More faculty moving onto campus to increase interaction with students

It’s great that Baylor has so many professors who are so eager to get to know their students that they actually want to move in right alongside them, living in the residence halls. Three more professors will soon join the ones already living on campus, bringing Baylor’s total to nine faculty-in-residence.

Dr. Laine Scales and her husband, Dr. Glenn Blalock, will be the first faculty-in-residence in Kokernot Hall, while Steven Pounders will be the first to live at University House in the North Village. They join Drs. Doug and Michele Henry (pictured, in their apartment in Brooks College), Cindy Fry (Heritage House, North Village), Dr. Julie Sweet and Dr. Tom Riley (Texana House, North Village) and Dr. Sarah-Jane Murray (Honors Residential College, Alexander-Memorial).

The combination of these professors’ interactions with students and the growth of the various Living-Learning Centers, I think, have a lot to do the rise in the number of upperclassmen living on campus. The administration reports that that number is up 26 percent over a year ago, with more than 1,700 students already signing up to return to the residence halls next year. About 40 percent of students will live on campus next year — good progress toward Baylor’s goal of having 50 percent of students in the residence halls by 2012.

Sic ’em, faculty-in-residence and Campus Living & Learning staff!