START COLLABORATING

Academic colleges, departments, or other units as well as student affairs and administrative offices are welcome to create a residential learning community or dream up a new collaboration for on-campus Aggies.

The first step would be to consider the desired goals, vision, and outcomes for your community or new collaboration. Who would it serve? What value would this community/service for our students? Who would be expected to serve as a liaison from your college/school/department/office?

A Campus Collaborator is a designee whose responsibilities is to partner with the Department of Residence Life to enhance the student experience.

Depending on the category of collaboration, there may be other expectations to assure sustainability of long-term collaborations.

For example, some Campus Collaborator responsibilities would include attendance at a monthly logistics/program meeting, attendance at occasional housing assignments meetings during the year, selection of students for your specific community, arrange common courses in consultation with the Registrar, and is responsible for planning programs and activities for the community students in your community throughout the year.

Benefits for our partners include access to a budget to assist in supporting community-builders or programs for the students living in your community, a direct communication link with housing staff about your community, a direct link with a cluster of students who share an interest relevant to your college/department/office’s mission, and ability to connect with students who may display capabilities of talent for leadership, academic, and/or research engagement early on in their careers as students at Texas A&M University.

The Department of Residence Life Academic Support Initiatives area collaborates with liaisons to ensure a true partnership. Academic Support Initiatives provides each of the liaisons with a programming budget for their community, blocks residence hall/apartment room space and manages assignments, provides the technical guidance for the system for which liaisons will use to select students, and collaborates with stakeholders to execute programs and market their community to incoming students.