The Commons

Message From The Dean

Welcome to The Commons!

The Commons is a place and an idea. It is very different from life in a dormitory.

The Commons is a campus for first-year students and residential faculty. It has ten Houses grouped around four quads. Each House has mainly double occupancy rooms, an apartment for the Faculty Head of House, music practice rooms, a computer-equipped seminar room, a laundry room, and abundant light and space. Indoor and outdoor public spaces, as well as a wireless computing environment, all encourage community. There are two other public buildings on the campus. One is my family’s home, the Dean’s Residence, a comfortable family space where members of the Commons community can gather to meet a renowned lecturer, eat dinner, or watch VU basketball. The other is The Commons Center, our new dining facility and community square. Its state-of-the-art dining services include salad bars with sizzle stations, Euro-food, specialty pizza ovens, and vegan / vegetarian menus. Its main hall, The Eatery, will be a place to dine with friends, study with classmates, find a new friend, get to know a professor, or hear Vanderbilt and Nashville musicians at The Commons Café. The Commons Center will also be home to a fitness facility, resources for academic assistance, and other services.

As an idea, The Commons is a collaborative community of faculty, students, and educational professionals that will encourage first-year students, from their first day as members of the Vanderbilt University community, to be proactive, intentional learners. Students will continue to take their academic classes in the four undergraduate schools of the university. In The Commons, students, faculty, and staff will learn by living together in a community secure enough that all its members can discover a university that is challenging, fun, and fulfilling. Four years at Vanderbilt begin with a first-year experience where students can:

• encounter the scholarly and artistic knowledge found at our distinguished research university;
• learn to be creators of that knowledge;
• find a common experience of diversity, one where individuals of diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to explore the differences we all share;
• shape the skills required of leaders in the diverse, democratic, and global communities of the 21st-century.

My hope is that you will become a member of our community, contribute to it, and enrich our university over the fours years you spend in it.

External Links

• The Commons on YouTube
• Vanderbilt Home
• Vanderbilt Visions
• Webcams
• Admissions
• SustainVU
• Campus Map

The Freshman Commons have been renamed The Commons. Please adjust your inquiries appropriately.