After three years in operation, the Baker University Board of Trustees have now renamed the Living Learning Center resident’s dorm the New Living Center after a decision made at the end of last year.
Teresa Clounch, associate dean of students, said the name Living Learning Center was not suitable for the building. The original plan for the building was to have a certain department on each floor in the building with the students in that department all living together.
“The plans for the building were created before Dean (of Students Cassy) Bailey and myself were at Baker,” Clounch said. “The plans just did not develop as the original plans were stated.”
Clounch said in order for the name change to be sufficient, all the signs in the building had to be changed this summer as well as the information for prospective students online. Her hopes were to make the process as least confusing for students as possible.
The majority of the changes occurred during the summer before the new students moved into the dorms.
Freshman Katie Jett said the name change was confusing to her because she thought there was a new building on campus.
“When I came for campus tours this summer, the tour guides referred to the dorm as the Living Learning Center,” Jett said. “When I moved in though, everyone was referring to the building as the New Living Center. At first I thought I was in the wrong dorm.”
Senior Resident Assistant Mariah Barnett said for the resident assistants, the name change was not a hassle. Most of the signs in the dorm were ones they previously made and there was no permanent writing on the outside of the dorm with the previous dorm name.
“The biggest change was for all of us to break the habit of calling it the LLC,” Barnett said. “I call it the NLC, that is what its name is now, and most of the new students know it as that.”
Bailey said as of now the building will be called the New Living Center until the board of trustees decides to rename the building.
The other possibility for a new name is if a donor would like to donate to the university and have the building named after him or her in honor of his or her donation.
As of now, the building operates as a dorm with classes with a variety of disciplinarians in the classrooms. The New Living Center houses 190 students and has two classrooms, one on the second level and one on the third level.
Even though the original plan for the building has changed, students still agree that having classes in the New Living Center is convenient and enjoyable.
“I lived in the Living Learning Center last year and it was really convenient to just wake up in the morning and go to my first class,” sophomore Caitlin Campbell said.
