Belongingness, connectedness & engagement: The impacts of an LGBTQ + residential learning community

Abstract

University housing can play a significant role in undergraduate students’ college experiences. Unfortunately, many LGBTQ + students face a myriad of harmful experiences on campus, including in campus housing that can negatively impact their belonging and well-being. To address this issue and foster LGBTQ + students’ overall belongingness on campus and well-being, many universities offer LGBTQ + inclusive housing initiatives, including some offering residential learning communities (RLCs). There is a dearth of research on LGBTQ + RLCs’ effectiveness. Through qualitative interviews (n = 9), we examine the inaugural year of an LGBTQ + RLC at large state university in the southern United States. Based on existing literature on the importance of collegiate housing, including research on RLCs highlighting their benefits for students’ belongingness, connectedness, and engagement, we used a directed qualitative content analysis approach to explore the impacts of the LGBTQ + RLC. Consistent with the existing literature about RLCs in general, our findings suggest that the first year of the RLC fostered students’ belongingness, connectedness, and engagement across multiple levels. The RLC did this by offering students opportunities to explore their LGBTQ + identities and build community via programming with one another, which allowed students to feel safe and be their authentic selves.