Denise Jorgens (The University of Chicago) on Building Spaces That Inspire Shared Humanity

On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Denise Jorgens to discuss how intentional community design strengthens global citizenship and how shared intercultural experiences sustain belonging across cultures and generations.

Transcript

Shauna Cox (00:02):

Denise, welcome to the Illumination podcast.

Denise Jorgens (00:06):

Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.

Shauna Cox (00:08):

Absolutely. We are here to talk about intentional community design, rebuilding global citizenship that fostering the belonging, all these good things. So I want to kick off our conversation and first ask, how can intentional community design within a global residential environment like the International House help rebuild a sense of global citizenship and a shared humanity?

Denise Jorgens (00:34):

So this is a really important question, and this question really brings us back to the founding of International House. The first international house opened its doors in 1924 in New York City, and this whole idea of an intentional community and the design of the community goes back to these early days. So I would say John d Rockefeller Jr, who was one of the founders of International House, he was a very engaged philanthropist. And what I mean by that is, especially in the context of your question, he really believed that the architecture of an institution could inform the mission. So for example, the YMCA official Harry Edmonds, who really came up with the idea for international house following a chance encounter in 1909 on the steps of Columbia University Library, a simple good morning by the YMCA official caused the Chinese student to turn back and say that he had been in this country for three weeks. And that Edmonds, the YMCA official was the first person to speak with him. So Edmonds was moved by this experience and he started inviting international students into his home in New York City. And then ultimately he was able to convince John d Rockefeller Jr. And the Cleveland Dodge family to build the first house in New York City in 1924. And Rockefeller, as I said, he was a very engaged philanthropist. So for example, Edmonds asked him for the funds to build a facility with 150 beds. And Rockefeller said, no, I won't do that, but I will provide funds for a facility with 500 beds.

(03:04):

And the reason he said that was because he felt that you needed a certain size to your community to ensure that you had an engaged population. Throughout the academic year, Rockefeller recognized that students would come in and out of the community life and that their academic work would take precedence. So he recognized that the size of the community was important. But then the other thing that Rockefeller recognized was the architecture of our buildings. And he felt strongly that the architecture of these intentional communities, the design of these intentional communities, could inform the mission. And so the lower parts of our communities, the first floor, the second floor, these areas are public spaces. These are incredibly gracious public areas, whereas the upper floors are the bedrooms, they're single rooms. And Rockefeller said, those are bedrooms just as you would have in your private home, but you would live your life in these gracious public areas. And that's where the work of international house, the building of a sense of global citizenship, the shared humanity that you were talking about, that's where that takes place in these shared spaces.

Shauna Cox (05:01):

Absolutely, and I think there's so much you can unpack there, but I want to talk about that initial arrival to a student on campus. Oftentimes there are many students that come to campus and there's orientation and there's all this excitement that's built up in that first couple of weeks or first couple of months. But oftentimes it then just kind of dies away. It fades away. But you really need to keep that sense of belonging, really present throughout their whole experience. It doesn't matter what time of year, how much time has passed and stuff like that. So what are some of the most effective long-term strategies you've seen or you suggest for sustaining belonging across this diverse cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic lines, especially once that initial excitement kind of fades away?

Denise Jorgens (05:57):

So I think I would probably push back a little bit on the notion that it fades away. This is personal for me. I lived at International House as a graduate student myself for two years. Many of my lifelong friends had experience at International House, including my husband. So I would take issue that it fades away, and I know what you're referencing, this kind of culture or shock or whatever, that there's this initial excitement and then it kind of levels off. But here again, I would go back to Rockefeller, John d Rockefeller because he also spoke about this question. So Rockefeller believed, and certainly those of us that have been involved with these communities around the world have seen this firsthand that there is a transformative experience that takes place here at iHouse this day-to-day interaction. It's not any one initial set of programs or orientation or something.

