<p>For those concerned about privacy and noise, Vassar’s faculty (house fellow) apartments inside the dorms are very well sound proofed, and have their own private entrances (they have “back doors” that connect into the dorm as well) They are also near the “quiet” or “substance free” areas as well, to limit the noise/chaos. Faculty are required to commit for 2 years, although most stay many many years longer. Vassar students stay in the same house over the course of their time at the school, so the relationships with the house fellows can become very close over the years. It is particularly popular with younger faculty with young children. The biggest downside I can see is having to leave the building with the fire alarms - but one of my fondest Vassar memories was waiting for the fire department all clear with everyone from my dorm, the house fellows, and their 5 year old in his footsie PJs… he was so excited by the whole process and being around all the “big kids” in the middle of the night. I loved being a young adult at Vassar… I think it would have been completely magical to live there as a kid, and to feel that kind of ownership of the place.</p>
<p>I think it depends how holistic an educator you want to be. Vassar’s faculty is a huge part of the campus community on many different levels. It is only natural that some of them live with us, and become a part of that even more special community. Clearly it is not for everyone. But, at least at some schools, it is quite competitive to get.</p>
<p>Mythmom - I honestly have no clue what the official policy is for professor’s residences… yes MOST live within a 5 minute commute of the campus. However, I had a number of professors who lives farther away, including NYC. They commute. They also are still all very involved in campus life. Including those that traveled greater distances.</p>
<p>At what point are we going to let young adults be…young ‘adults’. Is this a move to keep a parent representative around until they’re in their 20s ‘just in case’???</p>
<p>My alma mater often had profs living in the houses and dorms. Some lifelong friendships developed from those relationships starting as mentoring or even built-in babsitting for those with small children and just growing into lasting frieindships. I think it adds a richness to the experience. I’m all for it. My oldest is at a place with rich relationships between the profs and the kids somewhat due to the integration of the faculty into the social aspects. I also respect profs that need/want to keep distance.</p>
<p>If it’s “mentoring”, then fine. I have suspicions, though, that there are parents who might view these “houseparents” as a way to keep their babies out of trouble.</p>
<p>Vassargrad,
Your beautifully written post could easily have been written by any of my classmates, as I have memories of a similar story from a friend in Davison, down to the footie pajamas part. Funny, I have no memory of the faculty in Joss, or if there even was a faculty apt. I have strong memories of the faculty family in Main, where I lived my last 2 years. You mentioned that students stayed in their dorms all 4 yrs. That wasn’t so true when I was there, though I think students staying had higher priority than students moving in in room draw. And, the THs and TAs were just opening then- a real attraction to upper classmen. I think the school lost some of its “res college” feel when they closed the individual dorm dining rooms. I understand why, but it was sad.
And I don’t and didn’t feel that the dorm faculty were pseudo parental snoops. You could be as close or as distant as you wished.</p>
<p>The Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Penn lives in the Quad. Not only does he bake cookies for the students on a regular basis, but my son got advice from him about switching Calculus classes (he’s a math professor too).</p>
<p>I think it takes a special individual to not only live with the students, but also to WANT to be involved with and mentor them.</p>
<p>mimimomx3 - I can assure you that at Vassar they are in no way serving in a parental role. I have no idea what they do at other colleges, but there is not one student or parent who would even begin to presume that the house fellows are there for that reason. In fact, Vassar doesn’t even have RA’s in the dorms - it’s security’s job to deal with noise or parties or whatever, a student will never get another student in trouble. The role of the House Fellow is to simply be around, and they are generally very peripheral to the running of the house. They may host an occasional discussion or lecture, and they are likely involved in weekly study breaks, but they certainly aren’t a substitute parent, an have no disciplinary authority whatsoever.</p>
<p>One should also realize that being a house master means living in quite a nice house that’s adjacent to the dorm, but it’s not like an apartment. Being a Master though is a lot of extra work - you are expected to have students to several parties, choose and supervise the grad students who are living in the dorms etc. They might give a talk about their subject of expertise as well. They attend theatricals or musical events sponsored by the house. They definitely weren’t the snooping types.</p>
<p>The Vassar housing our friends lived in was more apartment-like but they were young and the advantages outweighed the disadvantages at the time.</p>