During meals
in campus dining halls and on evenings in Sunset Plaza, 9-year-old
Andres can be seen eating with his mother or playing with students
who have become his friends.
With a mother who is a faculty member in residence in Canyon
Point, Andres has a vibrant social life and is good friends with
the students living in his area, his mother said.
“Living on campus is fun because there are basketball
courts, tennis courts (and a) swimming pool. There is a cafeteria I
get to eat at every night and the student leaders are
awesome,” Andres said.
Marjorie Orellana, a professor in the Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies, is one of 17 faculty members
living in residence halls for the 2006-2007 year.
Faculty members are chosen to live on the Hill by the Office of
Residential Life and are assigned to a specific residential
community. There, they cultivate relationships with students
through educational programming by mentoring students, according to
the ORL Web site. These faculty members come from many different
schools and departments on campus.
Orellana said Andres has had a good experience on campus because
students have taken the time to become friends with him.
“He’ll see them and call to them across the
plaza,” Orellana said.
Robert Rhoads, a faculty member in residence at Canyon Point and
associate professor in the school of education, said that by living
on campus, faculty members are able to develop bonds with students
without the pressure of the classroom.
“Living on campus gives you the feeling that you are
almost at a small liberal arts college,” Rhoads said.
“You have direct contact with the overall education of the
student.”
But based on faculty members’ experiences, the education
given is more than just academic ““ it is cultural as
well.
Roads said that last spring, he and his wife invited students to
their apartment in Courtside to celebrate the Chinese Spring
Festival. They treated students to chrysanthemum tea brought to the
United States from China and taught students about the history of
the festival by putting up informational posters on the walls of
their apartment.
For some faculty members, living on the Hill provides a chance
to see a section of the UCLA student population that they would not
see normally.
“I mostly teach graduate students,” Orellana said,
“so to me it’s really exciting to work with
undergraduates and see a fuller picture of life at UCLA.”
Rajeev Jain, a faculty member in residence for Dykstra Hall and
a professor of electrical engineering, holds office hours in the
second-floor lounge of Dykstra, where he helps students with
homework twice a week.
“I’d say the first thing that has made this a
wonderful experience for me was getting to know non-engineering
students,” Jain said.
The main purpose of the Faculty in Residence program is to
create academic life on the Hill, according to the ORL Web
site.
“I feel that we have learned to separate school from our
lives. … We go to school and we leave home behind,”
Orellana said. “But that’s a dichotomy we should be
breaking. Here on the Hill we have the opportunity to bring the two
together.”
Orellana said one of her programming interests is to connect
UCLA students with the larger community, which includes educating
students about current and historical events.
Along with other faculty living on campus, Orellana sponsored a
showing of a film in Sunset Village this week about the Vietnam
War.
Jain has also helped organize trips to UCLA’s Japanese
garden, a staff retreat to an archery range and outings to ethnic
restaurants where students and staff talk about the history of the
different ethnic foods. Last week, Jain put on a seminar about how
iPods work.
Rhoads said that for the professors who live on the Hill, the
Faculty in Residence program not only serves to cultivate
interaction between students and faculty, but also between faculty
members from different schools and departments.
“The … program allows me to see professors with whom I
would not normally have contact,” Rhoads said.