A central point in The Plan for Union is the reaffirmation of the close connection between academic and residential life on a small, liberal arts campus.
The ideal of the residential undergraduate colleges goes back to the early days of American higher education. Thomas Jefferson's plan for the University of Virginia envisioned it as an “Academical Village,” and Eliphalet Nott, Union's great nineteenth-century president, stipulated that each class was to be part of “the family of the officer who instructs them” and that they would all “lodge in college and board in commons.” Even Clark Kerr, who originated the phrase “multiversity” in the 1960s, acknowledged that the big campus lacks the virtue of the small liberal arts college — “the emphasis on the individual with small classes, a residential environment, and a strong sense of relationship to others on campus…”
Proponents of changing the social and residential structure of Union returned to these themes frequently during the two years of discussion. For example:
— As part of a lengthy self-study done for the College's reaccreditation process, faculty, students, and staff examined six themes around the unifying idea of the life of the mind — an approach praised by the visiting accreditation team. The self-study noted that while students and faculty recognize the strengths of the College's formal academic program, both groups expressed some disappointment with the informal intellectual life of the community. “They want more from the various activities that take place outside the formally structured teaching/learning and scholarship — activities that often cross disciplinary boundaries, and that bring people from different parts of the community together around larger intellectual concerns,”
— A report done by an independent research firm in mid-2000 (based on a survey of 400 inquiring students and on data from the company's research, another 5,000 students) concluded that the Greek system was actually turning away inquiries from the kind of high-achieving student the College wants to attract. “We find that Union is unlikely to change the quality of its students if the Greek system remains unchanged,” the report concluded.
— The College's Faculty Executive Committee said that approval of the U2K proposal was “absolutely vital” to improving the academic standing of the College. “The academic health of the College depends as much on an atmosphere of intellectual pursuit as it does on attracting high-level students,” the committee said. “Faculty believe that the current academic climate at the College could be improved substantially. Some social activities actively detract from student interest in academics. U2K addresses this cultural problem head-on by encouraging a social climate that supplements, rather than detracts from, academics.”