Collegia Mission
The Collegia Program creates caring and diverse learning communities of commuter students that provide a broader educational experience steeped in the Jesuit values of Seattle University. Faculty associates, student staff and a variety of educational and social programming opportunities integrate learning, present leadership opportunities, and promote a sense of belonging.
Five Collegia provide beautiful and welcoming "home away from home" environments that support the day-to-day needs of the complex lives of commuters through study space, kitchen facilities and snack system, access to campus resources, computers, books and newspapers.
Collegia Vision
The Collegia Program is committed to
- Fostering a sense of belonging by providing a homelike space where students have a sense of ownership and can build sustaining relationships.
- Develop community identity by providing a setting that promotes the building of friendships by enabling gorups of students to study together, socialize, and participate in shared activities.
- Encourage learning beyond the classroom by providing a broader educational experience for the student through an environment that promotes collaborative learning, gives access to resources, enables interdisciplinary interactions, gives leadership opportunities, and provides social learning experiences about the challenges and blessings of being together in community.
Background/Overview
The word "Collegium" comes from the Latin root meaning "gathering place." The Collegia Program was the inspiration of former Seattle University president, Fr. William J. Sullivan, SJ. Fr. Sullivan envisioned places of belonging ("a home away from home") for groups of undergraduate commuters that connected them to the wider University community and gave them a broader overall experience and education.
The Collegia Program currently includes 5 Collegium rooms on campus.
- The Lynn Collegium, opened in the winter of 1996, was designed for the undergraduate commuter students in the College of Arts & Sciences, representing a diversity of majors.
- The strong positive reception by the students to the Lynn Collegium led to the opening of the Chardin Collegium in the spring of 1997. This Collegium, also designed for undergraduate commuter students, experimented with the idea of mixing different colleges by welcoming students from the Schools of Nursing, Science & Engineering and Business.
- Opened in February 1999, the McNulty Collegium was designed to serve undergraduate commuter students from the School of Science & Engineering and was also the first test site for serving graduate commuter students.
- Two new collegia opened in Fall 2002 in the new Student Center - the Tekakwitha serving undergraduate juniors and seniors from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Reidy, serving graduate students and non-traditional aged undergraduates.