Parents Welcoming Newsletter

From Your Home to Our Home . . .

The Housing and Residence Life Office would like to officially welcome you to Massachusetts College of Art and Design and on-campus living.

The Massachusetts College of Art and Design is committed to the principle that learning occurs both in and out of the classroom. This integrated philosophy of living and learning makes living in the residence halls a vital and central part of the overall collegiate experience. The staff of the Housing and Residence Life Office staff members strive to create a strong sense of commitment, including a commitment to the welfare of the group, cooperation, and a sense of responsibility to self and others.

Programs and activities in the hall are designed to assist new students in meeting each other, promote interaction, and create opportunities to exchange and share divergent views and beliefs within the community. At MassArt, we feel the key element of a successful residential experience is the willingness to get involved. You son/daughter can have an impact on the direction of their hall and their immediate living environment, and MassArt, through their participation in activities. We hope that your student makes the most of this opportunity by accepting the challenge and responsibility of being an active and concerned resident living in an active learning community.

*MassArt is an educationally PURPOSEFUL community, a place where staff, faculty, and students share academic goals and work together to strengthen teaching and learning on campus, both within and outside of the traditional classroom.

*MassArt is a JUST community, a place where the sacredness of the person is honored and where diversity is aggressively pursued.

*MassArt is a DISCIPLINED community, a place where individuals accept their obligations to the group and where well-defined governance procedures guide behavior for the common good.

*MassArt is a CARING community, a place where the well being of each member is sensitively supported and where service to others is encouraged.

*MassArt is a CELEBRATIVE community, one in which the heritage of the institution is remembered and where rituals affirming both tradition and change are widely shared.

Within the Residence Halls we expect that when a student agrees to live in the space provided to them, that they become willing participants in helping create the most beneficial environment for themselves and for those around them.

Adapted from: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1990). Campus Life: In Search of Community.

Community Responsibility & Accountability
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Self-responsibility is one of the most important things your student can learn at college. It may initially take some trial and error for the lessons to kick in but, once they do, your student will have learned a valuable fact: no one is responsible for their life but themselves.

Communal living can be a highlight of a student’s career. It can be fun as they move through on-going active community programs and contentious as they move to resolve conflicts that inevitably arise. It can also be a connecting force as they share conversations and the tasks of everyday life with the people in their community.

We expect students to take responsibility for their own lives. For example, they are responsible for and will be held accountable for their behavioral choices, following the rules, personal integrity, and being a positive member of the campus community.

We hope that while you help guide your student through any of the rough times, you also encourage them to seek out additional assistance from any of the housing and residence life staff. DON’T have them wait to the last minute. Our philosophy is to engage students in conflict resolution and NOT to enable them by quickly separating them from a particular challenge. We are here to teach them the skills necessary to make change happen, to communicate constructively and have respectful compromises.

Our students at MassArt are faced with this philosophy everyday. Their work is displayed throughout class, critiqued by professors and peers, they respond appropriately and constructively and are able to gain insight and knowledge to advance their growth. Encourage your student to know the importance of responsibility and accountability within their living environment.

Living with Roommates: The “experience”

This may very well be the first time your student will be asked to “share” their space with another MassArt student. Perhaps this is going to be the first time they learn to cook on their own, clean and put away their own dishes, take out the garbage or clean the bathroom. Whatever the case may be, there is a guarantee that there will be a “first time”.

Every student who lives in a residence hall at MassArt will be confronted with challenges, opportunities, developing friendships, making difficult decisions, finding compromise but most importantly, will need to know how to communicate respectfully to one another. Without communication, there is little room for understanding and change.

When developing relationships within a suite or apartment, please encourage your student to communicate, compromise and develop an understanding between their mates about living comfortably within their space. Your student has every right to request something be done a certain way, but compromising and meeting each other half way will prove to be most successful.

Sometimes, communication breaks down and roommates are no longer hearing what is being asked and respect for one another dwindles. If your student is calling you and explaining to you that they are having difficulties within their living space; the best advice we can offer is to encourage them to seek out their Resident Assistant/Community Assistant or to speak with the Residence Life Professional staff BEFORE it becomes too difficult to develop solutions.

