{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/primefacultyinresidence","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"prime.facultyinresidence","excerpt":"Some professors choose to live on The Hill through the Faculty in Residence program, embracing dorm life and enabling unique student-faculty connections.","headline":"The Professors Who Live in Dorms","author":"Davis Hoffman","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/web.oissue.prime.facultyinresidence.A.LC-2f4c3855cbc76e5ae1a8af2e6b934a34.jpg","covercred":"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon","coveralt":"Photograph of Nina Sun Eidsheim.","articleType":"article","updated":"","content":[{"type":"text","value":"Bridget Callaghan needed a change of pace."},{"type":"text","value":"Just months before the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent Columbia graduate arrived in Los Angeles prepared to begin her teaching and research career at UCLA. She had secured an apartment with her husband, which soon became the home for their baby son, but she knew few people in Southern California. Though eager and prepared for this new chapter, she still felt that something was missing – a sense of community."},{"type":"text","value":"As she researched her new workplace, Callaghan stumbled across a peculiar opportunity. A residence program allowed faculty to live alongside UCLA students on the Hill, sharing the same dining halls and amenities. So, during the height of lockdown, Callaghan took a leap of faith and applied to the competitive program – and was ultimately accepted."},{"type":"text","value":"\"We had no community, and so joining the Faculty-in-Residence program when that opportunity came up was very exciting,\" Callaghan said. \"That's like a built-in community. That would be a really great place to get started.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Four years later, Callaghan happily lives alongside students in De Neve Evergreen Hall. She has found her community."},{"type":"text","value":"UCLA’s Faculty-in-Residence program offers far more than housing for professors to live. Yearly traditions and co-teaching opportunities have brought students and faculty together, providing unique educational opportunities for both groups. Now, even after the 50 years since its inception, the FIR program continues to fundamentally change Bruins’ residential experiences."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"The goal of the Faculty-in-Residence program is really to lessen that barrier that a student feels in being able to approach their faculty.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Founded in 1973, the FIR program provides year-round housing and meal plans for 18 faculty members across all residence halls, who each receive a three-year contract and spend a maximum of nine years on the Hill. Assistant Director of Academics and First Year Experience Abigail Johnson said that above all else, the program functions to break down the invisible barriers dividing faculty and students that exist ubiquitously within a university as large as UCLA."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of Bridget Callaghan.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/DSC-9845-c39fead308307e36356f0904d003ac7c.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"The goal of the Faculty-in-Residence program is really to lessen that barrier that a student feels in being able to approach their faculty,\" Johnson said. \"If a student is able to – at least in their residential experience – interact with the faculty in a casual setting, then maybe when they're on campus, ... it becomes a little bit less daunting.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Faculty members live in apartments within residence halls, complete with bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms. These apartments are large enough to accommodate their spouses and children, who typically live on the Hill alongside them. Faculty are also equipped with a meal plan, providing them access to dining halls on the Hill."},{"type":"text","value":"Coming from an undergraduate university in Australia that lacked on-campus housing, Callaghan was excited to learn more about the undergraduate experience at an American university."},{"type":"text","value":"\"Other professors understand that (residential experience) if they've lived on a campus before, if they're American,\" Callaghan said. \"I just felt like that was missing. Also, I wanted to educate myself.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Now entering her fourth year in the program, Callaghan has found that the Hill acts as an unexpected environment to watch her research interests play out outside of a lab. As an assistant professor of psychology focused on developmental psychology, she can observe students interact with not only one another but with children as well, including her young son."},{"type":"text","value":"\"He would walk around campus, and people were just like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s so amazing,’ in the dining hall,\" Callaghan said. \"All the time we have people coming up to us and saying, ‘Hey, look here my details, I'd be really interested in babysitting your child.’ ... It truly feels like a neighborhood.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Unlike Callaghan, however, many faculty enter the program after teaching at UCLA for many years. Nina Eidsheim, a professor of musicology, landed a spot in the FIR program in 2019 after teaching at UCLA since 2008. Similar to Callaghan, Eidsheim was influenced by her Norwegian university’s absence of dorms in her decision to apply for the program – one that she found equally as rewarding."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of Bridget Callaghan.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/DSC-9859-7d3969478c083d44d6cbafc9d1db27c9.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Her decision to apply for the program was also influenced by her desire to better connect with students beyond lecture halls, Eidsheim said. She felt that the program would allow her to teach students in a way that eschewed a strict teacher-student hierarchy, typically upheld by the large lecture halls at UCLA. The program created an environment in which students would feel comfortable around faculty as if they were peers rather than superiors."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"It truly feels like a neighborhood.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"I think I just feel much closer to students,\" Eidsheim said. \"It can be the exact same person, but if I can approach them or be with them as an FIR, I think they just feel very different – that it’s not scary.\""},{"type":"text","value":"This emphasis on student connections is fundamental to the program and its admission process. Unlike most administrative processes within UCLA, the admissions cycle to the FIR program greatly involves students, who not only closely collaborate with administrators but read applications, conduct interviews and even make candidate recommendations. The goal of this student involvement is to take student perspectives and opinions into consideration, Johnson said."},{"type":"text","value":"\"They look at the whole cohort of faculty residents and try to create a cohort of Faculty-in-Residence who represents the academic majors and minors and such that students have at UCLA,\" Johnson said."