Diversity at Ole Miss' Newest Residence Hall

Wesley Sparkmon
Section 10
May 8, 2011
Final Project

Diversity at the Residential College

Since its opening in the fall of 2009, the Residential College at Ole Miss has been one of the most diverse places on the campus at the University of Mississippi.

When the Residential College, or RC, was built, the application process was a multi-step process requiring teacher recommendations, an essay and a minimum GPA for all hopeful residents. The applications were reviewed by a committee of RC residents and Residential College Coordinator Sue Gauthier. These applications were reviewed blind, so nothing besides the resume, essays, recommendations and GPA were known about each applicant.

“Our goal is to eventually have about 30% freshmen, 30% sophomore, and 40% junior/senior mix,” said Gauthier. “But that will take time as we are doing our best to change the concept that you liveon campus only your freshmen year.”

The RC, when built, struggled to fill the 464 beds until the Ole Miss Athletic Department decided to move freshmen football and men’s basketball players from Deaton Hall to the RC. Many of the Rebel tennis players from Germany and Sweden have lived in the RC since its opening in 2009. On the ladies’ side, freshmen tennis, basketball, volleyball and soccer players are placed in the RC by the housing and athletic departments. By combining the athletes with the academics who had already applied to live in the building was described by some residents as “the weirdest conglomeration of athletes and nerds in the Southeastern Conference.”

A second residential college building was opened in fall 2010 to just house the freshmen class of Ole Miss’ Luckyday program. This residential college did not require the application process to live in like the original Residential College, now known as the Residential College-South. As the new Luckyday Residential College was preparing for the new Luckyday class to move in, the applications came in and were reviewed for those wishing to live in the RC-South for the 2010-2011 school year and the new students moved into the building in August of 2010.

“I did a survey [fall semester of 2010] of our ethnic and minority numbers,” said RC Senior Fellow Dr. Daniel O’Sullivan. “19.7% of the RC-South membership belongs to a racial or ethnic minority. The [University of Mississippi] average is 20%, so the RC-South really is a representative cross-section of the university.”

With the representative cross-section of the campus within the building, diversity has been on the forefront of the RC-South by the people accepted. However, the diversity has not been entirely cultivated by the staff at the Residential College.

“Diversity is already in place by membership,” Gauthier said. “I think it is supported by both the efforts of the staff as well as developed on its own. Word is getting out about the concept of the residential college concept at UM, both in-state and out-of-state.”

With many of the old dormitories at Ole Miss being torn down or renovated, the increase of freshmen on campus and the success of the residential college in both practicality and diversity, the residential college system is a possible system to replace these dormitories on campus and at school’s throughout the state.

For more information on the University of Mississippi Residential College, visit www.olemiss.edu/rcollege