New Business Dorm Unpacks the Quack

On September 25, approximately 300 business-oriented freshmen moved in to rooms in Earl Complex residence hall, the home of University of Oregon's new College of Business Residential Community (CBRC).

CBRC is the first majors-based Academic Residential Community offered through the university's housing office and was created in conjunction with the Lundquist College of Business's Office of Undergraduate Programs.

Undergraduate advisor Tayah Butler and many of her students from the Building Business Leaders (BBL) cohort were among the current UO students and faculty helping students move in to their new digs as part of the UO's annual Unpack the Quack event. Members of the Lundquist College clubs" executive leadership also lent their hands.

As assistant dean for undergraduate programs Collette Niland tells it, it was students from the Dean's Undergraduate Student Advisory Committee that sparked the idea for the new residence. The students were looking for ways to help prebusiness majors create a strong and welcoming community in the years prior to becoming full business or accounting majors, which typically does not occur until students enter their junior year.

A similar but smaller pilot—a residential program for students in the Lundquist College's Building Business Leaders program—had already seen a successful three years in the Living Learning Center North residence hall.

Prebusiness majors and others considering a major in business or accounting now occupy all four wings of Earl Complex. And BBL students form a cohort within the larger cohort in the complex's Sheldon Hall wing. All residents have the chance to participate in a variety of programming specially developed for CBRC students.

Though alumni may recognize Earl Complex as the structure formerly known as Earl Hall, the entire structure was overhauled, modernized, and re-opened right before school started this fall. Students from the UO's School of Architecture and Allied Arts helped redesign the facility's interior. The $5 million renovation includes freshened rooms, 1,600 pieces of new furniture, more natural light, a boardroom, two classrooms within the complex, and numerous structural improvements.