The Commons

Message From The Dean

Welcome to The Commons at Vanderbilt University!

The Commons is not your parent’s freshman dorm. The Commons is a community of first-year students, residential faculty, and professional staff located on the Vanderbilt University campus. Planned for ten years by faculty, students, staff, and administrators, The Commons welcomes its first class, the Class of 2012, this August. Spending the first of four transformative years at Vanderbilt in The Commons, you can shape one of the most exciting enterprises in American higher education today.

The Commons is a beautiful new place on our historic campus. Ten new residence halls, called Houses, are grouped around four quads. The Houses are co-ed, organized as single-gender floors. The rooms are doubles. Each House has an apartment for its Faculty Head of House, seminar and music practice rooms, a laundry room, and lots of light and space. Space--and a wireless computing environment--encourages connections. Our home, the Dean’s Residence, is a place for community. The Commons Center is a crossroads, where students meet, study, interact with faculty and staff, and dine. The food is already renowned across campus, from its specialty pizza ovens to its health-conscious menus. It has a fitness facility and its lobby--what we call The Living Room--can be a place to play a grand piano, find a friend, or relax. The Commons Center recently received the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “gold” rating, given by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Beyond a place, The Commons is also a first-year living and learning community that connects faculty, staff, and students. As the saying goes, people “live and learn.” That always has been true at Vanderbilt, where discovery occurs, often in the most unexpected ways, inside and outside the classroom. Vanderbilt’s faculty excels in research and teaching that are focused on the next horizon. Many of these same professors are playing key roles in The Commons. Ten Vanderbilt professors, some with families, have joined me to live here. As Faculty Heads of House, they lead and mentor first-year students beginning their own journeys of discovery at university. Some 150 other, non-residential faculty are also participating in The Commons, either as Faculty Associate of a House or as a mentor in Vanderbilt Visions. A residential education staff of full-time professionals, graduate students, and floor resident advisers assures student safety and health, access to a wealth of campus services, and connections across the university.

At the core of The Commons, however, are its students. They make a mosaic of intellectual strengths, social interests, ethical perspectives, and cultural experiences. Imagine what we all can learn from each of them and they from us. Imagine the contributions a Vanderbilt student can make to our university’s mission of educating the whole student. Imagine yourself as a future leader who can inquire and create--who can live and learn. Imagine a balanced undergraduate education at Vanderbilt University that begins with The Commons.

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.