Building Community

Sharing ups and downs, finding hidden strengths, even baking together – your campus family makes you feel at home.

Belonging to a Residential Commons community provides unexpected openings for students to expand their view of the campus and their place on it. Junior Aanika Gupta ’22 never considered herself a leader, but when she saw a need for change, she stepped up.

Faculty in Residence, known as FiRs, live and work in each Commons. They not only contribute to academic life, but they also find creative ways to bring their communities together. As education professor Ann Batenburg tells it, conversations that begin during the Commons’ legendary “Sunday Night Snacks” never really end.

Listen in as Alexa May ’23 and Emma White ’23 swap memories about the good times – and the cringey moments – while getting to know each other as first-year roommates.