By Lana Lagomarsini, News Staff

A week into the semester, many students are already singing the prasises of International Village (INV), Northeastern’s newest residence hall.
International Village, which opened this semester, boasts 22 floors, is home to 1,200 students and one professor, and has plenty of amenities, including a dining hall, gym, a Jamba Juice restaurant and lounge areas on most floors. The building also has impressive views of Boston Harbor and the majority of Northeastern’s expansive campus.
‘I think it’s very different from our other buildings on campus,’ said Ryan Fox, Student Government Association (SGA) president and resident of International Village. ‘It’s really nice to have different options for students.’
Fox said he and the members of SGA worked with the administration throughout the planning process of International Village and the building of the dining hall to make the new spaces as comfortable for students as possible.
‘I think that [upperclassmen] never believed it would be this nice, and some were unsure about not having kitchens at first, but now that they’ve tried the dining hall and things like that, they have gotten really excited about it,’ Fox said.
About 700 of the residents are upperclassmen, and the new amenities have impressed them as well as the freshman and transfer students.
‘My favorite is the dining hall, because the variety is so different [from other dinning hall on campus],’ said Kristi Kehoe, a middler psychology major living in INV.
The international theme doesn’t stop at the food. The artwork on the walls was made by Northeastern students and alumni while studying abroad, and the television sets outside the dining hall will be turned to international news stations, Fox said.
‘It’s a cool concept, and until we see the execution it’s hard to say anything bad about it,’ Fox said.
Fox said administrators are working to make things in the dining hall as streamlined as possible so when it is crowded it doesn’t feel as crowded as the Stetson dining halls in their peak hours.
‘ The hall’s dorm rooms are comprised of attached singles with a shared bathroom,’ a perk for students fearing the communal bathroom experience.
‘I love the idea of semi-private singles where you have a roommate but you also have your own space,’ said Alexa Fay, a junior graphic design major living in International Village.
The building has themed floors, including freshman honors, artistic expression, and gender neutral, where communities and bonds between students are ripe for flourishing, Fox said.
‘I hope that a community does develop,’ said David Wood, a psychology major who is also a sophomore first-year transfer.
Students have yet to dub the building with creative nicknames, but most said they are sure something will work out.
‘I’ve heard one person call it the IV, but I’m not sure if it will stick,’ Fay said.
The new building is also home to Associate Professor of Communications Carey Noland. Noland is part of an experimental program called faculty-in-residence, where faculty live among their students.
Noland is the first and only professor to try this at Northeastern so far, but said she has hopes that it will continue in following years.
‘It really is a part of a learning experience for professors and students to find ways to interact outside of the classroom,’ Noland said.
Noland lives with her husband, who is a doctor unaffiliated with Northeastern. They live and receive a meal plan free of charge. Her apartment has space provided by the university to have students over to communicate outside the classroom.
‘ ‘We want to make sure people are getting the best experience they can here,’ Noland said. ‘I think the interpersonal connections you can make with people, those are really meaningful and those are the ones that stick with you ‘hellip; This is an opportunity to have some of those interpersonal reactions in a different setting.’