Chadbourne seeks to ‘change the culture’ of campus life

Chadbourne Residential College residents gather with faculty and staff on Bascom Hill for informal discussions and a picnic.

A circle of new freshmen, after polishing off box lunches and giving slightly awkward introductions, settle into the thick grass of Muir Knoll to lay out their expectations of life at UW–Madison.

With Lake Mendota glistening behind them on a warm August day, psychology instructor Caton Roberts asks the students what clinched their decision to come here. They list the big-city atmosphere, the affordability of education, its proximity to home, and the opportunities that seem to just spill from a campus this sprawling.

Listing what they wanted from college came easy; getting it was another story.

“I don’t know what to expect,” says Tracy Schampers, valedictorian of her Green Bay high school. In a student body of 1,200, she says, finding the spotlight was never a problem. “I’m kind of shooting in the dark here,” Schampers says. “The not knowing part scares me – but not the succeeding.”

The freewheeling small-group chats, led by professors and academic staff, marked the beginning of an ambitious experiment in residence hall life, the Chadbourne Residential College (CRC). Roberts suggested the 700-resident CRC may become a surprising factor in their undergraduate search.

“This can be the beginning of an identification,” he says, “something that will become part of who you are, rather than just a living, eating and sleeping space.”

The idea is that living is learning, and the residence hall can be a form of classroom. History Professor William Cronon, director of the Letters and Science honors program and CRC developer, says Chadbourne will let students connect their academic and personal lives by creating a seamless link.

“We want to change the culture of undergraduate education on campus,” Cronon says. “Students will be engaged in the UW and the world around them, and take charge of their experience here.”

A quick tour of CRC offers hints on how that might happen. In one ground floor office wing is an office for Mercedes Ramirez-Fernandez, the first UW–Madison academic advisor ever stationed full-time at a residence hall.

Next door is an office for three unique CRC staff. One, an organizer of community service projects, has already recruited more than 200 students for projects like Habitat for Humanity. The second, a communications coordinator, will develop a web site and a printed directory of students. The third staffer will coordinate distinguished guest visits, from artists to best-selling authors.

CRC also has added some social flavor to the mix, by creating a coffee house and performance stage for the eclectic late-night crowd.

CRC House Fellow Jeff Rauworth, a senior majoring in elementary education and theater, is one of the college’s true believers. Inviting the academic world into the residence hall may seem a bit daunting, but Rauworth says CRC will foster academics without the angst.

“It’s a place where students will feel comfortable approaching a professor, and talking on a professional or personal level,” he says. In fact, more than 60 faculty have already signed on.

Rauworth says CRC is loosely defined in a very deliberate way. The residents are responsible for building the community in their own image, and its sinks or swims based on their participation.

Most students, he notes, have grown accustomed following a concrete path of expectations toward a degree. But Chadbourne is built on students defining what they want to do, he says, rather than submitting to what they have to do.