How to Build a Residential College

This page presents a summary of my recommendations for the establishment of residential colleges in large universities. The main links on the page will take you to more extended discussions of each of the major topics covered: (1) membership and administrative structure, (2) buildings and grounds, (3) college life and the annual cycle, (4) pastoral care, and (5) academic life. [The last two pages are not yet available. If you would like to be notified when new sections are added please join the Collegiate Way mailing list.] A supplementary page presents (6) a brief “generative sequence” in the style of the architect Christopher Alexander—an order in which the various collegiate components can be assembled and a new residential college opened in existing buildings with only one year of advance planning.

I have written this summary as a set of telegraphic instructions: do this, don’t do that, establish this, eliminate that. Every institution is different, of course, and the reader will determine when and how these recommendations will need to be adjusted to fit local conditions. All of these recommendations are, however, based on my direct experience or on the established practices of other residential colleges, and are known to be effective. For more general information about residential colleges please visit the main Collegiate Way page.