F. King Alexander is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Higher Education Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also held administrative positions in the Office for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Office of Institutional Advancement and University Relations at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Don E. Robertson is currently the Vice President for Student Affairs and Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Murray State University. He has previously held administrative positions at Marshall University, Georgia Southwestern College, and the University of Tennessee. While at Marshall University, he taught the College Personnel classes in the Counseling Department. In addition, Dr. Robertson has taught leadership development courses at both Murray State University and Marshall University. He holds faculty rank in the College of Business.

Residential Colleges and Undergraduate Education Reform, Charles C. Schroeder

From Oxbridge to the Colonies: The Development and Challenges of Residential Colleges in American Public

          Universities, F. King Alexander

          The Emergence of the Residential College: The Academical Village Revisited, William H. Harmon

Residential Colleges as Laboratories of Character and Community, Kristine E. Dillon

The Benefits and Limitations of Residential Colleges: A Meta-Analysis of the Research, Gregory Blimling

          The Residential College Within the General Context of Campus Group Living, James Taylor

PART THREE: USING RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES TO ENHANCE STUDENT LEARNING

          Improving Student Learning by Forging Partnerships Between Academic and Student Learning,

          Jerrold Stein and James Mackin

Specialized Programs and Services which Focus on Student Learning within Residential Settings, Roy H. Ruby

A Port for Every Pillow: The Role of New Technologies in Residential Colleges, David L. Meabon

Computing and Technology in a Residential College Setting, Mary McKinney Edmonds.

The Role of Residential College in the New Millennium, Jean Kim

PART FIVE: CASE STUDIES IN RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT

Residential Student Learning: The Challenges of  Undergraduate Education, Myrtis H. Powell

Personal Formation in Jesuit Higher Education: New Initiatives in Residential Life at Boston College

          Kevin P. Duffy

Promoting Student Success Through Establishing  Partnerships Across Academic and Student Affairs

          Douglas F. McConkey

          The ‘Alexander Plan’ for An Inclusive Residential College Model at Murray State University, Jane P. Hall,

Becoming a Residential College Head at Murray  State University: Myths, Expectations and Realities

          Chuck Hulick and Paula Hulick

Using Residential Colleges to Develop Multicultural Understanding Among Students, Francisco Hernandez

Residential Academic Partnership at Iowa State University: The Window of Opportunity is NOW

          Thomas B. Thielen

Zulu MacBeth: An Innovative Approach Focusing on Student Learning at SUNY-Binghamton

          Rodger Summers

The Future of Residential Colleges: Responding to Demographic Change, Sarah L. Bickel

Residential Colleges: A Paradigm for the Next Century Donald B. Mills

APPENDIX A

The Future of Residential Colleges, W.B. Allen

APPENDIX B

Murray State University’s Residential College Timeline

APPENDIX C

Responsibilities of College Head

APPENDIX D

Index of American Universities that have Adopted Comprehensive Residential College Systems

Since the late 1980s institutions throughout America have been seeking to develop residential colleges and other residential academic units as part of a series of educational reforms intended to improve undergraduate education. Institutions as diverse as Wisconsin-Madison, Missouri-Columbia, Virginia, Appalachian State, Southern California, and Murray State are all experimenting with their own versions of residential college models and structures. So prevalent is the residential life experimentation today that it would be difficult to find a college campus that was not contemplating or attempting some model of residential life colleges, houses, or living and learning centers.

Most of these institutions have turned to residential colleges as one means of counteracting the increasing lack of institutional community and isolation that many students experience on large campuses. For many institutions developing residential colleges within the larger university setting is an experiment that has never been attempted on their campuses. For other institutions, the employment of residential college or house schemes to enhance student experiences is merely a return to an earlier era of educational practices that were devised decades ago.

Unlike several newer higher education reforms, the residential college concept has a rich history in American collegiate development. Often these reforms took place against the backdrop of constant and even dramatic change in higher education. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s numerous public and private institutional leaders attempted to emulate the residential college structures of the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge in order to address growing concerns about expanding enrollments and collegiate dissatisfaction in America. The success of earlier residential college initiatives at some universities eventually influenced others to implement similar institutional reforms driven by the residential college concept.

Recently, new interest in the revival of the residential college concept has emerged on both large and small university campuses throughout America. Influenced by earlier American collegiate achievements and centuries of success experienced by the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge, many institutions have turned to the residential college philosophy as a means of reforming existing undergraduate education.