(07:29):

I mean, we have all of that, of course, but it's the day-to-day interaction, which is really part of the transformative experience here at International House. So that the day-to-day interaction is what really leads to the lifelong friendships that are formed here at International House. And it's what impacts what you do next. So the experience here at Iho is not intended to be a lifestyle. It's meant to be a transformative experience that then impacts the rest of your life. And as the director here at International House, at the University of Chicago, I have been very fortunate to see this firsthand over a very long period of time.

Shauna Cox (08:41):

Amazing. Awesome. Sorry, I didn't know if you had anything else there. I want to go into the inner workings of that. How do the programs at the International House equip students to translate their lived intercultural experiences into the, that are going to drive professional success?

Denise Jorgens (09:00):

So programs are a very important part of the overall set of activities here at all the international houses. And I'm really speaking about all the international houses in all of my responses here because we are all very, very similar.

(09:23):

So again, Rockefeller wanted these institutions to be not just residential facilities, but program centers. And he wanted them to be program centers, not just for the people who are living here, in our case, the 500 students or New York, the 500 students, but program centers for the metropolitan communities in which we operate. And so in the case here in Chicago, in the original gift letter to the University of Chicago from Rockefeller, it states aside from the residential piece, it says, and you will be a resource to the people of metropolitan Chicago. And so we bring the broader communities into this academic universe of students. And this kind of give and take with our student community and our broader community is what really translates into a very successful intercultural experience and development of these competencies that you referred to.

(10:47):

So I'll just mention that because we just had this program on Monday. But the International House Association, which is a collection of the historic international houses and centers around the world whose mission really is to forward the visionary legacy of our founders, including Rockefeller, by fostering the sense of a global community committed to peace building, cultural exchange, and intellectual collaboration. So to do that, one of the things we're doing is some special programming. So we've established what we're calling our global forum series as part of this relaunch of our global organization and these activities, this global forum series. It will contribute then to our broader role as conveners, as sources of analysis of current events, curators of cultural content, really as educators of these broader communities that we serve and as institutions that are really committed to furthering understanding across a broad set of communities around the world.

(12:20):

So I'll just mention, because we were so pleased on Monday, this will be a series of six programs this year, programs will be held around the world. And the first program was here this past Monday in Chicago when we welcomed President LR Caris, the president of the Republic of Estonia, to come and speak to our student community and the broader communities that we serve here in Chicago on. He spoke on innovation and digital transformation, geopolitical challenges, and national security on NATO's eastern border. And these programs have an overall theme, which I think is interesting, which is titled Pathways to Peace Lessons in Reconciliation. And so we are looking ahead now to programs in Delhi and Tokyo in January. We will have programs in New York and Berkeley in April, and we'll conclude our series in June in London when we are very excited to be hosting the former prime minister of the uk, Theresa May, who will be speaking on cultivating peace through understanding.

Shauna Cox (13:59):

That's amazing. That's literally all around the world. Talk about your global education there. I think that's so cool.

Denise Jorgens (14:07):

Sorry. And I should say also that these programs, what we're doing to link up this global community, I'm so glad you kind of reminded me there. So all of these programs are live livestreamed and recorded. So we really try to extend the reach of our programs and of our activities far beyond just our immediate student community or campus communities.

Shauna Cox (14:40):

Absolutely. And I want to extend on the idea of the campus community and kind of give you this magic wand of if you could do anything, what would you do? So if you could redesign that concept of campus community for the next generation of learners, what physical, digital, maybe cultural elements would you prioritize to make inclusivity and curiosity kind of that foundation of global education?

Denise Jorgens (15:06):

Yeah, so this is a really interesting question because new residence halls are built all the time and the model is very different. The physical model is very different from what we have. But I would say that the design, the physical design, the architecture of our great buildings, and these are really grand facilities done by very famous architects, just beautiful facilities. I would say that the design of funneling individuals down to these very gracious public areas for the day-to-day interaction, this design has existed now for over 100 years. And so I probably wouldn't change that aspect of the design. We are always thinking about new amenities that students of today expect. The directors of course, are often talking about the challenges of managing a hundred year old buildings and what that means. But putting that aside, I think of course new amenities, connectivity is something that is very important.

