2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Residential Learning Communities (RLCs) exist to enhance students' educational experiences, both academically and socially. These communities bring together groups of students with shared common goals, interests, or programs and create supportive environments for collaboration and engagement. Through RLCs, students can develop relationships with each other and with university faculty and staff outside of the classroom environment.

In 2019, a public university in the southeastern region of the United States established an RLC to specifically serve the student population of the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS). The program integrates four key components: (1) a shared first year one-hour weekly seminar for incoming first-year students that pairs with an academic course, (2) a faculty-in-residence who resides among the students, (3) a roommate roster focused on establishing four-person suites of the same or similar major, and (4) monthly social activities that engage participants with the local community and region. The CECS RLC was established in collaboration between the student support division of the CECS and the university housing division. The goal of the CECS RLC is to create a community among participating students, aid in improving first to second year retention, and aid in improving academic performance for participating students, with specific attention to incoming first-year students.

In the following six years, the program grew from 32 student residents to 106 student residents. Although the increase in the number of residents indicates the RLC is popular with students, it was unclear if the RLC is meeting its initial goals.

This study addresses whether the CECS RLC program is successful by evaluating three areas regarding first-year student participants: (1) sense of belonging and community, (2) academic performance, and (3) retention rate into second year of attendance. The study used extant quantitative data to determine academic performance and retention rates and extant qualitative data to determine students’ sense of belonging. Results indicate that CECS RLC participation by first-year students in the 2024 cohort was meaningfully associated with academic performance as demonstrated by GPA, and retention at the college into the second year of attendance in comparison to CECS first-year students who do not participate in the CECS RLC. Additionally, the most common theme derived from qualitative data indicate that CECS RLC students describe increased social integration and a sense of belonging because of program participation. This study’s results confirm that university RLCs, if strategically programmed, can be a high impact practice. The results also imply that RLC programs in rigorous academic areas, such as engineering and computer science, where strong sense of belonging, high academic performance, and high retention could be more difficult to achieve, can be effective. The study itself implies that evaluation of such programs does not require excessive resources or time, which can encourage other program managers to evaluate their programs for effectiveness.