How a community is built in a universityCommunity is something you will find in any formal or informal setting where people are in the same area for long periods of time, especially on many college campuses. Community is thought of as, although different from specific individuals or subcultures, fundamentally a group of informally related people who share similar passions (Wenger, 2000). Most universities will push the idea of ​​“community” and “togetherness” among their students. They will do this in a variety of ways, including Freshman Convocation, Freshman Colloquium, and Welcome Week activities (Nathan, 2005), to name a few. By using different methods to bring students closer to each other, universities aim to create a happier environment to excite freshmen and lay the foundation for a learning community (Nathan, 2005). This “community” that 97% of university presidents believe is necessary to achieve positive results (Nathan, 2005), is not a feeling shared by the majority of students. As most students have repeatedly stated, mandatory and habitual experiences are unpopular (Nathan, 2005). While these calls for change are heard, they are not always acted upon. For example, many universities adopt a non-compulsory participation method, meaning that a student cannot be forced to attend or take part in any activities and has the option to choose to create their own clubs/groups. Activities in which many students do not participate or in which very few students show up are seen as a weak attempt to engage the campus community and students. In fact, it's not that students don't want a close-knit community, most don't want to admit the strain that community activities put on their resources, schedule, individuality, choice, and f... middle of paper. .....College and Character Journal. Network. April 9, 2014.Pascarella, Ernest T., Patrick T. Terenzini, and Lee M. Wolfle. “Orienting College and First-Year Persistence/Withdrawal Decisions.” The Journal of Higher Education 57.2 (1986): 1-20. The Journal of Higher Education. Network. April 9, 2014.Cooper, Catherine R., Jill Denner, Edward M. Lopez, and Nora Dunbar. "Beyond 'gifting science away'." Social Policy Report: Society for Research in Child Development XIII.1 (1997): 1-13. www.srcd.org. Network. April 7, 2014.Snyder, William M. and Etienne C. Wenger. "The organizational frontier". Community of Practice 1 (2000): 139-145. Community of practice. Network. April 9, 2014.Zeldin, Theodore. An intimate history of humanity. New York: HarperPerennial, 1996. Print.Astin, Alexander W.. What matters in college?: Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Print.