A team of colleagues focused on reinventing residence life is working with a wide variety of stakeholders to present a plan for state-of-the art residence halls at the January 2024 Board of Trustees Meeting. The Theme 2 team includes Erin Ryan, Chris Kornsey, Michelle Bemis, Cesar Patino, Joe Mastrocola, and Meg Junk.
The IMSA experience is an immersive and holistic one. We serve as an around-the-clock living-learning lab that nurtures each student’s curiosity, creativity, and interest in collaborating with others. In their residence hall, students engage in informal interactions and sharing among themselves, scientific tinkering and experimentation, and countless aha moments of discovery. As they make connections with roommates and hallmates from vastly diverse backgrounds, students learn to understand a broad range of perspectives and also gain an understanding of their own talents and interests in ways they might not otherwise discover. They experience the benefits of teamwork in solving problems, and they build lifelong bonds.
While IMSA’s current living quarters have served us well over the past four decades, they’ve now deteriorated to the point where they can no longer support our goals for our students’ learning today and into the future. The limited number of residences, the cramped spaces, the dearth of public areas where students can work collaboratively or just relax and recharge, and the lack of convenient access to health care facilities and other important IMSA support services are just a few of the challenges that the current facilities present. Replacing, enlarging, and modernizing the residence halls is key to fostering a meaningful educational experience and increasing access for more students.
