Vanderbilt University Commons

Message From The Dean

Welcome to The Commons at Vanderbilt University!

The Commons is a residential living and learning community for all first-year students. Each entering first-year class lives together in the ten Houses of The Commons. Each House has an apartment for its resident Faculty Head of House, a member of the university faculty who serves as the House’s mentor and helps residents of the House create its community norms, identity, and activities. A professional staff of student life professionals and undergraduate and graduate resident advisers assures the health, well-being, and safety of each member of The Commons community. Through educational and social events, music, community service, celebrations, meals, conversations, and unpredictable encounters, residents of The Commons connect with each other, as well as upperclass undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators from across one of the world’s great research universities. Together in The Commons, they create a first-year experience that enriches the first of four transformative Vanderbilt years, where university undergraduates are encouraged to develop and contribute their intellectual, social, ethical, and personal talents to the fullest.

We think of The Commons as a neighborhood. It is a beautiful new place set within one of the most historic sections of the university campus. Its ten Houses are divided among a historic area of stately shade trees and lawns, and a newly constructed district grouped around two quads. Students are assigned randomly to their House. All Houses are co-ed, organized as single-gender floors, with a mixture of double and triple rooms. Houses are equipped with seminar and music practice rooms, laundry rooms, wireless computing and cable, and lots of light and space that encourage connections. My family’s home, The Dean's Residence, and The Commons Center are crossroads, where students meet, study, interact with faculty and staff, and dine. The Commons Center recently received the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) "gold" rating, given by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its environmentally sound architecture.

At the core of The Commons are its students. They come from every background, place, social setting, and personal experience. Connected with each other in The Commons, they are a mosaic of personal, intellectual, social, and cultural experiences. They mix and mingle their ideas and experiences. They teach and learn from each other. They interact more readily with faculty. They are community builders, leaders, people who can inquire and create. As the saying goes, they live and learn.

I hope you will join us and become a part of one of the most exciting projects in American higher education today. I look forward to seeing you in The Commons.

Frank Wcislo
Associate Professor of History
Dean of The Commons

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

The Commons

Message From The Dean

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