(16:44):

I mentioned the connection of programs with our sister houses around the world. That's something that of course is relatively new recording programs and making the recordings available following a program. We talk a lot about extending the reach of programs beyond the program itself. So we have a large number of programs here at International House of Chicago, about 200 major public events every year. But we've really talked about extending the reach of these programs, not just to our campus communities, but to our alumni community and to others. And so this is something we learned during the COVID period when we started doing virtual programming. And we were just absolutely amazed at the attendance all around the world. I mean, literally thousands of people were signing up for programming. It made us think why didn't we do this a long time ago? So I would say in redesigning the concept of campus community, certainly extending the reach of our programs and using technology to do that, that's also one of the areas that the International House Association has identified as an important

Shauna Cox (18:33):

Commitment.

Denise Jorgens (18:35):

This idea of harnessing technological advancements to embrace the opportunities presented by modern technology to better utilize virtual platforms and digital tools to connect and engage our communities across the four continents that we operate on. And to really use this as another tool to transcend geographical limitations and to foster this global network that we all think is so very important, especially today.

Shauna Cox (19:18):

Absolutely. And I want to dovetail off of that idea and talk about the traction that you guys have had and that extended reach. What lessons can institutions around the world take from the international house model when it comes to transforming their student communities into living laboratories for empathy, dialogue, global leadership?

Denise Jorgens (19:42):

Okay, so here, this is an easy question. Being here at the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago is truly the leader in the area of freedom of expression. And we have been the leader since very early days of the university. So here I would say that we are on a campus where free expression is really, it's really a core element of all of our history and culture. And so this commitment to the principles of free speech and academic freedom and their importance to rigorous and open scholarly inquiry, as I said, it's really traced back to the earliest days of the University of Chicago. And I mention all of this because International House of Chicago, and I think our sister houses would put themselves in the same category, have really always contributed to this commitment to the principles of free speech. And so now through the work of the International House Association, we very much look forward to contributing to this work by fostering a global community committed to peace building, cultural exchange, and intellectual collaboration.

(21:22):

As I mentioned earlier, one of our former presidents, Hannah Holburn Gray said, education should not be intended to make people comfortable. It is meant to make them think. And then another one of our presidents, Robert Maynard Hutchins, who's a very prominent member of our history, he said The policy of repression of ideas cannot work and has never worked. The alternative to it is the long and difficult road of education. And to this, the American people have been committed. It requires patience and tolerance even in the face of intense provocation. And I would say that International House has also been committed to this work. And I mentioned our Global Forum series. This is just one of the many examples of how we believe in this core element of freedom of expression and the importance of education in the next generation. So yeah,

Shauna Cox (22:55):

Amazing. I think that is the most perfect way to end on that. It's just kind of like a mic drop. I love it. Well, Denise, those are all the questions I have for you. Is there anything else that you would like to share about the work you're doing or anything on the subject that I may have missed?

Denise Jorgens (23:12):

I think we're all really thrilled. Those of us that are relaunching the International House Association, the Rockefeller houses, I should say the original network of Rockefeller houses includes the first house in New York in 1924, Berkeley in 1930, Chicago in 32, Paris in 36. And this is another remarkable part of our story following the Second World War in 1952 to better relations between the US and Japan. The house opened in Tokyo in 52, and then we see the India International Center in Delhi in 1962. And finally the International House International Students House in London in 1965. So that's the group that we're talking about when we're talking about reviving this historic international house association, this collection of historic houses and centers. And we very much look forward to continuing mission of uniting of a world united by mutual understanding and respect, again, where all cultures are celebrated and conflicts are resolved through peaceful dialogue. So I thank you so much for your interest in International House and in the International House Association. The work we're doing now that we've been doing for now more than a hundred years, and the work that we look forward to doing in the years ahead.

Shauna Cox (25:12):

Amazing. And I look forward to seeing what you guys have planned, all the work that you guys are going to be doing here on out. Denise, it was so great to chat with you. Thank you so much for coming on.

Denise Jorgens (25:24):

Alright, thank you very much.