The Housing and Residence Life office often does not move students for the sake of a conflict, especially when a student/s are not actively trying to resolve the situation. They must try! Our staff is ready and available to assist whole suites/apartments or rooms that are in conflict. When a student approaches a staff member, there are many options and approaches we can take to assist in positive change.

Our goal is to assist students in creating the best experience they can have while being part of the Residence Hall community. Often, a conversation occurs between the Resident Assistant/Community Assistant and the student who would like to see change occur.

When this happens, the student receives ways to better communicate their needs back to their mates, will be offered an opportunity to mediate and help resolve conflict through a third party who most often is a staff member, or, may meet with the Professional Residence Life staff who can suggest additional options. Please understand that your students should not expect a “switch” as a way to resolve conflicts. We often do not have the flexibility to make “switches”.

In mid-October the Housing and Residence Life office offers a building wide opportunity for students to “switch” rooms with other students in the building. A formal process does take place and a student will be given an opportunity to possibly move.

If at any point a student is feeling uncomfortable because of certain activity that may be taking place in their space, they should immediately inform a staff member. If they are explaining certain concerning behaviors of roommates to you, please encourage them to seek assistance from staff.

If your student only wants us to be aware of the situation but asks us not to follow through with addressing the matter, it does make it more difficult for the Housing and Residence Life office to make change happen.

We will do our best to support any student who asks for assistance.

Involvement Equals Success
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Studies repeatedly say that students who are involved in campus life-through clubs, hall government, athletics (yes, we have intramurals) and beyond-are more likely to stay in school. We’ve seen those facts in action!

When a student gets to campus, she/he is searching for a sense of belonging. So they look to peer groups for acceptance and camaraderie. Getting involved in a campus organization, their floor community, their building council or other on-campus opportunities is a positive way for them to belong while taking up with a bad crowd-just because they “accept” him/her is not. If your student calls and says they’d like to join the MassArt Activites Council, encourage them! Your student can focus on their art while also participating in out-of-class activities. As a matter of fact, involved students tend to do better in school. So, encourage your student to get involved. You’ll be guiding them on the pathway to both curricular and extracurricular success.

Housing and Residence Life Staff

Welcome to the MassArt community! I am Andrew Doré, the Residence Hall Director in Smith Hall, our all first-year building. I wanted to take this time to give you some helpful information about the people that your student will get to know this year in the residence halls and the types of activities they can participate in.

Each residence hall has a full-time, live-in professional staff member who oversees the undergraduate staff in the buildings. I live in Smith Hall, and Drinnan Thortnon lives in the Artists’ Residence. We are both Masters level professionals and have worked at four different institutions.

In each building there are students who are extensively trained to work with the students in the building and to plan programs that will help to build a community. In the Artists’ Residence they are called Community Assistants (CAs) and in Smith Hall they are called Resident Assistants (RAs). They have different titles only because of the different communities that they live in.

Each RA or CA will create and implement 2 programs per month. These programs could be game nights, pumpkin carving, dance parties, knitting circles, discussion groups, yoga workshops, bulletin boards on everything from voting procedures to date rape to Black history month to emotional abuse, trips to local museums, or programs for specific floor communities. The RA’s and CA’s will talk to their floors to see what the specific interests are for that year. We have 12 student staff in total. Our staff come from many different majors including photo, art ed, graphic design, glass, fashion, and others.

The Residence Life staff, both professional and student, are here to help make your students experience a safe, exciting one. We are here to help them learn to live in a community with their peers, while also starting their college experience.

If you have any specific questions about housing here at MassArt, please contact Nathan Sherman, the Housing Coordinator in the Office of Housing and Residence Life at 617-879-7750.

See you in August!

Contact Numbers:

Housing Coordinator: Nathan Sherman: 617.879.7750

Director of Housing and Residence Life: Danielle Licitra 617.879.7750

Residence Hall Director Artists’ Residence: Drinnan Thornton 617.879.5106

Residence Hall Director Smith Hall: Andrew Doré 617.879.7752

Important Dates