Sacred Heart University is using an approach to pairing roommates that is so simple, it is almost laughable that every school doesn’t use some version of the service provided at roommateclick.com. Roommateclick is a service that helps people find roommates, which in the real world is probably just as dicey as finding a roommate on craigslist—it could work, it could not. But this sort of service seems perfect for colleges. Incoming students upload profiles and and browse those of other students. Once two people agree to be roommates, they contact the college, and that’s it.
It is nice to see that universities are making the effort to understand their students and give them options. Joel Quintong, director of residential life at Sacred Heart, gets it (other than his use of “millenials”).
“We understand millennial students like options and like more control over the educational experience.”
The Youngs are used to having options, and we wont have it any other way. You are starting to see this more and more in the workplace and its nice to see it filtering down to colleges as well.
On the flip side, there is an argument to be made for colleges choosing roommates for incoming students. While many people don’t get along with their freshman roommates, living with a stranger teaches you valuable social skills—something us coddled Youngs could use a little more of.
Here is the full article over at Boston.com.
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Green report card (http://greenreportcard.org/) just launched today and allows users to examine and compare the ecological sustainability of 300+ US and Canadian colleges. Schools are ranked report card style aspects such as administration, energy, food and recycling, green building, student involvement, endowment transparency, and investment priorities.
“The Report Card is the only independent sustainability evaluation of campus operations and endowment investments. Published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, it assesses 300 public and private colleges and universities with the largest endowments.” -greenreportcard.org
With a quick glace it was interesting to see how thorough the site is and it seems to paint a pretty accurate picture. Though, keep in mind its based off of a database and may fail to capture the most current trends on a campus.
While to some it may not be the most important factor when looking at a school, it never hurts to be informed and may prove vital to another’s decision. Enjoy!
Below is the course decription for a religion class at Vassar offered this Spring by Professor Jonathon Kahn:
Is there a distinct realm called the secular, which is free of and from the religious? As sons and daughters of the Enlightenment, we’ve come to think that there is. What sort of philosophical and historical moments have led to the public insistence on a non-religious space? What projects in ethics, politics, and identity have the insistence on the secular authorized? This class both analyzes and contests modern assumptions about secularism and the religious, and asks whether the ideals of secularism have materialized. Is it possible or even desirable to create realms scrubbed free of the religious, in our politics, in our public institutions, or in ourselves?
This sounds like a course that every person should take, whether you think our gov’t should be secular, or think religion should inform and influence our laws. At Vassar, as school previosuly ranked highly for “ignoring god on a daily basis”, it is doubtful that you will get many people arguing for the latter.
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