Composing New Narratives, Creating New Spaces: Constructing a Learning Commons with a Wide and Lasting Impact
Justin A. Young, Eastern Washington University
Before delving deeper into an analysis of this narrative as it unfolded in the development of the EWU Learning Commons, it is essential to describe and situate EWU as an institution of higher education in the U.S. and in its home state, Washington. EWU is a mid-sized (approximately 12,000 students) Regional Comprehensive University. As the most diverse university in Washington, EWU has the highest percentage of under-represented populations, both in terms of race and class. This school has by far the highest percentage of first-generation college students in the state; 50% of entering first-year students are the first in their family to earn a college degree. Many of its students come from lower to lower-middle class backgrounds, as just under 40% of students come from families that make under $50,000 a year. In the 2008-2009 school year, for example, 72% of students received financial aid. EWU draws a majority of its population from the immediate area, as it draws overwhelmingly from a nearby urban center and the surrounding rural, agricultural-based communities. The school charges less for tuition than any of the local community colleges.
Beginning in the summer of 2011, EWU began an effort to create a learning space for the promotion of student success across the disciplines. The first phase of this project, the EWU Learning Commons, opened just over a year later, in the fall of 2012, in the John F. Kennedy Library. 
The new Learning Commons included the already present library services as well as three entities that moved into the library: The Writers’ Center, the Multi-Media Commons (MMC), and an offshoot of the Academic Success Center, the Program for Learning and University Success (PLUS). See Figure 2 for a table representing the main programs in the Learning Commons and their location within the Library.
Figure 1: Main floor of library in preparation for the development of the Learning Commons. The library deaccessioned journals that were also held in full text online.
Program |
Purpose |
Space |
Library |
Information Literacy | Encompasses Learning Commons |
Writer's Center |
Writing and Multimodal Text Feedback/Production | Main Floor, Middle of Commons |
PLUS |
Supplemental Instruction | Main Floor, Back of Commons |
MMC |
Technology Access, Document Design/Production | Main Floor, Front of Commons |
Figure 2: Represents the main programs in the Learning Commons and their locations in the Library.
The partners in this Learning Commons share a common, open space, where students seeking academic support intermingle with students who are studying independently, professional staff, faculty, and student workers. A substantial portion of the main floor of the library was cleared of journals also available online in order to create the space for the Commons. As such, the Learning Commons has great visibility and prominence within the library and is centrally located on the EWU campus.
The Learning Commons project began with a partnership between the Writers’ Center and the JFK Library and expanded to include the other partners. Originally, based on a collaborative planning effort between the library and Writers Center, the Center was to move into the library alone. This plan was then substantially revised to bring in the other partners (as noted above) to the library in order create the Learning Commons. The Writers’ Center and Multi-Media Center is currently involved in an effort to combine forces in order to provide collaborative support to students producing multimodal texts. The two programs together comprise the first phase version of a multiliteracy center. Subsequent phases of the Commons will include additional partners, perhaps Advising, Career Services, and a Quantitative Literacy Center.
This webtext will detail the collaborative planning, development, and creation of the EWU Learning Commons from the perspectives a range of stakeholders. Each of these perspectives is informed and inspired by common cultural narratives of higher education, student success, and learning; this account (or, these accounts) of the development of a next-gen learning space will be provided within the context of these narratives. In doing so, the webtext aims to point the way towards the development of new cultural narratives that can ensure the sustainability of such learning spaces well into the future.