Jason Frost scooped up a steaming heap of Muscheln and Fisch, the staples of a New England clambake, and a tasty vocabulary lesson for the University of Rhode Island junior devouring the German language.
The steamers and fish introduced German exchange students to Rhode Island cuisine–and introduced Frost, 19, a Cranston, R.I., native, to one of URI’s most popular on-campus living options: theme housing.
Frost lives in German House, a converted two-story brick building surrounded by faculty apartments. Here, German-language and engineering students live, eat and study with exchange students from Germany who encourage them to sprich Deutsch.
URI has also designated a former all-women’s dorm as a “wellness hall,” where students sign a pledge not to drink alcohol or smoke in the building, and where Tuesday-night meditation sessions are as popular as pizza parties.
New to the Kingston campus this year are Honors House and Engineering House. Could a Geology Hall or Philosophy House be far behind?
According to Chip Yensan, URI’s residential life director, each year more students request to live in so-called specialty housing. The growing popularity is prompting URI to plan for more theme houses, as it gears up for a $45 million dormitory overhaul over the next decade.
“We’re looking at a common bond–whether it’s an academic discipline or a lifestyle issue–hat we can cluster students around,” Yensan said. “It’s happening on college campuses nationwide.”
Nearly every university has some form of theme housing, whether it be a smoke-free dorm or an apartment complex where students share a common interest in, say, African-American culture or low-fat diets, said Gary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International.
While the concept of grouping students by their academic pursuits probably took root 30 years ago, the idea has broadened to include social, cultural, racial and sexual preferences over the last few years, Schwarzmueller said.
“It’s a recognition that we have people coming from diverse places with lots of interests and needs,” he said.
Brown University has a dozen different theme dorms, including Hebrew House, Technology House and Harambee House, which attracts students interested in African culture.
Brown’s first-year students are required to live in freshmen dorms; about 413 students, or 10 percent of the sophomores and upperclassmen, reside in the 12 “program houses.”
At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, there’s a dorm wing for students 21 and older. Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., offers Sign Language House; Open House, for its gay, lesbian and bisexual students; and Heathen House, for students who subscribe to a religion other than Christianity.
URI’s Jason Frost, one of 12 students in German House, says he elected to commute from Cranston rather than live in a traditional student dorm. When German House opened, he immediately asked to sign a lease.
“I like the age differences, the variety, the people who are into what they’re doing,” said Frost, who shares an apartment with a 23-year-old business student, Nicolas Napp, of Hanover, Germany.
German House students have access to a computer with a German spell-check function and can tune into Deutsche-Welle, a German-government-sponsored TV channel that is beamed in with the help of a satellite dish parked outside the front door.
Even better, there’s always a German around to help spot grammatical errors in homework assignments, said Frost, who is enrolled in the International Engineering Program. Students in the five-year program earn double bachelor’s degrees in engineering and German.
Two other URI dorms, Weldin and Browning Halls, are now freshmen-only buildings. The first-year program has proved so popular that URI will offer more freshmen dorms in coming years, Yensan said.
Jennyann Francis, 21, is a resident assistant in Tucker Hall, the no-smoking, no-drinking dorm.
Now a senior, Francis said she has lived in a wellness dorm since her freshman year, because it offered a quiet place to study and nights free of drunken students.
“It’s not like we sit around in fuzzy sweaters and drink tea. Everyone is very friendly and respectful of each other,” Francis said. After all, she said, “I came to school to study, not to party.”
