A cornerstone program of the University's new residential plan has just found a leader.
The Faculty Associates Program, aimed at increasing intellectual exchange between students and faculty, now has exactly three participants: President Nan Keohane, Provost John Strohbehn and Robert Thompson, the program's new director.
Thompson is a professor in the psychiatry department and director of the undergraduate program in human development. He will head the new program along with a co-director who has yet to be named, Strohbehn said. Administrators have been looking for a pair of directors for the program since it emerged as part of the residential plan in December.
"It has been a slow process," Strohbehn said. "Many of the people we have been looking at have had other obligations already set for next year."
As one of its leaders, Thompson will be instrumental in creating a specific structure for the program. "My role as co-director will be to provide organizational structures and capabilities that will integrate the program into residential life," he said. Planners have suggested facilitating dinners and group discussions between faculty and students in order to break down barriers between the intellectual lives of students and their professors.
The charter group for the program may be smaller than administrators had envisioned. "We will have a good group of faculty associates this year, but we will definitely expand next year," Strohbehn said.
"We are currently formulating a letter to all faculty members to invite their participation," he said. The letter is scheduled to be mailed out by the end of the week. "The program is, however, very much in its formative stages and we are still delineating our objectives."
Faculty associates will be offered a research stipend of $1,500 per year for their participation, Strohbehn said. In addition, participants will receive a dining card in order to facilitate student-faculty lunches and dinners, he said.
The program will act in conjunction with the Faculty-in-Residence program, which currently houses undergraduate professors in residence halls on both East and West Campuses.
Faculty involved in this program live with students for three years and are then offered a one-year sabbatical. "These will be complementary, not competing programs," said Ben Ward, director of the Faculty-in-Residence Program and associate professor of philosophy. "Our program will serve as a coordinating function for the associates program," he said. "Many times faculty will be more eager to visit residence halls if there is a faculty host."
While the associates program will be administered by the co-directors from an independent office, it will also have strong ties to Trinity College, the provost's office and the pre-major advising center, Thompson said.
Administrators have voiced a desire to pair faculty associates with individual dorms on East and quadrangles on West. In addition, the responsibilities of the co-directors may be split to accommodate the separation of East and West Campuses, Strohbehn said. "The program on East Campus will concentrate on introducing students to the campus and University," he said. "On West, we will be taking advantage of the intellectual interests that already exist among the undergraduates."
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