In an effort to avoid the boisterous life of a typical college student, Bryan Zarpentine moved into a quiet lifestyle learning community his freshman year.

Instead of fostering a vigilant study regiment, however, the convenient living locale of Brewster Hall allowed him to focus on only one thing: the roar of passers-by on Interstate 81.

‘I hear everything – fire trucks, ambulances and a train that blows its horn every time it goes by,’ said the undecided freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘It was hard at first, but I’m starting to get used to it.’

As the hum of traffic has become less noticeable, now he dedicates his energies to blocking out the piercing voice of a rowdy girl who lives down the hall.

Zarpentine’s vexing living situation is familiar to the many students who resent apathetic members or the lack of programs in their learning community. Instead of enriching their college experience by living with students sharing similar interests, the members often find themselves bored, isolated or outright frustrated.

The first learning community was launched in 1998 after a male student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management sought to foster his affinity with fellow students on a residential level. Since then, the program has expanded to include themes ranging from leadership and wellness to artwork and religion, offering a broad scope of living alternatives to students with similar pursuits. This year, a total of 19 different groups were available to the student body.

‘We work to provide students an opportunity to connect with other students socially or on an academic level,’ said Terra Peckskamp, the director of learning communities for Student Affairs and the associate director of the Office of Residence Life.

For the 849 students actually residing in these themed colonies, however, the effectiveness of the groups is a matter of debate.

Jayson Garcia, a freshman aerospace engineering major and member of the Maxwell citizen education learning community, said his Brewster Hall group has only been moderately fulfilling. While many members participated in a ropes course in Ithaca last fall and a laser tag event sponsored by the Learning Community Advisory Board, he also noted several program deficiencies.

‘It’s really hard to get everyone involved,’ Garcia said. ‘A lot of people were just placed in the program and don’t want to be there. Their parents probably just signed them up for it.’

A surprising number of students living in the learning communities are there simply because they misread their housing application. In many cases, students treat the directory of suggested learning communities as a requirement, not a guide.

‘I was totally confused when I signed up,’ said Amy Hecht, a freshman economics major and member of the service learning community in Day Hall. ‘I thought you had to pick one (learning community). A lot of other people thought that too, so when they found about the 20-hour service requirement they dropped out.’

Peckskamp says the Learning Community Center has addressed this problem by editing their promotional literature and adding the claim ‘this is not mandatory’ to the LCC Web site.

In addition to meeting applicant qualifications and in some cases required service hours, students may have to complete a 1-credit course that complements the theme of their community. When students are dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the class, this prerequisite serves as another source of frustration.

Brandon Goodman and Jason Ireton, for example, both freshmen business majors and members of the management learning community, were thoroughly disgusted with the quality of the course they were forced to take, School of Management 100.

‘It’s such a waste of time,’ Ireton said. ‘It was so irrelevant in that we could have focused on real issues, like actual management. The class was a good semi-transition to college, but at the same time it could have been more applied.’

Goodman expressed even greater disdain for the learning community course.

‘I hate that class,’ Goodman said. ‘It’s bullshit because we take that instead of freshman forum, so you don’t meet any new people. It’s so repetitive.’

Despite inherent weaknesses in their course requirement, the two attributed several successes to the quality of the management community itself, such as a higher level of comradery and academic support at their immediate disposal. Yet the members have found drawbacks to living with so many people having the same interests.

‘You’d think that living with freshman would make the transition process easier, but it doesn’t,’ said Greg Dunton, another freshman business major in the management community. ‘You get really close to the people on the two floors but then you don’t meet many other people.’

The close bonds made by students sharing academic and extra-curricular pursuits often lead to the construction of barriers from other people in the same residence hall. These obstacles appear especially when floors consist of both members and non-members.

For example, members of the wellness learning community in Marion Hall are often dubbed ‘wellness weirdos,’ despite the fact that few members actually adhere to the no-tolerance policy. The lack of rule observance reveals another glitch in several of the learning communities’ missions.

‘There’s not one person on this floor who doesn’t drink,’ said Ross Kinnaird, a freshman communications major and member of the wellness community. ‘A lot of people just signed up for this group thinking they would get free smoothies and massages.’

Problems that develop in the learning communities are sometimes due not to failures made by the students themselves, but by the superiors intended to guide them. Arts and adventure member Maxine Squires, a sophomore communication and rhetorical studies major, places blame on the lack of quality floor programs on the shoulders of her Resident Adviser.

‘Our RA just isn’t on top of things and it trickles down to the rest of us,’ Squires said. ‘There is a definite lack of participation on the floor … some people might have been forced into it.’

No matter how effective the learning communities are or ever will be, Peckskamp said, there will always be people who choose to disregard the goals of a learning community. The successfulness of each aggregate, she says, is dependent upon the efforts of each individual.

‘We’re not going to stand on their door step and demand them to go to programs,’ Peckskamp said. ‘Sometimes there’s problems, but that’s like anything else. The students get out of it what they put into it.’

Until a stricter selection process is put into effect, though, students residing in learning communities are likely to continue suffering from the ‘who cares’ mentality of fellow residents.

‘When I hear the (rowdy girl) talking in the hall, I can hear her voice get progressively closer to my door and I just cringe,’ Zarpentine said. ‘I know it’s bothersome to other people too … we made up the 24-hour respect rule for a reason.’

Published on February 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm