The Honors floor will soon no longer be the only floor providing special opportunities to students on campus. Residential Life hopes to form three more Living Learning Communities this fall.

Reagan Sidney, assistant director of Residential Life, said the communities will give exciting opportunities for residents and student staff. She said the communities were designed to encourage more students to live on campus and get more involved around Loyola.

The Honors Program sparked initial interest in learning communities by starting the first community on the 11th floor of Buddig Hall. Honors students take specific honors classes and are able to study and live with other students taking the same curriculum.

The three learning communities in the development process are: Global Village, Rebirth Society and Leadership Fellows.

Students and student staff will go through the same selection process as usual, Sidney said, except they will indicate that they want to be considered for a learning community. The advisers of the floors will decide who is qualified for what community.

Jessica Murphy, assistant director of Co-Curricular Programs, will advise the Leadership Fellows community.

She said she expects to make the community a self-governing hall, where the students take courses on leadership and think through social issues.

In the same spirit of independence, one of the first projects of the Leadership Fellows community is for the students to make community codes, otherwise known as ordinances. If a student breaks an ordinance, that student will be asked to leave the community.

Even though no specific residence hall has been picked to house the communities, Murphy hopes to have about 20 to 22 co-ed students living in her community.

“For a Living Learning Community to be successful, (students) need to be interested in a specific topic,” Murphy said.

Sidney said the learning communities will provide different learning experiences for everyone involved because most students involved in communities will not only live together, but have classes together, as well.

She said that with Living Learning Communities, Residential Life is trying to make Loyola more cutting edge and focus more on the growth of the student.

“I wanted to make sure Loyola has what others (schools) have,” Sidney said.

Rachel Funel can be reached at [email protected].