},{"type":"text","value":"After submitting their initial application, select faculty applicants must undergo a series of interviews with current FIRs and Residential Life staff. Finalists must attend a student panel interview, during which selected students are able to craft a diverse and supportive cohort for acceptance into the program."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of Nina Eidsheim.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/DSC-9835-8512989bc6ac2678a5a2668fa2269f0a.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"We ultimately get recommendations from that student panel,\" Johnson said. \"They've seen all of the applicants at the end and are able to relate to us student sentiments.\""},{"type":"text","value":"Further enhancing this more personal relationship between staff and students, the program also requires FIRs to teach a Fiat Lux each academic year. These topical, freshman-only seminars allow faculty to share personal and academic interests."},{"type":"text","value":"In spring 2024, Eidsheim designed a Fiat Lux class centered around Jenny Odell’s 2019 book \"How to Do Nothing.\" Amanda Mrad, a 2024 UCLA graduate in physiological science who co-taught the class with Eidsheim, said the two met at an outing to the Getty during the First Year Experience week, becoming friends soon thereafter."},{"type":"text","value":"\"We took public transportation when she was one of our Faculty-in-Residence that joined us. And she was wonderful.\" Mrad said. \"We were chatting, and she talked about this class she wanted to teach and asked if I wanted to help her with it.\""},{"type":"text","value":"For the course, students were instructed to read the book and attend excursions around campus to learn more about social norms, unspoken rules and attention economies – and how to break them. For example, Eidsheim and Mrad instructed students to walk backward in Ackerman Union or sit at a stranger’s table and say hello. Each of these exercises helped first-year students engage critically not only with the source text but also with each other."},{"type":"text","value":"The presence of faculty in such close, constant proximity helped not only to create newfound connections with students, but to improve accessibility to mentorship figures, Mrad said."},{"type":"text","value":"\"They've shaped the type of events we have, the type of connections we have, the type of experiences and opportunities that are available for students,\" Mrad said. \"They completely shift what type of opportunity is available just by them being a resource for us.\""},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of Tara Prescott-Johnson.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/DSC-0222-06c6ad5bcccc11cddd8a6a3d5463b6e8.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Faculty on the Hill find other creative ways to connect with students. Tara Prescott-Johnson, a continuing lecturer in the UCLA Writing Programs, was playing basketball with a student as an assignment for her class during her interview. Between free throws, she talked about how she hosted eccentric events during her time as an FIR, including a \"proper\" Irish tea party, a makeshift escape room in her apartment and even a trip to the North Campus Tea Room for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony."},{"type":"text","value":"Other FIRs organize equally unconventional events, such as the FIR staple Taco Tuesday. Each Taco Tuesday, after catering is delivered and served, an FIR gives a brief special lecture on a topic pertaining to their interests. For example, Eidsheim played composer John Cage’s experimental track \"4’33\"\" – four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Eidsheim explored the background and meaning of the track with students, introducing them to a piece of music history and encouraging group discussions."},{"type":"text","value":"Though she is no longer living in the residence halls, Prescott-Johnson said her time in the program continues to inform her outlook on teaching."},{"type":"text","value":"\"You start understanding more about some of the challenges they face or some of the behaviors they exhibit and where that's coming from, which can be helpful in terms of how you structure something in class, or how you might respond when one of those things kind of comes up,\" Prescott-Johnson said."},{"type":"text","value":"After her departure in 2021, Prescott-Johnson continued to teach seminars that let her interact with small groups of students. In spring 2024, she taught Honors 50: \"Creating Your Roadmap,\" a seminar dedicated to helping students navigate their personal and professional lives throughout the transition to college. Each week, she would meet with a student to do an activity of their choice, participating in activities ranging from basketball and hot yoga to playing golf and heading to Westwood for boba."},{"type":"text","value":"\"It was being an FIR and having that experience, and missing it is what made me think about creating this assignment in this class,\" Prescott-Johnson said."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photograph of Tara Prescott-Johnson.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/prime.facultyinresidence/DSC-0207-e3d3b7ba7f089fe501433817d5895036.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Experiences with the FIR program have long-lasting impacts on students, too. Through living in proximity and interacting with FIRs, Mrad said she was able to better navigate course enrollment, build her resume, ask for study tips, connect with research opportunities and even garner career advice."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"There's just a lot of joy in seeing more of the students as their whole selves, as opposed to more of the academic-only side that you see in the classroom.\\\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"\"I don't need to have a life plan or all my things organized in order to come present and talk to faculty. I can just come and say, ‘Hey, this is where I'm at,’\" Mrad said. \"I know it's helped me feel more comfortable. And I've seen other people have similar interactions in that way.\""},{"type":"text","value":"For current and past FIRs, the program inspired and affirmed them in their professions. Prescott-Johnson said she found that having a new perspective toward interacting with students on an even playing field reminded her of the daily struggles that many students face, despite their high academic performance."},{"type":"text","value":"\"There's just a lot of joy in seeing more of the students as their whole selves, as opposed to more of the academic-only side that you see in the classroom,\" Prescott-Johnson said."},{"type":"text","value":"This is a common sentiment among FIRs. Outside of the classroom, Callaghan often finds herself running into students and chatting, even introducing them to her son – who never has a shortage of babysitters, she added. She feels that raising her son in an environment with many other young people is beneficial for both parties, fostering connections between her, her students and her son. In the end, applying to the program has paid off – Callaghan has found her sense of community."},{"type":"text","value":"\"The small, everyday, spontaneous interactions that you have with people are the things that really build up a community,\" Callaghan said. \"You see someone and smile at them every day, learn their name, get to see them over and over again – it feels nice.\""}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"summer24","slug":"prime.facultyinresidence"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}