Talking Stick - March/April 2018 - 46

Editor's Note:
For almost 20 years
Karen Kurotsuchi
Inkelas has been
studying livinglearning communities, and she led
the National Study
of Living-Learning Programs which
included data from more than 50,000
participants and 50 institutions. In
the forthcoming book Living-Learning Communities That Work: A
Research-Based Model for Design,
Delivery, and Assessment (Stylus
Publishing), Inkelas, along with coauthors Jody Jessup-Anger, Mimi Benjamin, and Matthew R. Wawrzynski,
draw from their collective experience to
lay out their best practices for creating
a living-learning community. As they
explain, once the infrastructure is set
and the academic and cocurricular
environments are nurtured, the final
step is utilizing intentional integration
to maximize program results. In this
excerpt adapted from the book, the authors explain how to cap off a successful
program.

he final building block of
the living-learning communities (LLCs) best practices
model is what we call "the
pinnacle." Like Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, in order for LLCs to
reach the highest point on the pyramid,
it is essential that all the lower levels
of the pyramid are satisfied. Having
clear goals and objectives for an LLC
is critical in laying the foundation for
its programming. Indeed, all other
facets of the LLC - the courses, faculty
involvement, a supportive residential
climate, the cocurricular activities -
should emanate from the LLC's goals
and objectives. The pinnacle represents
the extent to which all other blocks on
the pyramid are aligned with the LLC's
goals and objectives and integrated with
one another. In essence, it is simply not
good enough for an LLC to have all the
blocks in the infrastructure, academic
setting, and cocurricular environment;

TALKING STICK

those blocks need to be coordinated
with one another in meaningful and
intentional ways.
Optimally, all the blocks in the best
practices model should be integrated.
This means that the academic affairs
and the residence life and housing professional staffs must be knowledgeable
about each other's roles in the LLC,
as integration is impossible without
regular and effective communication.
Fortunately, there are a variety of examples of how LLCs can integrate their
program offerings to provide more
impactful environments.
One option is to offer LLC students
courses for credit as well as cocurricular activities. In offering a course
open to members only, an LLC has
several opportunities to take advantage of various cocurricular activities
for that course. At the very least, the
course could organize its students
into study groups so dialogues and
coursework begun in class can be
continued into the residence hall. Or
if the topic of the class is conducive to
a service-learning project, the instructor can coordinate with the LLC to

of Wisconsin-Whitewater, notes in her
article about service learning, "When
service is conceived in this way, faculty
are implicitly prompted to answer the
two questions that should frame any
service-learning course: (1) What type
of service text should I assign, and (2)
How will I meaningfully incorporate
the service text with other texts utilized
in the class?"
Similarly, if the course topic is
related to a career or vocation, the
instructor can invite individuals from
that industry to the class to share their
experiences working and then invite
them to stay for dinner or a fireside
chat with the LLC participants. Or
when the LLC goes on a field trip to
an industry site, the course instructor
could take a few minutes of class time
to discuss what the students will see
there, what questions they might ask,
or what observations they might make.
The more opportunities students have
to integrate what they are learning in
the classroom into their lives in the
residence halls, the more likely they
will be able to apply their learning to
other new contexts.

THE MORE OPPORTUNITIES STUDENTS HAVE
TO INTEGRATE WHAT THEY ARE LEARNING
IN THE CLASSROOM INTO THEIR LIVES IN THE
RESIDENCE HALLS, THE MORE LIKELY THEY
WILL BE ABLE TO APPLY THEIR LEARNING TO
OTHER NEW CONTEXTS.
incorporate a service component into
the class. If service-learning is incorporated, the instructor can take care
to ensure that the service dimension
is integrated into the course. One way
to do this is to conceive of the service
as a core anchor of the course, much
like a text book. As Lori Varlotta, the
dean of student life at the University

Field trips and invited speakers can
also provide leadership opportunities
for students. In our discussions with
LLC coordinators and students, each
described the formal and informal
roles students played in planning these
events, ranging from leading alternative
spring break trips to providing logistical
support for field trips or serving as a

Talking Stick - March/April 2018

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