In its 95 years of existence, Cornish College of the Arts has never had dorms—until now.

This summer, Cornish is in the (rapid) process of transforming the former Days Inn (at Seventh and Blanchard) and the former Eighth Avenue Inn (on Eighth between Bell and Blanchard) into residence halls for 280 mostly first-year students, who move in starting Sunday, August 30.

Associate Provost Jenifer Ward talks about what's behind the change, why you shouldn't call them dorms, and about Cornish's long-term real-estate dreams.

JG: I want to ask you about Cornish's new dorms—but I'm not supposed to call them dorms, right?
JW: Yeah, let's don't call them dorms. A dorm is a place where you sleep. What we're looking at is more along the lines of a living-learning center, where the co-curriculum dovetails with what the curriculum does, and where life at an arts college is taken seriously as something that happens both in and outside of the classroom.
JG: So in those terms, what is the co-curriculum?
JW: That's yet to be seen. We've just hired a residence life director and a hall director, and they're both dynamite. They've both got good backgrounds in student development.
JG: At arts colleges?
JW: No, but they've both got the right kind of training and background and openness, and they get it—they get students. …It begs the question: Is an 18- or 19-year-old first-year student at an arts college primarily a student or primarily an artist? And I don't have a good answer to that. I think they're both, and I think that we needed to hire people that would not typecast in either direction but would meet these students where they are and try to craft an experience for them, or actually with them, in creating a community that serves them and their whole lives.
JG: Has Cornish ever had residence halls before?
JW: No. So this is just an incredible opportunity for us. One of the things that Cornish says about itself is that it fosters interdisciplinary inquiry and it's innovative, and it tries to push against those boundaries that structure disciplines and explore and all of that, but at the end of the day we do have departments and they have pretty tight curricula and they're pretty structured—and there's not a whole lot of opportunity for people to meet each other outside of their departments. That's in part because it's an urban institution where people come to do their work and then they scatter to Capitol Hill or Queen Anne or wherever to live their lives, and that we still do have a split campus, with part of it in the Denny Triangle, and with music and dance up on the Hill. This is a way for us to forge community that doesn't live only in those boundaries.
JG: Is this only for first-year students?

