<p>When I was at Harvard, at last one professor and his/her family lived in each dorm. I thought that was a wonderful idea, and when I was a college prof, I was disappointed that the college where my husband and I taught didn’t offer that option. </p>
<p>"As colleges construct dorms, many are adding a professor suite or two to the floor plans. Last year, Catholic University opened a hall that included an apartment large enough for two faculty members and their now 1-year-old daughter. Georgetown included faculty apartments in the last three residence halls built on campus.
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<p>This fall, GWU opened a hall that houses about 290 undergraduates, as well as professors Melissa Keeley and Christopher Klemek and their two young children - who have become celebrities on campus.</p>
<p>The family hopes its presence will help students in the mostly freshman dorm feel more at home. The couple are also excited to organize events, host dinners and share their research with students. "</p>
<p>Vassar has always had this. It did add to a home-y feel with the family there. One faculty spouse was a bit of a busybody, but for the most part it was great. I think with an increasing number of residential colleges springing up, this fosters the faculty in residence idea as well.</p>
<p>I had friends who lived in a Vassar dorm when they were young. They loved having so many eager babysitters for their new baby.</p>
<p>I liked having house masters too. We also had a number of grad students either living in the dorms or associated with it. I actually took courses with two of them. One ran a woman’s history seminar and another a history of Boston’s architecture.</p>
<p>Well, I’m glad some professors like it, but personally I can’t imagine wanting to live in a dorm at that age. Noise at all hours of the night, drinking or students staggering in drunk, and Teen Drama all around. I especially wouldn’t want to expose young kids to that environment. What do these professors do with their houses during the year? Just leave them sitting empty? Sell them and live in the dorm year round? </p>
<p>Not my cup of tea. In fact, I have a colleague who moved just down the street from our campus with her young family and she’s had a lot of problems with the kids being awakened by exuberant students on their way back to the dorms late at night, beer bottles in the shrubbery, etc etc.</p>
<p>I would love to do this, perhaps not for years and years but at least to try it.</p>
<p>Something else to put on the wish list when Mr PMK finishes his Doctorate and is searching for a job as a professor!</p>
<p>Naturally, I think it would be ideal for us because we could go a few years without a mortgage and instead just pay for a summer sublet which would be easy enough in a college town, I would think. That could add up to a substancial down payment for when living in dorms gets old.</p>
<p>stradmom, a friend of mine had the same experience . Lived in the dorm of an elite east coast LAC. She said from Thursday afternoon through Sunday mid-day the students at said elite east coast LAC turned into A PACK OF WILD DOGS. They returned to being perfectly nice young men and women by Monday. But three days out of the week were too much to deal with A PACK OF WILD DOGS :)</p>
<p>I think it does take a special kind of person…somebody who likes to spend a lot of time talking to college students. And probably somebody who sleeps soundly.</p>
<p>Rice U has had this ever since they established residential colleges a long, long, time ago. Each residential college has an attached house for the college Masters (A couple where one of the couple is a professor.) They also have Residential Associates, who are grad students or profs who live in an apartment in the residential colleges. If I remember correctly, there was one professor or instructor who lived in the residential college for 30+ years; he was a real institution!</p>
<p>U Chicago has this, and my son (second year or sophomore) tells me that he spends significant amount of time at this faculty’s apartment one on one well into the night and wee hours of the morning. He calls this “talk to XXX course”, and this is the most exciting course there is and would have been worth most of his tuition money even if all other aspects of education had been so so (which is NOT the case anyway, thankfully). </p>
<p>He says he learned how to truly “read”, “write”, and “think critically” from this faculty. Granted, very few students take advantage of this opportunity, but for those who do, this could be truly intellectually bonding experience.</p>
<p>This faculty’s presence in the dorm was the reason why he did not consider alternative housing or the option of moving to a different dorm.</p>
