Taking place throughout the academic year on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., Common Hour is dedicated time, free from scheduled Mount Carmel Campus classes, for students, faculty and staff to experience community engagement, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and impactful student-centered programs.

By providing a space where ideas can be shared and where the campus community can come together outside of daily responsibilities, Common Hour is a meaningful step toward building community and wellbeing while also helping students in developing transferable skills, said Terri Johnson, associate vice president of Student Personal & Professional Development.

“With Common Hour, we are intentionally providing various opportunities for learning to extend beyond the classroom,” said Johnson. “It’s truly staff, faculty and student driven. Everyone is participating in how we create this. It’s really a great opportunity to create what we think would most benefit our university.”

Common Hour invites the university community to engage in programming and events spanning broad range of interests, topics and learning opportunities. Tuesday Common Hour sessions will be led by faculty and staff. On Thursdays, student clubs and organizations will provide a variety of opportunities to get involved or to learn during informative programs.

Chief Experience Officer Tom Ellett and Johnson have been coordinating with faculty, staff and student leaders to create an expansive weekly schedule filled with diverse options for each day’s Common Hour.

“Community is built in so many different ways, and that’s why we need a plethora of opportunities for people to engage in different ways,” said Ellett. “Sometimes there are interest-based connections, sometimes there are knowledge-based connections, sometimes there’s hands-on service kinds of opportunities.”

Common Hour’s fall 2025 schedule is packed with opportunities for interdisciplinary dialogue, how-to sessions, book club meetings, listening labs, meet-ups, tools and tips to assist with university resources, college life, and life after graduation; guest speakers, programs focusing on the arts, school spirit, advisement, career, mental health and wellness, university and student club/student organization events, and much more.

“Lots of these things will be very helpful for our students and our faculty to participate in. You can drop in and learn more about something that interests you. You can find new connections and meet new people,” said Ellett.

For example, working with student leaders, Ellett is offering “Pizza with Eight Strangers.” Every other week, the meet-up and structured conversation will help students meet new people and come to feel more connected to their community. As another example, to help strengthen Quinnipiac’s interdisciplinary community, faculty members have thus far created 13 different Common Hour book clubs across a broad range of compelling topics.

As an institution, Quinnipiac is offering many resources to enhance and support student success and wellness as part of Common Hour programming. Just a few among them are various Learning Commons sessions as well as career “adulting” sessions, such as kitchen demonstrations focusing on nutrition, and faculty-led sessions on managing personal marketing and personal finances.

For new students, Common Hour offers the chance to learn more on useful topics such as going through the advising process for the first time, registering for classes for the first time, or using meal plan points.

“There’s an educational ‘here and now’ students can get, post-orientation, that we think will be very helpful,” said Ellett.

Johnson said Common Hour supports a long-held vision by many university members to expand opportunities for academic enrichment, student engagement, and strengthening connections across campus.

“This is something that many at Quinnipiac have advocated for a long time as a way to foster greater connections across campus,” said Johnson.

With the addition of the new South Quad, the opportunity to plan and present Common Hour across the Mount Carmel Campus became a reality.

On Tuesday, August 26, a very special South Quad Showcase will launch the first Common Hour as an interdisciplinary event. Featuring food trucks and lawn games outside and tours (and more food) inside, the showcase will celebrate the official opening of the new South Quad and its academic buildings, the SITE and the new School of Business.

“Everybody is invited to the grand opening of the South Quad,” said Johnson. “We want the community and students to feel welcome and to explore these gorgeous, state-of-the-art facilities so they are aware of what’s inside and the spaces that are available for everybody to use.”

Throughout the academic year, Common Hour will also provide dedicated time when the campus community can join in experiencing other significant university milestones, such as the inauguration of Quinnipiac President Marie Hardin on Thursday, October 16.

The timing of Common Hour will also allow for greater participation in many notable campus events, such as the fall semester’s Career Fair, Engagement Fair, and voter registration tabling. Other events, such as Critical Conversations featuring outside speakers, will also align with Common Hour.

“Because there will be no Mount Carmel classes for a portion of time that these events will take place, it will allow more students to get involved in intellectual exchange and meaningful dialogue,” said Johnson.

With more than a dozen different options often filling a single Common Hour, programs and events will take place at numerous locations across the Mount Carmel Campus.
Ellet said participation and creative ideas for Common Hour programs are continuously being added to the calendar, and more are encouraged.

“It’s the first year, so let’s try lots of innovative and new things so we hopefully will be more connected and more engaged. We’re excited to see the programming the student clubs and organizations are coming up with, and I think that every faculty member here has lots of research interests and personal interests that can be compelling for our students. This is a chance for us to say engagement outside of the classroom is really important,” said Ellett.