Two new learning villages will join The Tree House and Service Station this fall.Crawford Hall will soon become the home of the new women’s learning village, while the new engineering village will be housed in Maddux Hall.
“Renovations to the halls will be made this summer to accommodate a classroom as well an office for us,” said Lenly Weathers, future faculty head of the engineering village.
Paula Hinton will soon leave the Service Station to head the women’s village. Two new faculty heads for The Tree House and Service Station will be chosen later this month.
“We plan on working with the new village heads and are already in the process of making handbooks,” Hinton said.
Learning villages are a new concept Tech is using to achieve a higher student retention rate. It is modeled after Murray State’s residential colleges. Eventually, each residence hall will house a learning village.
“The learning villages promote social involvement through socials, trips and parties, as well as academic tutoring,” Weathers said. “I think having the two new learning villages will help spread the knowledge of the villages across campus.”
“Crawford already has a sense of community bond,” Hinton said. “I want to expand on it by having hobby nights and doing things women would want to do.”
Weathers and Hinton both said they would like to form a name, logo, colors, T-shirts, and executive councils for each new village before the end of the semester.
“When girls move in, I want to be able to give them a village T-shirt and welcome them to the new women’s village,” Hinton said.
The villages are there to help students make social connections and to ultimately help them grown and develop at Tech.
Any student can get involved in the learning villages. The residence hall is the headquarters of the village. The final goal is to have all students and faculty belonging to a village.
