Chris Langer

Out with Riverknoll and in with the new “Global Village.” This is the future of the construction between Crossroads and the new Student Services/Innovation Center. RIT hopes that the commercial and residential spaces in this future complex will assist students planning to enter the international community.

“We want to prepare students for the global environment that they are going to experience when they travel overseas or study abroad,” said Mary Neidermaier, director of housing operations at RIT.

RIT plans to achieve their goals of spreading culture by having the residential and commercial locations represent different regions from around the world. They will do this through the use of decor, design, fabrics, colors and other aesthetic elements. They may even display work of photography students who have traveled abroad.

Global Village is the working name for a complex that will consist of a plaza and two residential buildings. These buildings are scheduled to open in the fall of 2010 and students can apply to be housed there during the prior spring quarter. While rates are not finalized, they will be competitive to University Commons and Park Point, according to Neidermaier.

The first level of the plaza will be where students have access to a wellness center, mail boxes for the west side of campus, and a convenience store selling items typically found in international markets. There will also be dining facilities like the popular franchise Salsarita’s, a bar offering beers and specialty drinks, and a Mongolian “Global Grill.”

On the upper floors of the plaza there will be housing units and an “entrepreneurial hall” with meeting spaces.

All of the housing in the plaza and residential buildings will be suite-style. Each suite will have bedrooms, a living room, two compartmentalized bathrooms, and some will have a kitchen. The residential floors will also have common areas and possibly a shared kitchen. A total of 414 students will be housed in these suites.

Chris Langer

While there will be international students in the Global Village, they will not receive priority. “The institute has an initiative to focus on the second-year student,” Neidermaier said. This priority is given to these students partially for retention purposes.

One student who is interested in this new global environment is Prateek Mathur, a third-year Bioinformatics student, originally from India. Mathur was president of the Organization for the Alliance of Students from the Indian Subcontinent last year and is now the group’s student advisor.

Although he lives off campus, Mathur plans to take advantage of the Global Village.

“I would still go there to enjoy all of the activities,” Mathur said. “It’s not like I have to live there to get all of the services they offer.”

Mathur perceives that these spaces will give international students something to relate to, as it is not just an event but a permanent part of RIT. It may also make it easier for international students to share information about their culture with friends and get more students interested in studying abroad.

Mathur concluded, “Just a small study abroad office trying to get this message across is harder than ... a whole global village telling them that there are more global opportunities, more global perspectives. Go out and explore them!”