The Faculty Associates/Fellows program emerged in response to the realization that there was a growing gap between faculty members and undergraduate students on college campuses. In addition, many faculty members wished to extend their interaction with students outside the academic realm. Today, many campuses across the nation have well developed faculty/student interaction programs (e.g., Cornell, Stanford, Illinois, Northwestern, and Michigan).

The Faculty Associates Program, sponsored by the Office of Residential Life is designed to provide opportunities for significant faculty-student interaction outside of the classroom setting. Associates are faculty members who agree to work with Resident Advisors and a floor of about fifty first-year students in a Residential College during the academic year. Working as a team, Faculty Associates and their RAs can plan activities with floor residents designed to create a sense of community on that floor. These activities offer an opportunity for the residents to develop a significant relationship with a member of the faculty, thus making the faculty member an active member of the floor community. The program helps to integrate Faculty Associates into the life of the floor by allowing them to share particular interests, both academic and extracurricular, with the residents. The faculty members involved in the Faculty Associates Program are volunteers. Faculty benefit from participating by receiving informal feedback from students that allows everyone to feel more effective in the classroom. In addition, faculty helps improve the undergraduate experience through informal contacts with residents.

Wayman Crow Faculty Associates

Dardick 1

Beth Martin (on right)

Lecturer in Law; Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic Engineering & Science Director;

Dardick 2

Greg Polites

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine;

Faculty Associate in Wayman Crow Residential College since 2006

Dardick 3

Sandra Matteucci & Family

Lecturer in Technical Writing, College of Engineering;

First year as a Faculty Associate in Wayman Crow Residential College

Dardick 4

Henry Biggs

Assistant Dean and Director of Undergraduate Research;

Faculty Associate in Wayman Crow Residential College since 2005