Room for the Whole

How do you expand a university and keep hold of its values? Opening a residence hall built around the very idea of community is one way.

This fall, about 366 first- and second-year students became the first residents of Finn Hall, named in honor of donor and trustee Stephen A. Finn MBA ’76.

As students moved belongings to their rooms, they found an elevator that didn’t just plop occupants on a floor but rather put them at the center of a community’s social scene—open common areas with kitchens, games, and couches. That is what happens when you plan for community.

Finn Hall is home to a residential learning community that finds its theme in the Jesuit value of car- ing for the whole person, cura personalis. To honor that theme, resident director Kori Lennon ’14 and as- sistant professor of communication Chan Thai plan to organize events and launch new traditions based on a classic wellness model with rotating themes.

At Finn Hall, students can join in Monday night yoga and Wednesday well-being workshops on topics ranging from the spiritual to the financial.

“We all hope that a hall focused on well-being will help spread that value throughout cam- pus,” says Thai.