The Changing Nature of Student Life

By David Greene (right), Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services, and Margaret Klawunn (left), Associate Vice President and Dean for Student Life

One of the perquisites of our jobs is working with motivated, engaged, and talented Brown students who care deeply about their academic and extra-curricular activities. This generation of students is technologically savvy and tuned in, having grown up with computers and cell phones, iPods, laptops, and Palm Pilots. Given the changing needs of students, we are working to provide new resources that reflect emerging technologies, round-the-clock student schedules, and more integration of students' lives inside and outside the classroom. We have translated the shift in our approach to students' lives into some substantive changes in services on campus -- new features in buildings, staffing, and information access which we outline below. This update describes some of the visible manifestations of new modes for learning, teaching, and recreation.

Two major facilities projects are under way that will greatly improve life for students on campus. The Susan and Richard A. Friedman Study Commons, to be housed in the lower levels of the Sciences Library, is in the design stage. Architects are also drawing up plans for the Jonathan Nelson Fitness Center, to be located in front of the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center.

Modest renovations have been completed in Sharpe Refectory, the Ivy Room, and Josiah's to better support a dining program that increasingly features local and organic products, late-night eating venues, and the integration of study and meeting spaces with dining facilities.

This fall new technologies will bring music and television into the residence halls in changed forms. Through a generous grant, and in an effort to reduce illegal file sharing, Brown has established a pilot program that will allow students in residence halls to download libraries of music from the 1.5 million titles on Napster, the music subscription service. They will also be able to watch television on their computers as part of a pilot program that will deliver sixteen channels over Brown's high-speed residential network. One purpose of this pilot project is to assess whether educational and community resources can be effectively delivered through Internet television.

Information access will be altered in other ways as well. Students can now learn about campus activities on promotional screens in the Sharpe Refectory and Blue Room. These screens will permit students to promote their activities and will inform them about campus events. Getting around locally will be easier, too, with two zip cars that give anyone 21 or older the opportunity to rent self-service cars that can be booked online.

To keep up with the changing pace of student life, we have made some adjustments to our administrative structure and staffing. We have increased the number of peer counselors in the residence halls and expanded the job duties of our counselors covering the residential areas for sophomores, juniors, and seniors with the aim of building stronger residential communities. We are also looking to pilot a residential peer board that will give students more of a role in setting policy and adjudicating violations of residential standards. Additionally, there will be more faculty presence in residential life, through some expanded programming and partnerships between faculty fellows and residential staff. For first-year students, peer academic advisors and residential counselors are teaming up to provide more effective advising on academic and non-academic matters.

The level of support we offer to students is broadening in ways that suggest the evolving needs of our community. This year, for example, we expect to appoint our first Muslim Chaplain. We have also increased staffing in Psychological Services, adding a new psychotherapist position, and, for the first time, a staff psychiatrist.

As part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Brown is enhancing many aspects of its educational offerings. Working in concert with these changes, we have the freedom to begin imagining ways that our services, staffing, and facilities can be improved over time to create the best educational and residential environment for students at Brown.

Photo by Peter Goldberg