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University Commons

Region/Community: Universities around the world, and primarily undergraduates.

Description: University Commons will be an online community in which students around the world come together to discuss, research, and produce media related to their academic interests.

Students enjoy enormous benefits at their schools: they have access and privileges to unique conversations, knowledge, and other resources. The vibrant exchange of ideas that may seem routine within an academic community does not extend to the many similar communities around the world. At University Commons, students will be able to think and work in a common space.

From Henry: I began to envision this website when I worked simultaneously at a student journal and a public radio show. The journal published a series of essays by scholars in a thick, paperbound edition every six months. By contrast, the radio show drew on the input and comments of its audience, using a blog where questions and comments were integrated into each show as it was conceived and produced. So the germ is simple: in the quest for knowledge, students are each other's the best resource as they track down articles and experts; as they wrestle with questions big and small; and as they set out to test and advance their own ideas. University Commons will bring students together and give them the tools they need to express themselves at every phase.