For the 2024-2025 academic year, Oakland University students can live in three new Living Learning Communities (LLC) located in Hillcrest Hall.
The Business Honors Program, Ubuntu Village and Lavender Village LLCs were designed to connect like-minded students and foster community on campus.
These communities are a return to what was previously available before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We used to have what we call residential living-learning and the purpose of the Living Learning Communities was that we would get an opportunity to have students potentially live together who were also taking classes and really experiencing Oakland University both in and outside of the classroom together,” Senior Director of University Housing Robert King said.
“It’s this really unique cohort-based living experience that reinforces all the good things of Oakland, and when students are challenged, they’re navigating with both students in and outside of the classroom, who they may have a deeper familiarity with,” he added.
The Business Honors Program LLC is open to any students who have been admitted to the Business Honors Program through the School of Business Administration. These students can indicate their interest in the LLC on their housing contract.
Ubuntu Village LLC was created in collaboration with the Center for Multicultural Initiatives and focuses primarily on multiculturalism. It hosts events about intersectionality, volunteer opportunities, shared classes, community programs and field trips.
“[The community] is focused around underrepresented minority students across campus,” King said. “This is a community that we hope will be filled with experiences to explore identity because there could be students from any number of marginalized groups that potentially choose to be a part of this community.”
Similarly, Lavender Village LLC focuses primarily on LGBTQIA+ students and aims to foster inclusivity, individuality and an understanding of different identities.
“It will be a space where there will be programming geared towards really expanding and understanding the identity, maybe have an opportunity to experience Oakland together as a cohort and really build a community that supports the identity of the students,” King said.
Students who have expressed interest in the LLCs in the recent housing contracts have been approached to move forward with the process.
King said that the LLCs are full-year housing arrangements, so the next group that will get a chance to select the communities will be upcoming first-year students. When students express interest in their contracts, University Housing will work with students to place them in the communities.
“The hope is that this is our pilot year. We will learn, we will grow, we will develop and hop to make these LLCs even better for the upcoming year and really give students a really good experience so we can advertise that to the upcoming students for the 25-26 [academic year],” he said.
He added that ideas for future LLCs are already being explored.
“We’ve already started thinking about what the future could be, from sober living communities to first-year experience-type communities,” he said. “We’ve been approached by a couple of academic units about maybe continuing to expand.”
“We know there’s interest. We will have to do some right-sizing to make sure that the living learning communities that we create here really fit Oakland and give us a chance at Housing to do our best work,” he added.
For more information about the LLCs, visit University Housing’s webpage.
