Carolina Housing announces new housing option, programming for rising sophomores

Carolina Housing announced a new housing opportunity for the Class of 2024 in an effort to accommodate for their shortened time on-campus this semester: Relive Campus.

This housing option, introduced in an email to the Carolina community on Oct. 16, applies to rising sophomores for the 2021-2022 academic year. 

According to the Carolina Housing website, the program aims to connect students to their academic majors, as well as provide students upper-division RAs and wellness programs. It will operate as a modified version of the Discover More program, a residential program by Carolina Housing. 

Allan Blattner, the executive director of Carolina Housing, said current first-year students never got a foothold on campus and that Carolina Housing wants to offer them an opportunity to catch up on acclimating, meeting other students and connecting with campus resources.

“All those things that traditionally happen during that first year, we want to make sure that sophomores know that they’ve got an opportunity in their second year to do that,” he said. 

Carolina Housing identified Morrison, Taylor and McIver residence halls as those that will be exclusively for the rising sophomore class in the coming academic year. 

Carolina Housing will consider adding more residence halls depending on demand, according to the letter announcing the Relive Campus program. 

“We really want to try and offer the opportunity to sophomore students to connect with their class and with others who have been through and are going through those same types of experiences,” Blattner said. “We know that proximity adds a lot to that experience.”

Sophomore year is typically the year that students dive into a more specific academic course of action, so the program emphasizes connecting students with academic programs and resources, Blattner said. 

Normally, this outreach involves resident adviser and community government programs, he said. Carolina Housing is also considering working with academic colleges to facilitate connections with students and take students to events that they plan.

“We envision that next year, you know, sophomores may not be at the same place that a typical sophomore would be who had a typical first year experience,” Blattner said. “So, we are gonna have to wait and see for a bit, but we are gonna try to meet students where they are in terms of gaps in their experience.”

First-year student Thomas Hicks said he wants the University to consider that, if his class comes to campus next year, they will essentially be freshmen because they lack the experiences of a typical first-year.

“I hope to catch up on some of the stuff that we missed out on so we can get into a normal college groove, which we have not had whatsoever, obviously, so kind of gain back some of the connections, resources and interactions that we would have had,” Hicks said. 

The future activities of the program depend on what restrictions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 will allow Carolina Housing to do, Blattner said. 

“We will look at either virtually or face-to-face, making those connections with students whether that be by having programs and events in the buildings or by taking advantage of the campus-wide activities that go on that achieve the same goal,” Blattner said. 

Blattner said Carolina Housing will work with the RAs, community directors, Counseling and Psychological Services and other groups to promote a wellness focus in the program. 

Mental health is very important to the program because of students’ recent hardships due to the pandemic, he said. 

First-year student Andrea Mclendon said she thinks the concept of the housing option might help her class relive the college campus experience. 

“But the thing that I get tripped up about is that I do not know what experiences that I missed out on,” Mclendon said. “I cannot really visualize what that will be because I do not know the opportunities or connections I should be having.”

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