University’s living-learning village equipped for 21st century

Integrating living and learning helps students thrive academically, say Colorado State University administrators, who are not just offering lip service but are committing to student success by building a new, $42 million Academic Village.

The facility, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2008, will combine living and learning into a single community of residence halls and a dining commons for students in the College of Engineering and the Honors Program. The buildings have been designed with input from CSU students, faculty, and staff and will incorporate green-building techniques and a functional design tailored to each program.

The Academic Village will house about 420 students – 240 students from engineering and 180 students from the Honors program.

Environmentally and faculty friendly

The new environmentally friendly facility will feature ultra low-flow water fixtures to conserve water use, a wind power option for students to purchase, and educational information displays on energy consumption.

In the two-story, 44,000-square-foot dining commons, a device called a pulper will compact food waste using water, then re-circulate the water.

A two-story adviser apartment in the Engineering Living Learning Community will encourage students to form mentoring relationships.

Technologically advanced

The community also will feature a new computer network created and donated by Sun Microsystems and a design studio modeled after design rooms at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

Unlike the use of jump or flash drives, Sun Microsystems' Sun Ray computer stations will access entire work sessions using ID cards. Students simply insert a computer-chip ID into the Sun Ray system, and the entire desktop, not just saved documents, will appear.

The University's comprehensive retention plan focuses on improving the quality of the undergraduate experience so that students will remain in school and graduate.

For more information, visit http://www.housing.colostate.edu/halls/academic_village.htm.