said, and the newly renovated dining hall, Boreman Bistro, features a new kitchen, demonstration cooking area, custom deli, extensive salad bar, Starbucks Coffee outlet, new booths and a fireplace.

Braxton and Lyon towers will also incorporate a residential college experience this fall, but will center on a specific major. Braxton Tower, for example, will be connected to the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. The majority of students will be engineering majors, and Bob Whitmore, WVU wildlife management professor, and his wife, Dara, will serve as RFLs.

Stewart said the strong focus on engineering and science will give students who are interested in a technical major a strong support system. Residents will be living with classmates who are taking the same range of math, science and engineering classes, and activities include contact with faculty, trips to scientific or technical facilities and speakers on a wide variety of related topics.

So, we may end up doing things like organizing study halls for those students,he said.We may have some alumni events there and career fairs. We will invite the engineering faculty, and the dean of the College of Engineering may give an address to the engineering students, so its a kind of residential college thats intertwined with a live-and-learn kind of concept.

Lyon Tower, meanwhile, will be connected to the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences. RFLs Hillar Klandorf, professor of animal science, and his wife, Britt, will organize dinners and other activities for residents, most of whom will be students in the Davis College.

The residential college experience is part of the Student Affairs 2010 Strategic Plan, which includes the opening of an Honors College based on the residential college concept in 2009. Other residence halls will remain as they are nowtrue to the RFL program,Stewart said.

The idea is to just give students an array of choicesprogrammatic modelsin terms of what they want,he said.If they want the high participation and resident faculty involvement of the residential college, then they can move to places like Lincoln, Boreman and Fieldcrest. If they want a more focused residential college, then they can move to Braxton and Lyon. And if they want a more residence hall programmatic experience similar to the RFL program, then they can choose another hall.