By Claudette Richards, The Whetstone

Wesley’s senior administration said it will introduce special interest communities of students who live on the same dormitory floor in 2018.

These special interest communities will be called affinity groups.

Residence life conducted a survey in Gooding and Williams halls to get ideas about the special interest communities, said Wanda Anderson, dean of students.

“We want to merge the special interest communities with the affinity groups because the learning communities are already in existence in Carpenter Hall, and they do really well,” she said.

Living-learning communities are topic-based, first-year experience classes for students who get to live on the same floor in Carpenter hall, Jacqui Rogers, area coordinator of central campus, said

Junior Betty Lee said she started at Wesley in a living-learning community.

“I lived on the living-learning floor my freshman year and it really helped me get involved,” she said. “We all had a class together, so we studied and got to know each other, and those people are still my best friends. I think [more groups like that] would increase Wesley’s retention rate.”

Lee said the groups will influence students to get involved.

“Connecting them in small groups with similar interest is a great idea, and it has worked at other colleges,” Anderson said.

She said she’s convincing the College’s senior leadership, by attending committee meetings and providing them with research, that this is the best practice at colleges.

Anderson said after Gooding and Williams halls become co-ed in the fall, the next phase will be the affinity groups.