First-year students have several unique opportunities to explore disciplines, interact with faculty, and make lasting friendships with peers. Those include First-Year Interest Groups, Academic Residential Communities, and the Common Reading program.
First-Year Interest Groups
First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs) bring students with similar interests together to collectively explore a theme framed by two lecture classes. Incoming first-year students experience their first term at the University of Oregon alongside other FIG students, a faculty member, and a student mentor. Take advantage of a FIG to dive into our disciplines.
Art Academic Residential Community
The Art ARC is an academic residential community (ARC) for students excited about sharing creative ideas, making art, and exploring design. Community members live and work together in Kalapuya Ilihi that features a maker space studio. This community is open to undergraduate students interested in making art, viewing art, or exploring a range of design practices.
To live here, apply to the Art + Design Community when you fill out your campus housing registration.
Learn More: Academic Residential Community
Other Housing Options
In addition to the Art + Design residential community, you can also find the Creative Practice Community, which recognizes that creativity is best fostered when ideas, methods, and materials can easily be shared. This community is designed for students who want to live with others interested in any kind of making—fine arts, craft, digital media, product design, architecture, furniture, and landscapes for example.
Visit University Housing to learn about the wide variety of housing options.
Common Reading
Building community, enriching curriculum, and engaging research through the shared reading of an important book is what the Common Reading program at the UO is all about. Each year, the Division of Undergraduate Studies selects a book that all incoming first-year students are asked to read. Sometimes it's a work of fiction, sometimes it's nonfiction; but it's always thought-provoking and related to several disciplines.
Learn more about the Common Reading program, how books are selected, what books were chosen recently, and the related activities and learning opportunities.