John Felice Rome Center Campus – curious?

Many people, when talking about the study abroad experience, like to focus on the dream world of travel that you can do. Places to see, people to meet, things to eat, and on and on. It was interesting for me, then, when I was doing research and preparations to come here, that I did not hear or read much about the Rome Center Campus itself. Our Office of International Programming sells study abroad just fine, and it is wonderful. But there’s a lot of mention about the community and opportunity here, not much about the buildings.

 

Or rather, building. JFRC, or J-Force, as we call it, is one massive structure with lots of shooting-off wings and many floors that show just how old of a past it has. The cafeteria is right next to the gym, the library is just above the cafe, and from some classrooms you can look out and see the staff parking lot. I live in a residential wing that used to be the infirmary ward, right above the refurbished administrative wing. The doctor’s office is still connected to it, so I wouldn’t have to go far if I ever needed anything. And across from my room is a new wing taking shape, apparently going to be the space of new student lounges and more office space for professors. It seems a little confusing, and goodness knows it took me a couple days to get the hang of it! Luckily, every floor is connected by a central staircase.

The lowest floor has only the gym, the cafe, and the cafeteria. The cafeteria, or mensa as we call it, is wide, spacious, can fit most if not all of the JFRC students and staff, and has a patio – as does the cafe, Rinaldo’s Bar. I haven’t yet asked who Rinaldo was, or is. The gym is nothing like our Halas at Lake Shore Campus, but it does the job. It has two treadmills, two ellipticals, a bike, weights and some weight machines, and floor-length mirrors, as well as yoga mats. And, just like on Lake Shore Campus, there are weekly exercise classes!

The second floor is one of the newest, at least from what I am guessing due to the interior. It has the IC/library, which used to be the chapel (the initial building was a convent), six standard classrooms and some other large multi-purpose rooms. The campus seems big, but you can walk end-to-end on the second floor in about two minutes if you are a very, very slow walker. The third floor has the porter’s desk, where our campus security works. But you can also buy bus tickets, hail taxis, and chat with the porters there as well. It’s also where the only entrance to the campus is, and it links the mailroom, the business office, the bookstore, the professor’s offices, older classrooms, and the administrative wing like spokes on a wheel. And above that is four stories of residential area! Some lounges too, of course.

The rooms themselves are a bit older, but they could be so much worse. Students who lived in some Lake Shore Campus dorms like San Francisco or de Nobili may find them more lacking that students with experience in say, Mertz or Campion, but by no means are these rooms shipping crates. All the beds are bunkbeds, built into the walls so you don’t have a choice, and the bathrooms are either suite-style or communal, but all rooms have a sink inside them. Plus, everyone has a closet, drying rack, bookshelf, mini-fridge, and desk (and chair, of course). It’s plenty of room – but there’s no need to worry about bringing extra furniture or anything. After all, who has room in their luggage? Just like many a college dorm, the walls are quite thin. That’s the universal college experience.

 (Pardon the mess – this is about 1/4 the room. The other 3/4 is a ‘little’ cluttered.)

Aside from the building, JFRC has grounds, too. There’s an olive grove that my Food and Wine class may harvest sometime soon, and cats roam beneath the branches. Some of them are Dr. Nicholson’s cats, one of the professors here who has been with the Rome Center since the very beginning. Others just kind of appear. We have a running joke that all of them are in fact the same cat, Sparky, who just takes the forms of many and moves so fast it looks like two or more cats laying about. The campus is down the end of a driveway that leads only to us and a nearby monastery, so at the end of it at night there is a gate locked to outsiders and a security guard stationed there. There’s also some winding paths with benches and sculptures to admire.

 

Some people say that living at JFRC is living in a bubble – it’s very easy to never leave except on the weekends of adventure! It’s certainly something the magic of Rome itself works against, luckily for me.