JW: Primarily. First-years will be required to live in the residence halls (unless they're exempt by virtue of their parents living really close and so they'll live at home), there'll be some transfer students there, and to the extent that we still have openings, continuing students can apply, but eventually we anticipate that it will be mostly a first-year experience. I think that's only natural. Students will come, get a pied-a-terre in Seattle for their first year, and then they naturally developmentally start to think, Okay, now it might be cool to get an apartment.
JG: How many slots do you have?
JW: I think there are 280 beds. Most students will live in double rooms, or they can apply to have a single, and there's an upcharge for that. I think that what we're seeing is that most students are electing to have roommates.
JG: What's the ratio of in-town to out-of-town students at Cornish?
JW: I can't tell you exactly offhand, but it's definitely trending towards more out-of-town. And I think it varies from department to department.
(UPDATE: According to Cornish figures from 2008, almost 46 percent of enrolling students were from the Puget Sound region.)
JG: Will students have to pay more for tuition?
JW: No, they have to pay charges to live in a residence hall, but the tuition is exactly the same. It's the kind of thing where if you are a very frugal student you could probably live 15 to a room in Capitol Hill and come out much cheaper, but it's comparable to what you would pay if you shared an apartment. And the thing that we're trying to emphasize is that you're not just paying for the room, you're paying for the programming, you're paying for the community, for the resident assistants, the cardio equipment so you don't have to get a gym membership, for the wireless internet access—so you don't have to pay for those.
JG: What are other perks?
JW: We have two buildings: the former Days Inn and the former Eighth Avenue Inn. (The Hurricane is the meat of the sandwich.) So they're hotels, and they're set up like hotels, and we're obviously cleaning them out and making them student-friendly and outfitting the rooms differently so they've now got desks and stuff like that. But one of the things that's exciting about the buildings is that you have these former hotel public spaces like the breakfast area, those will be lounges, and there will be opportunities for students to do some light cooking, there are some pianos in rooms that will be music practice rooms. It's not the case that every single thing is in both buildings, but students who live in one will have access to both of them. Each of the rooms has a private bath, each has wireless access, then there are public spaces.
JG: How many RAs are there?
JW: 12 total, so it's a pretty good ratio, and they're from across the college.
JG: They're students, right?
JW: Yeah. Those students get their room and board paid for but they have to work for it. When I went to college, there were RAs but they were there to yell at us if we had a gentleman caller and kept the door closed, and that's not what they do anymore. It's sort of peer counseling, peer development, social programming, wellness programming.
JG: You've used the word 'programming' several times, so I have to ask: what are a couple of examples of what the programming will be?
JW: They're going to be developing those things, so I can't tell you what they'll be, but I can tell you some kinds of programs that are popular in residence life programs across the country. There might be an open mic night or a poetry slam. There might be a spa day where you'd hire a massage therapist in to do chair massages during finals week. They may invite faculty members to do talks.
JG: Dorms usually go with dining halls.
JW: Yes—Cornish's café is being expanded. I couldn’t say if it's been exactly doubled in size, but it looks doubled in size to me. So the offerings and the hours will be expanded. Students in the residence halls will purchase a board plan, but it's a variable plan, not a one-size-fits-all thing, because we have a good portion of students who will be up at Kerry Hall [on Capitol Hill]. We're getting little soft-sided, insulated coolers for each of them so when they go to breakfast in the morning, they can pick up their boxed lunch to take up the Hill with them.
The reality is, this is the first time we've done a residential life program at Cornish, so the first year is going to really be a matter of what works and seeing what might work better, and the RAs, these students, are really going to be our ear to the street. We've sat down and said, You guys are going to be right there in the thick of it, talk to us, let us know what we need to be thinking about for next year.
JG: Will Cornish make money from having residence halls? Aside from wanting to build community, were there logistical reasons for doing this? What was the impetus?
JW: I don't think it will help us financially—we won't make a profit on this. Our hope is to break even. I think where we think it's going to benefit us is that the more we want to become a college that's able to compete with other kinds of institutions and recruit students who are not living with their parents in Seattle, the more we need to be able to provide a place for them to stay.
The kind of student that is applying to Cornish now is not necessarily the kind of student who applied to us 15 years ago. These are traditional-aged students. They're applying to arts colleges but also to Whitman and PLU and all these places that have residential components, and if you're the parent of a student, and you're looking at the prospect of places that are going to provide for your kid in a full way, and then you look at Cornish, which is in an urban core, and you've got an 18-year-old student, it's something that gives you pause. We've been able to do pretty well in that regard, but I think we want to do better. But I think more than that, there's a way in which having people on site allows you to reach with them and engage with them in a way that's very hard when people are commuting.
JG: What else is going on with Cornish in terms of real estate? Does Cornish own the Alpha Cine building now?
JW: We do own it, and plans are pending. We actually acquired it in December and the former owner was leasing it temporarily. He has just—as in last week—handed it over. We're not sure about what will ultimately go there.
We're in a capital campaign. The Campaign for Cornish (2002-2012) is $95 million. Of that, $88 million is designated for the creation of a consolidated campus, and $7 million is for growing the endowment. Through a combination of property sales, generous gifts, and pledges, we are now about $42 million into the $88 million (consolidation); and about $5 million into the $7 million (endowment). In short, we're halfway there.
Even in this challenging climate, we have received some wonderful gifts designated for the Performing Arts Complex, slated to be (eventually) in the building we own at Ninth and Lenora. This will allow us to move music and dance down the hill and realize the dream of a consolidated campus. And in case your next question was to be about the fate of Kerry Hall once that happens, the answer is that the board of trustees will study the possibilities during the next couple of years, consider all options, and try to make a good, strategic, long-term decision that serves the mission of the college into the future.
JG: Okay. When do the students start arriving? Will you leave mints on their pillows?
JW: (laughs) They arrive at the end of August, and we're excited. It's going to be a quick turnaround because the hotels were only delivered to us just a few weeks ago, so it's a huge scramble, and every single person is on deck for the scramble. The one thing I an say with absolute clarity is that I'm wildly impressed with the staff we've put together for this and I think it's going to be great.

^{Full disclosure: I teach contemporary art history on an adjunct basis at Cornish.
This post has been corrected.}