<p>By the way, in addition to this faculty and his wife, there is a married Ph.D. student and his family (with two adorable girls) living in the dorm that we met during the move in day. For one faculty family, there are two grad student families (in terms of the ratio).</p>
<p>I lived in a residential college for five years as a junior faculty member at an Ivy League school. I was in my mid-to-late 20s, not that much older than the students, and made friendships that continue to this day. I lived and ate with the students and organized a variety of cultural and intellectual activities for the college. The compensation for the job was a year-round, rent-free apartment, plus food during term. I did not need a car, and I went off campus so rarely that I was not tempted to shop. As a result, although my regular salary was hardly lofty, I saved about 75% of my take-home pay. I eventually used some of my savings to put a downpayment on a house, and invested the rest to produce a fund to extend my sabbaticals in years when I did not receive a grant. (For those of you who are not academics, sabbaticals are semesters some faculty members get every five years or so, which are completely dedicated to intensive research and writing. Those who get grants from the ACLS, the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, etc., OR who have their own resources, can generally arrange to take a whole academic year at half pay.) An increased amount of time devoted to research translates into a higher professional profile and hence faster promotion/higher pay.</p>
<p>In all, I found the whole experience wonderful and was amazed that when I left, the school could not find another junior faculty member to replace me. It’s true, you do have to be a tolerant sort and a sound sleeper!
I remember that my policy was not to call the campus police just because the students were partying on the roof of my apartment, but only when they started to jump off . . .</p>
<p>UCSB (that is Santa Barbara) has at least one dorm with a professor in a dorm/house. I don’t know if it is a family or a single prof as DS, a freshman, isn’t the chatty type. I figured we might find out more on Parent Weekend.</p>
<p>But just sayin’ it isn’t just east coast LAC’s that have this happening.</p>
<p>jym – Friends who teach at Vassar really don’t like Vassar’s tight insistence that they live in the area. One was not a happy campy when she had to vacate her beloved NYC apartment.</p>
<p>As a faculty member, I can honestly say I would not enjoy this unless the housing were absolutely free. Nah, not even then.</p>
<p>While I am not familiar with Vassar’s specific policies about the proximity of the faculty with respect to housing, I can also totally understand the desire to have the faculty nearby.The school prides itself on the accessibility of the faculty, and the students thrive on that. I can’t see how that would be possible if a faculty member has a 2 1/2 hr commute each way to work/home on a regular basis. That would simply be impossible. I still remember with great fondness holding a class in a faculty member’s living room, or being invited over for dinner. That is a special opportunity that in part makes the school what it is-- a real community.</p>
<p>Perhaps the faculty member could live in Poughkeepsie during the week and drive to their NYC apartment on the weekends. Gee, if my DH had only a 2 1/2 hr drive to come home on the weekends, I would simply LOVE that. Count yourself lucky that you can commute home to your family from work. Not all families have this privilege.</p>
<p>No thank you. Maybe if I had been a graduate student right out of under-graduate school. But that was not the case. </p>
<p>I have had students over for dinner and been to faculty parties that included faculty and students. My D1 also regularly met w/ a professor and his wife for dinner in a dining hall one of her semesters. These all seem like better options to me.</p>
<p>Note that most of the universities named in this thread are in communities where the cost of housing is exorbitant. In Cambridge, MA or Palo Alto, CA, having free housing is the equivalent to an annual raise of $25,000 or more. It can be a significant incentive. My D1’s first House Master at Harvard had a Nobel Prize. He retired and was succeeded as House Master by a member of Time’s 100 Most Influential People.</p>
<p>Exactly, gadad. Moreover unless the law has changed, the value of the room and board provided are not taxed, since the faculty member has to live and eat with the students as a condition of the job. I thought it was a fabulous financial deal apart from the intrinsic rewards, and well worth the occasional noise or inconvenience.</p>
<p>It’s especially enjoyable, actually, to live on a beautifully-maintained campus during the vacations, when it is virtually empty. You feel like an aristocrat with a domain of your own.</p>