It looks like some Lafayette students will be in the doghouse next year.
One of 13 new Living Learning Community (LLC) houses coming to campus for the 2016-2017 school year, the Dog House will house at least three students and four puppies, which members of the house will train to become service dogs.
According to Grace Veghte ‘19, who will be living in the house next year, the Dog House will take up a full house, while most other LLCs only take up half of one.
Before applying to create the Dog House LLC, Veghte said she and her future roommates had to talk to Lafayette College Residence Life to make sure the house would be included in the school’s insurance.
They also had to be approved by an outside organization Canine Partners for Life (CPL).
According to Director of Residence Life Grace Reynolds, the idea of having an LLC connected to an external group is new compared to any past LLCs.
Other new houses added for next year include a documentary house, a U.S. politics house, social justice houses and a Hispanic Society of Lafayette (HSL) house.
The five LLCs continuing into next year are the Interfaith House, the Wall Street House, Foodie House, Computers and Technology House and the Geode House. All other current ones will be phased out.
“Some of the same houses are back, but usually there’s a lot of change,” Reynolds said.
Students must apply to live in LLCs, but applications do not always get accepted.
Reynolds said that since students only commit to a year of living in the LLC, many choose to reapply for a second year. However, these students are required to complete the application again.
Students are also in charge of finding their own faculty or administrative sponsor, according to Reynolds. This faculty member serves as an advisor to the LLC, and helps students to plan events, she added.
“LLCs are another way students are individually connected with someone who takes an
interest in them and their experience here and for some students it’s a really great way to develop a relationship with a faculty member or some administrative advisor who they might not otherwise have developed,” Reynolds said.
Students living in LLCs must hold at least two events per semester. But according to Reynolds, those events do not necessarily need to be open to the whole student body.
“It is really about what those individual members want to do,” Reynolds said.
“The LLCs are designed to be an opportunity for the individual students who live in them to extend their learning outside the classroom and in a way that they can’t get through traditional means,” she added.
