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Residence Life at Boston University is committed to enhancing students’ academic experiences by creating vibrant, interesting, and learning-friendly communities within campus residences.  These specific living and learning environments are called Specialty Communities. Specialty Communities offer a broad range of floors and houses where students with similar interests live, study, and socialize together.

Specialty Communities are created and continued by faculty and students with the support and involvement of University departments and administrators.  Specialty Communities provide environments that encourage in-depth exploration of academic disciplines and / or specialty interests. A key component of a Specialty Community is the essential involvement  of faculty and / or academic programs in partnership with Student Life personnel to provide the best possible context for integrated learning across the curriculum.

Specialty Communities are designed to cover a wide variety of interests and learning ranging from language and medicine, to the arts and community service; from management to social justice, and engineering to environmental awareness. The program may be long established but the activities and opportunities vary from year to year with the input from community residents in collaboration with their RA, their advisor, and their sponsoring department.

In order that all Specialty Communities meet the Residence Life commitment to enhancing students’ academic experiences, each Specialty Community  must have a current Charter providing the Boston University community the following information:

• Mission statement outlining what students will gain as an active participant  in their living and learning environment
• Sponsoring  department resources: advisor, funding, meeting spaces, and promotional efforts
• Residency requirements outlining the criteria students need to be eligible for selection and assignment into the Specialty
• Expectations for community behaviors, standards and participation for the Specialty residents
• Calendar of Specialty related events and activities planned for the academic year
• Community Council: student leadership team to support, plan and direct the Specialty Community goals and action plans
• Measures of success: an end-of-year recap on the successes, strategies, obstacles and recommendations  of the Specialty Community