Living Learning FAQs

• What is a Living/Learning Community (L/LC)?
• What are the themes of each floor?
• What makes a living on a Living/Learning Community different than any other floor community on-campus?
• Who can benefit from a Living/Learning Community?
• How do I apply for a Living/Learning Community?
• What happens if I don't get the L/LC I ranked as my first preference?
• What happens if I select to live in the Living/Learning Community and the apartment options do not match my housing preference?
• What happens if I select to live in the L/LC and the person that I want to live with does not?
• What happens if I get paired with a roommate who has a different interest within the community than me?
• How much does it cost to live in 731 S. Plymouth (where all L/LCs are located)?
• Are there additional programming fees associated with these communities?
• How much of my time per week should I expect the community to take?
• How will the required classes be assigned?
• What happens if I decide not to live in the L/LCs after I signed my housing contract?
• Who can I contact for more information?

What is a Living/Learning Community (L/LC)?
A Living/Learning Community is a unique opportunity for students to share their creative passions with students from different majors in each part of their Columbia College student experience. They live with, take classes with and build a community with students who share their interests.

Each floor has its own "theme" and incoming freshmen who have a passionate interest in the theme are welcome to apply for the community. In addition to living on a residence hall floor together, students within these communities will be taking two courses together: one in the Fall and another in the Spring—both required towards graduation.

We are currently offering six L/LCs for students to choose from for Fall 2010: Big Screen/Small Screen, the Visual Arts, Writertypes, the Performing Arts, Loud Speaker and World Arts Media, Marketing, and Managing (WAMMM).

What are the themes of each floor?
Each floor’s theme includes a wide range of mediums and disciplines, but all of these are tied together with a few shared components.

• Big Screen/Small Screen is for students who consume and create moving images of all kinds, in film, television, video games or new media.
• Visual Arts brings together students who like to paint, draw, photograph, graffiti, collage or explore any of the visual art forms.
• Writertypes calls for writers of all types: poets, journalists, novelists, playwrights and anyone else who finds words the most interesting way to communicate.
• Performing Arts welcomes anyone who loves to perform on any kind of stage whether they’re dancing, singing, playing an instrument or playing a role.
• Loud Speaker looks for students who have something to say and choose to speak up with slam poetry, spoken word and rap battles.
• World Arts Media, Marketing and Managing seeks out students who want to have a hand in molding the culture around them as publicists, advertisers, managers and marketing gurus.

For more complete descriptions of each floor’s theme, please visit their individual pages.

What makes a living on a Living/Learning Community different than any other floor community on-campus?
Columbia College has always believed that young creative minds benefit from living within an incredibly diverse community—ethnically diverse, socio-economically diverse, geographically diverse... and diverse in artistic and academic interests. As a result, most of our residents live in communities with students of different majors and different backgrounds and different worldviews.

Students who choose a Living/Learning Community are choosing to push this diversity further by focusing their attention and social activities around specific thematic explorations of the arts. While the floors are organized around a theme, we designed these themes specifically so that students would have a chance to learn from and collaborate with peers who expressed themselves in different styles and mediums. If you choose to participate in an L/LC, be prepared that you’ll be in constant contact with inspired (and inspiring) young creatives- on their floors, in their classrooms and in their social lives.

Who can benefit from a Living/Learning Community?
Any and every incoming first year student who is looking to make connections based upon their interest within the themed communities.

How do I apply for a Living Learning Community?
The deadline to apply for a Living/Learning Community has passed. If you have any questions regarding LLC applications, please contact the Residence Life office at residencelife@colum.edu.

What happens if I don’t get the L/LC I ranked as my first preference?
If you have not been accepted into your selected Living/Learning Community, you may be placed into your second or third preference. Additionally, your name will be added to the wait list for the community you listed as your top choice.

In the event ALL your selected Living/Learning Community preferences are full, housing will still be available and a housing offer will be e-mailed to you.

What happens if I select to live in the Living/Learning Community and the apartment options do not match my housing preference?
You will be placed in an apartment option within the L/LC that matches your preference as closely as possible. But we will assume that your Living/Learning Community request supersedes your housing preference.

Please Note: If your first housing preference was to live in a Traditional Semi-suite, all housing options within the L/LCs are apartment-style rooms. There is no meal plan associated with the apartment-style options. Students living in apartment-style options are able to purchase a limited meal plan—at additional cost— through Residence Life.

What happens if I select to live in the LLC and the person that I want to live with does not?
Though we cannot promise that your request for a roommate will be fulfilled, your chances of being placed together will be greatly improved if you both mutually request one another as roommates and if you both request to live in the same room type and the same LLC. Everyone living within the physical confines of the L/LC is expected to be an active participant in the L/LC.

If your requested roommate is not interested in living in your chosen L/LC, you must make the difficult decision of determining which would be more valuable to your living experience: having the roommate of your choice or living in the L/LC of your choice. While keeping in mind that while we make the effort to honor roommate requests, they are not guaranteed.

What happens if I get paired with a roommate who has a different interest within the community than me?
Consider yourself lucky! While you may not share the exact same interest, everyone in a Living/Learning Community has some common ground because everyone chose to participate in this opportunity. Living and learning with colleagues who may take a different medium or approach to similar work is part of the process. You’ll be able to see your own work in a new way because you’ve grown and learned from your peers who share some, but not the exact same, passion.

How much does it cost to live in 731 S. Plymouth (where all L/LCs are located)?
The cost to live in 731 S. Plymouth is $9,744 for the Academic Year.

Are there additional programming fees associated with these communities?
No. Programming fees are included in the cost of housing. We are committed to providing active, challenging and nurturing communities for all of our residents—whether they live in an L/LC or not. And so there’s no additional cost for programming in the L/LCs.

How much of my time per week should I expect the community to take?
The amount of time per week will vary per community and per student, however we expect each floor member to participate in at least three activities per semester. These activities can include floor trips, Columbia College events, floor rituals and anything else posted to the L/LC calendar.

How will the required classes be assigned?
All students in a Living/Learning Community will take New Millennium Studies with their communities in the fall. Students will be assigned to this class before they arrive at Orientation. Students must either pass out of Writing & Rhetoric I or take Writing & Rhetoric I in the fall semester. Students do not need to take Writing & Rhetoric I with their Living/Learning Community members.

All students in a Living/Learning Community will take Writing & Rhetoric II with their communities in the spring. Students will be assigned to this class before they register for spring semester courses.

What happens if I decide not to live in the L/LCs after I signed my housing contract?
Students who decide not to partake in the L/LC experience after signing the housing contract, will be removed from the L/LC. Their housing application will be reinstated the student will reenter the general housing application pool.

Who can I contact for more information?

Residence Life
731 S. Plymouth Court, 1st Floor
Chicago, IL 60605-1996

Office Hours:
9:00am - 5:00pm, Monday - Friday

Phone: (312) 369-7803
Email: residencelife@colum.edu