Doonesbury Hall
Doonesbury is a student dormitory located in the “Vernon Street Neighborhood,” at 90-92 Vernon Street.
Doonesbury was selected as the name for the dormitory in 1982 by Trinity Vice-President Thomas Smith. In addition to student residences, Doonesbury once was the home of the French and Spanish programs, which had relocated from Jackson Hall in 1983.
In 1992, Doonesbury began housing members of the Praxis program, which was designed for students interested in engaging in community activity work. Students in Praxis wanted to live adjacent to the neighborhood to help facilitate their work. Praxis also supported the Studies in Progressive American Movements minor. The housing of residential groups according to areas of interest and focuses was an initiative of the Office of Residential Life.
Beginning in 2019, Doonesbury was re-designated as the Cross Cultural Living Community (CCLC), with a goal to house up to 24 students from a diverse range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. While all students were (and are) welcome, the focus for the College was on students in the sophomore class. The new community first formed under the recommendation of Political Science faculty member Reo Matsuzaki, based on a similarly modeled dorm experience at Georgetown University called the Global Living Center, of which Matsuzaki had been a member. CCLC fosters shared struggles and identities and provides programming of service and outreach to the Hartford community.
Doonesbury also served as a quarantine/isolation location for on-campus students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a large increase in cases in October 2020, Doonesbury reached capacity for infected students and the College annexed Stowe and Clemens halls as well as a single unit in the Vernon dormitory to house the overflow of students needing quarantine and isolation.
Sources
Doonesbury Residential Community
Trinity Tripod, 10/13/2020.
Trinity Tripod, 09/22/2020.
Trinity Tripod, 02/12/2019.
Trinity Reporter (Winter 1992), p. 8.
Trinity Tripod, 03/15/1983.
Trinity College Handbook, 1983-84 (1983), p. 12.
Trinity Tripod, 05/11/1982.