MSU will accept applications for the first installment of students in the Residential College in Arts and Humanities beginning in September.

It will mark the beginning of an opportunity for students to be closer to their classmates, their professors and out-of-class learning experiences. The college will offer students one major that integrates visual culture, language, world history and art and culture with the community of a residential college — where classrooms and faculty offices will be located in the same building the students live in.

Among its distinctive characteristics are a language proficiency requirement and "study away" curriculum — which is interactive study that takes place outside the traditional classroom but not necessarily abroad, said June Youatt, associate provost for undergraduate education and the dean of undergraduate studies.

Scot Yoder, assistant to the dean of the residential college, said brochures for the college have been sent to about 1,400 students entering their senior year in high school. He also said they are just beginning to use other avenues for advertising the college.

Prospective students have shown concern for what they can do with a degree from the college, rather than a more specific area of study in the arts and humanities, he said.

A degree from the new college would be helpful to three kinds of people, Yoder said. Students who have been involved in creative endeavors such as choir, band and theater but don't know if they can continue to pursue these things in a school as large as MSU.

Yoder said he hopes the residence, which will have a multicultural room where students can put on recitals or plays, will encourage students who aren't necessarily theater or music majors to participate in performances on a smaller scale.

Students interested in arts and humanities in the realm of public service make up another group that would benefit from the residential college, Yoder said.

Built in the curriculum is a course in which students will work with a community in their area of interest, which could be anything, including working at a museum, a social service agency or a school, he said.

Other students who may be interested in the new college are those planning to go to graduate school or a professional program and want a broader undergraduate education in a residential college, Yoder said.

"Some students are attracted to the idea of living in the dorms with the same people you are going to class with — it's a way of forming a living and learning community within a much larger campus," he said. "I think primarily it's going to be the residential experience for students that already have a passion for arts and human civilization through time and culture."

Pat McConeghy, acting dean in the College of Arts and Letters, said the major will appeal to people with an interest in human civilization through time and culture, who also want the residential experience.

For the first freshman class, 150 students will be chosen, and requirements for the college are the same as university requirements, Youatt said. In addition to smaller classes, there will be additional learning opportunities, many that will take place in the residence hall during downtime or on the weekends, she said.

Youatt said artists, musicians, authors, poets and actors will live in the residence halls and teach short courses, hold seminars or even give students a chance to perform with them.

"This is for students who really want to be deeply engaged in their education and want to be close to people who feel the same way about it," she said.

Plans for a residential college for the arts and humanities offering an experience similar to the James Madison College and Lyman Briggs School was first introduced by then-provost Lou Anna K. Simon in February 2004.

Chuck Gagliano, assistant vice president for Housing and Food Services, said lodging for the residential college will resume in fall 2007, although faculty offices and classrooms may not be finished until the spring 2008 semester.

Since then, at least 60 faculty members and 15 students — mostly those who have graduated since then — worked to develop the curriculum of the college. Yoder said it is still unclear what the relationship between Residential Option In Arts and Letters, or ROIAL, and the new residential college will be.

"We recognize that some of the things we want to do are very similar to what ROIAL is doing, but we're not sure what the relationship between ROIAL and the new college will be," Yoder said.