According to the Bryn Mawr College website, the Intercultural Living and Learning Center (ILLC) is a place “for learning about and celebrating identities,” cultivating a shared sense of community among undergraduate students. Located in Rhoads South, the dorm debuted during the 2023-2024 academic year as a space for affinity housing, with three floors: BIPOC Belonging, Pan-Asian Culture, and Interfaith Engagement. The Impact Center continued the initiative this school year with 65 residents, though numbers will potentially shift next semester as students studying abroad return and others leave.
Leila Brown, Customs Person for the ILLC, spoke about her experience living in the dorm. “The term community is very overused, but I really think in this case it is true,” she said. A current sophomore, Brown has been living in the ILLC since its first year, and emphasized her appreciation for the community, adding, “I know the name of every single person on my floor; I’ve had conversations with every single person on my floor.”
Some students report having heard of plans to expand ILLC housing into Rhoads North, though no official details have shared or guaranteed. “The efforts to expand into Rhodes North, a lot of that is based on the idea of having one dorm that is for the whole community,” Brown shared. Other affinity dorms, such as the Enid Cook ‘31 Center (ECC), offer the entire building for student engagement and community use.
“Shared identity is only the beginning for a connection that you have, or a way in which you can connect with other people,” Interfaith Hall Advisor Katelyn Stealey, said. “Affinity housing has a grounding of trust because you’re with people who are very different from you but who understand you.” Though Stealey expressed that she doesn’t feel particularly strongly about the expansion in any direction, she added that “expanding the opportunity to access the ILLC feels amazing and like something that would ultimately be a benefit.”
On the other hand, many residents have shared that they would prefer to see investment in the current community over any new additions to the center. “I hope that there will also be efforts put into investing in our current floors,” Brown expressed. “Ultimately, who’s in the community and having people able to be involved is more important than having more physical space.”
Brown added that in the future, she hopes there will be “more opportunities for student impact and student input,” especially surrounding housing applications. Many residents have noted that there are multiple empty rooms on each of the ILLC’s floors, despite student applications to live in the dorm having reportedly been rejected, and others being placed on a waitlist.
With so many factors up in the air, residents’ views about the expansion remain mixed. Stealey has expressed that she doesn’t know enough about what it would entail, including factors such as what affinity groups would be included in the new space and how it would affect current community members. The Impact Center has not provided any comment at this time.
Freshman Jules Chapin-Tsai, a current ILLC resident, added that she believes an expansion into Rhoads North could impact the treasured community environment. “The hallways [in Rhoads North]… are a bit curvy, narrow, tight—something that wouldn’t foster community togetherness in my opinion,” she explained. “What I’ve heard is that a lot of Rhoads North residents don’t really interact with others or see a lot of people in their halls.” Rhoads North contains forked hallways and different floor plans across levels, which may be confusing and isolating compared to Rhoads South’s mostly straight halls. The two wings of the building are also physically separated by the former Rhoads dining hall, each wing also having their own set of stairs. The layout of both Rhoads North and Rhoads South can be seen on the Bryn Mawr Website.
Due to the architectural difference, some fear that an expansion may disturb the carefully cultivated and cherished community within the ILLC, adding to disagreement surrounding the discussion. Stealey shared a similar concern, adding that “even though we share the same physical building, one side being the ILLC and the other side not being the ILLC… you’re able to tell.”
Though the future of the ILLC and its potential expansion is hazy, residents are hopeful that this conversation will ultimately result in another step towards more affinity-centered community space, with more opportunities for student voices to be heard.
