While many students make plans to meet each other to study, the Engineering Living  & Learning Community in McVey Hall don’t have to leave the building.

Housing about 100 students, the Engineering LLC started three years ago with only one wing, but now is one floor and a wing. As requests for the program continue, the engineering departments made plans to have two whole floors next semester.

Similar programs at other colleges and personal experience inspired Undergraduate Experience Director Joel Ness to create the community.

“(There is a) better chance of getting a roommate that’s in the same type of classes,” he said. “They’re not going to be off playing frisbee golf all the time, or watching TV, or playing video games. Engineering is a lot more rigorous … so you kind of need that little extra to help you guys out. And I think this is a great way to do it.”

A living and learning community is designed to gather students of the same mindset and goals together, starting with freshmen who shared similar classes.

Ness hopes to students will develop friendships and associations that would be beneficial to them over the next four or five years.

The College of Engineering & Mines was the first to establish an Living & Learning Community at UND. Now, there are communities for aviation students in Noren Hall, honors students in Johnstone and Fulton halls and students focused on wellness in Brannon Hall.

“It was a considerable amount of work to work with housing because they wanted to make sure we were, as faculty and a college, involved with it,” Ness said. “They wanted to make sure we were involved through various means — the faculty dinner, tutoring, the computers, the artwork and decor.”

The McVey community provides students with a multitude of benefits, including computers equipped with engineering software, whiteboards and tutors. It hosts dinners with professors, and encourages students to join engineering student organizations to socialize and meet upperclassmen.

“It makes a unified place for students, especially engineering students,” Undergraduate Experience Coordinator Mojdeh Mardani said. “This way, when they are together with their classmates or other students in the same discipline, that makes it easier to concentrate — to have a little quieter and better atmosphere for studying.”

The floor also provides moral support for the students as they face challenges in their academics.

While there are benefits to concentrating engineers in McVey, community students might miss out on the rounded experience shared by living with students of other majors. The amount of females in the engineering program also shows on the number of females residing in the Living & Learning Community.

Both Mardani and Ness hope more females will apply to live on the floor as well as a female engineering Resident Assistant.

“I could see that if they were very isolated, in a separate building far away, but this building has other majors,” Mardani said. “Also, the classes they are taking are not just engineering classes, especially essential studies. They have the chance to participate in other activities and have interactions with other students. So, I don’t necessarily see it as a downside for our side.”

Ness said students are encouraged to be involved in activities outside of the community to round out their college experiences.

The floor also provides moral support for the students as they find challenges throughout their academic career.

“I think it (helps) to see, if they’re going through a rough time, they can see other classmates … maybe they’re having a hard time too,” Mardani said. “Knowing that this is a difficult major … sometimes it’s easier to identify and be in the same group and be together.”

Paula Kaledzi is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].