The University will open a residential college geared toward a specific student interest next fall, breaking from its long-held model of grouping residential colleges by majors and colleges.
The new Global Connections Residential College will aim to internationalize the University and mold 100 students into global citizens, according to Meredith Veldman, history professor and rector of the residential college.
Students will inhabit half of Residential College One, South Hall, which currently houses the Engineering Residential College.
The student experience for the college will be two-fold. Fewer than 2 percent of University students study abroad, Veldman said, but the University accepts a large number of international students. One of the frustrations of international students is being clustered with only other international students and not meeting Americans, Veldman said.
The Global Connections Residential College will bridge that gap by housing University students who are American and want to learn about international studies and are considering studying abroad alongside international students. Veldman said she and other officials from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences want 25 percent of the residential college’s occupants to be from abroad.
“This is an opportunity to meet people from around the world,” Veldman said. “This is an opportunity to make connections in human terms, but also in intellectual