RESIDENTIAL SERVICES

This page contains programmatic information about the Communications Residential College. You can access building information on the Communications Residential College facilities page.

College Website

Visit the Communications Residential College website

College Staff

Faculty Chair

Roger Boye, Journalism

Associate Chair

Charles Whitaker, Journalism

Assistant Chair

Hannah Feiner, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Faculty Chair Welcome

Northwestern’s Communications Residential College (CRC) is the home away from home for students who have a strong interest in communication in all of its forms: written, video, audio, digital and photographic.

Typically, the majority of the College’s 105 students are majoring in radio-tv-film, journalism or communication studies with a significant number of other majors from around the University.

The building has two screening rooms with surround sound and sophisticated projectors. They are heavily used for movies and student-produced videos, faculty- or student-run firesides and, yes, even for video games.

CRC is the only residence hall on campus with its own radio station. It is the focal point of CRC’s annual “Radiothon,” 48 hours of non-stop programming to raise funds for the American Heart Association.

Also, the building includes a large lounge (with television and adjoining kitchen) used for the weekly All College Meeting and numerous other events, a separate television lounge with pool and ping-pong tables, and an exercise room. Each of the three residential floors has a fully equipped kitchen.

Almost 20 Northwestern faculty are affiliated with the College either as part of the “college staff” or as “fellows.” They often join students for lunch in the dining hall and present “firesides” on special topics from time to time.

Serving as CRC faculty chair is Medill Prof. Roger Boye, who has been part of CRC since 1989. He is joined by assistant chair Hannah Feiner, a graduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders within the School of Communication, as well as by associate chair Charles Whitaker, dean of the Medill journalism school.

The fellows include faculty from radio-tv-film, communication studies, journalism, and other parts of the University.

Sometimes one or two of our fellows offer special credit-bearing seminars open specially to CRC students and taught in the building. Recent topics have included "Tackling Tough Subjects Through Research and Children's Books" and "The Western Film Destiny."

At least three or four times each academic quarter, interested CRC students and fellows take trips into Chicago with all expenses paid by Northwestern. These have included Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts, Second City revues, various theatrical productions, Chicago Bulls games, historic Wrigley Field and Chicago Cubs games, recordings of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” bike rides to the Near North Side, and the list goes on and on.

So given all of this, what makes CRC really special? Many students say it’s the camaraderie and friendships that develop. CRC is large enough so that students spend time with peers of diverse backgrounds and majors, people from all over the world who have a common interest in communications, broadly defined. Yet it’s small enough so that everyone lives as one large family with each person getting to know everyone else in the building. Indeed, once students leave CRC, many continue to live as roommates as juniors and seniors, and then they maintain their friendships long after college graduation.

Communications Residential College Fellows and Graduate Associates