Living-learning communities like the Connected Learning Program in Cobb Residence Hall serve around 500 students each year.
Unfortunately, this program was the latest to feel the pinch of budget cuts.
When the Connected Learning Program was cut, so too were scholarship opportunities and research ventures heretofore available to the undergraduates involved, who live on the same hall in Cobb.
The thing is, big ideas don’t necessarily need big budgets. The Department of Housing and Residential Education and the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence — who collaborated to make the Connected Learning Program a reality years ago — should approach their financial woes with the same innovative spirit and resilience these Living-Learning Communities aim to foster in students.
The Connected Learning Program was partly funded and administered by the Honors Program, and its annual budget has ranged from $35,000 to $40,000 until this year. But we think it could survive with much less.
Of course, in a sluggish budgetary climate, administrators must grapple with the question of what “really” matters.
UNC’s Living-Learning Communities provide students with valuable opportunities for networking, learning beyond the classroom and implementing high-quality programs for residential communities and the broader campus.
It is a shame to see them go, especially if it’s not absolutely necessary. What matters here is allowing students to continue to come together, bounce big ideas off one another in safe spaces and impact campus positively. Surely this can be done without $40,000 a year.
While programming would scale back and take on different manifestations under a new budget, an outright discontinuation of the entire program is uncalled for.
