Slivka Residential College is Northwestern’s Science and Engineering Residential College. It was made possible via a gift from the Wissner-Slivka Foundation in 2000 and the construction was completed in 2002, making it the newest Residential College on campus.
Residential Colleges
Mission
As one of the eleven Residential Colleges, Slivka is much more than just a dorm for 140 residents. Residential Colleges are more community-oriented than most typical residence halls because the mission of the Residential Colleges are to enrich the intellectual, cultural, and social lives of their students and to help them develop lifelong habits of learning and responsibility.
To achieve their mission, Residential Colleges have themes and more building-wide activities than a typical res hall, and these events determine who is allowed to return the following year because they count for housing points. Additionally, our communities comprise of both Students and Fellows (NU faculty, grad students, etc.). Our Fellows, who are faculty and staff members at Northwestern, interact with Slivkans on a regular basis through many of our events.
Getting Into a Residential College
It is important to note that incoming students must apply through their housing contract if they wish to live in a Residential College! That being said, any NU undergrad has the option to pay a smaller fee to become a “nonres” for a Residential College of their choice. Nonreses do not live their Residential College, but they’re still invited to attend events, gain housing points, and receive email notifications.
What makes Slivka Unique?
Residents
Slivka’s theme is Science and Engineering and we are a large Residential College with the highest upperclassmen retention rate. Because of this, underclassmen, particularly STEM students, will almost always find somebody who has taken a class they are considering, or who is part of a group on campus they are interested in.
Events
While most Slivkans are STEM majors, we are a large Residential College so we have residents from all Northwestern schools with various interests who contribute to the community. This is reflected in the variety and amount of Slivka events. We have six committees that plan events: Academic, Fellows, IT, Philanthropy, Publications, and Social. Anyone in the Slivka community can join these committees to put on whatever event they want. Past events include painting along to Bob Ross tutorials and murder mystery.
Viral Video
Each year, Slivkans makes a video that showcases our facilities, people, and facets of everyday Residential College life! And they’re pretty funny. Consider each a small, quirky virtual tour of what Slivka is like. Here is our most recent video!