By Julia Bonney
Cool jazz, hot coffee and a room full of students in the Dickson Hall coffeehouse; such was the invitation extended to President and Mrs. Hunter Rawlings by associate professor John Eckenrode and his family last fall. The Eckenrodes have lived in Dickson Hall for five years as part of Campus Life's faculty-in-residence program.
It was the first of many opportunities for President Rawlings to visit with live -in faculty and students in the various Cornell residence halls. He says he has seen first-hand the value of this program. In a recent interview, Rawlings talked candidly about faculty-student relations and the role of faculty-in-residence in undergraduate education.
Chronicle: How does a faculty-in-residence program enhance undergraduate education?
Rawlings: It's valuable in many respects. Through a program such as this, faculty members become acquainted with students on their own turf and in their own terms. At the same time, freshmen often don't appreciate the full lives that faculty members lead, so this personal tie is very important.
The program also helps us alleviate the problem of students knowing only their peers. What I mean by that is that students in their first year of college are going through an important transition. This is a daunting, large university. If the only connection freshmen have is with each other, there is a lot of reinforcing going on -- both good and bad. They miss other perspectives; the faculty-in-residence program helps dramatically to alleviate that problem. I could see that John Eckenrode knew his students rather well, and they felt comfortable with each other. I felt that was very valuable.
Chronicle: What's your sense of the current student-faculty interaction here?
Rawlings: It varies. Some faculty are very closely involved with their students, as advisees as well as in the classroom. They are dedicated to students and dedi cated to teaching. Others are much more distant. It runs the spectrum, and that's not atypical of universities.
We've learned from the COFHE (Consortium on Financing Higher Education) survey that the one area in which graduating seniors rate Cornell low is faculty -student relationships, specifically contact with individual faculty members. Twenty to 25 percent of our graduating seniors said they didn't know a faculty member well enough to ask for a letter of recommendation. The faculty-in-resi dence program helps with that issue.
Perhaps some faculty don't make enough of an effort, but some students don't either. They haven't taken the initiative to meet faculty. With faculty members living in the residence halls, it is much easier for students to introduce themselves. It's certainly much less intimidating than going to an office, which can seem formal or stiff.
Chronicle: What are your impressions from visiting residence halls at Cornell?
Rawlings: My impressions are pretty favorable. I find that there are a number of programs designed to bring students together. There is a sense of energy in the residence halls, which I like to see. There's a good mix of students, contrary to what we hear sometimes. I see a good blending of cultures and ethnic groups in the resi dence halls. Locksley Edmondson is living in the townhouse community. It's wonderful when someone like Locksley volunteers to do this because he's a cam pus leader and a well-known voice.
Chronicle: Drawing on your experience, what are the characteristics of a healthy campus community that you would continue to strive for here?
Rawlings: More than anything else, I'd like to strive for an intellectual com munity where ideas are taken seriously every day, not just at exam time, and in each corner of the campus, not just in the classroom. That works best when stu dents are carrying their conversations from class to the residence hall and you don't have a gulf between the two.
Most universities are concerned about that gulf between classroom and the rest of campus. Some universities find that undergraduate life is anti-intellectual -- that somehow discussion of ideas is looked down upon.
We want to encourage an intellectual community, and to do that requires us to live the life of the mind everywhere, not just in the classroom.
Chronicle: You have done some teaching here at Cornell since your arrival. What did you learn from that experience?
Rawlings: I taught a class in the classics department last fall, one of John Coleman's freshman seminar classes. I enjoyed it. I learned that Cornell students do the reading I assign. They are not reluctant to participate in class. We had a good discussion of the text. I liked the seriousness with which they approached the reading, and students seemed to learn as we talked. I also went to a freshman writing course in the history de partment, taught by Carol Kammen, in which students were discussing life on campus. It was an open discussion of race issues on campus and the living and learning environ ment. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Chronicle: Given the positive impact of faculty-in-residence programs, do you have any plans for expanding them at this time?
Rawlings: The committee on residence life has recommended that we broaden the program to include more faculty, for all of the reasons I discussed earlier. We will consider that recommendation. I am definitely impressed with the program in place.