Faculty House Calls program a success

October 5, 2011

A few days after classes began, as orientation activities were winding down, new students were made to feel especially welcome in the Wake Forest community by a very important group to them — their faculty members!

A number of faculty responded to an invitation for Residence Life & Housing’s Faculty House Calls program. Faculty spent a few hours in the residence halls welcoming new students, making a number of personal connections along the way. After saying hello and showing off their own spaces a bit, many first-year residents seized the opportunity to ask questions about life at Wake Forest, to seek out advice about the transition from high school to college and to just share a few laughs as fellow Wake Foresters.

“I enjoyed meeting freshmen and wishing them well as their classes began,” said Jessica Richard, associate professor of English. “I had never been in the freshman dorms here before so it was useful to get a sense of what students’ living space is like, to have a fuller picture of where they go when they leave our classrooms. The Faculty House Calls program is an interesting way to try to bridge the divide between students’ academic and residential experiences.”

Residence Life & Housing organized the event and provided faculty members with gifts (study-aid sticky note trays) to leave behind with the students along with the personal sense of welcome. Thirty-six faculty members took part, along with staff members in the Residence Life & Housing office.