The Minerva Houses

The seven Minerva Houses were created in 2004 to enrich Union’s campus community, and broaden our student’s out-of-class experience, academically and socially.
Incoming students are randomly assigned to a Minerva, and join all upperclass students, faculty, staff and administration in house membership.

Every Minerva has its own student-run governing council, who are elected annually by their fellow students, and chaired by a faculty and student representative. In essence, the Minerva Houses are run by and for our community, receiving only supportive guidance from administration.

Minervas are hubs of activity. The seven Houses combined host hundreds of events over the course of the academic year—from lunches with professors, and dinners with invited speakers, to live bands at night, and dance parties all night. Through the Minervas, students run trips to local shows and restaurants, and to local events and attractions. Pumpkin carving, dance concerts, BBQs, watching tv shows, kayaking, apple-picking, film festivals, random parties, the list goes on for what the Minervas can do—student generated, and student run.

Some students call their Minerva home, living in the residential floors above the common spaces—other students call their Minerva home-away-from-home using the spaces for reading, studying, watching tv, playing pool or ping-pong, or hanging out with friends.

Our Minervas have become an integral part of the campus community. More than half of Minerva events are academic in nature and those events are balanced by a healthy dose of student frivolity. The grass-roots nature of the Minervas means our success comes from those interested and invested students who have taken up the challenge. So far, those successes, and our students, have been extraordinary.