interview by James A. Baumann
When faculty are approached by campus housing departments and asked to participate in a living-learning community – maybe even serve as faculty-in-residence – they are sure to have plenty of questions. “What topics would I teach?” they might ask. “What are the learning outcomes?” “How often do I meet with students?” At least, those may be the first questions they ask out loud. Internally they likely have other concerns. “Do I really want to live down the hall from my students?” they may wonder. “How will my family feel about this?” “Do I have time to take this on?”
Jennifer Eidum and Lara Lomicka, fortunately, have edited a book that addresses both types of questions as well as several others. The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities combines the personal experiences of these non-student affairs professors (French and applied linguistics at the University of South Carolina for Eidum and English at Elon University for Lomicka) with reflections from other faculty who have spent time in living-learning communities (LLCs) and from established housing and student affairs research. The result is a thorough and accessible guide. “We feel there is no other book like it that can really speak to folks in so many different roles – faculty, administrators, student affairs professionals, graduate students, etc. – about living-learning communities,” Lomicka says.
Much of the book’s accessibility comes from its division into three clear sections. The book begins by exploring foundational concepts of faculty engagement and equity, as well as the deliberate and systematic work necessary to establish a campus that supports this work. Next, it assumes a more operational approach as it digs into the tools, resources, practices, and strategies that go into building faculty partnerships and strengthening LLCs. It concludes with a look at the lived experiences of faculty-in-residence participants and clarifies what real-world expectations faculty should have for themselves, their families, and their work/life balance.
The value of this balanced approach is that, as Karen Inkelas notes in the book’s foreword, “It moves scholarship forward by focusing less on the what of faculty-student interaction (which is what much of the previous research examined) and instead focusing more on the how of faculty-student interaction. In other words, instead of listing the ways in which faculty members and students may interact within LLCs and their relationship to students’ outcomes, this book emphasizes how LLCs can effectively work to foster constructive faculty-student interaction.”
Readers are likely to appreciate the short first-person vignettes that introduce each chapter, allowing faculty (and one child of a faculty member) to reflect on their living-learning and faculty-in-residence experiences. The personal touch complements the more academic portions, reminding readers that, for all the educational theories and memorandums of understanding, the book is about flesh-and-blood students and instructors. And while the book doesn’t gloss over the challenges that come with faculty involvement, it addresses them without placing blame or pointing fingers. In the end, the book successfully offers suggestions to incentivize, support, and reward faculty participation outside their classrooms while also reminding readers of the rewards for both students and faculty that make the work worthwhile.
The Talking Stick emailed questions to the editors ahead of their book’s publication. Their responses are below.
Eidum and Lomicka: We first met in 2017 at a summer research institute at Elon University while we were both serving as live-in faculty in residential colleges. We found that we had a lot in common as faculty new to the role and diving into residential campus life. We both wished we had had more resources, support, and ways to understand collaboration and partnerships with others at our institutions when we started our roles. As faculty, we both had limited experience with student affairs professionals prior to stepping into our roles as faculty-in-residence.
We recognize that we have a somewhat unique perspective as outsiders to the long legacy of student affairs research and practice, yet we have been immersed in the everyday life of LLCs. Our faculty status enables us to speak directly to the interests and concerns of faculty interested in working in LLCs. Yet, our proximity to LLCs enables us to translate our experiences for administrators and student affairs staff.
We felt like this perspective was lacking in the literature in the field. Having spent three years immersed in a week-long summer program at Elon’s Center for Engaged Learning, we had a chance to dive into the literature and research about LLCs. We found very little research that offered faculty perspectives: specifically, how do faculty begin a residency; how do they deal with families, extended families, children, partners, etc.; how do they manage their time; how are they rewarded and how are they hired; and why might they even consider a position like this? We also recognize the myriad ways faculty can get involved with LLCs, but these multiple pathways for involvement haven’t been recognized in depth. Finally, since we came to this work as outsiders to the field of student affairs, we’re now in a position to speak to other faculty who are just beginning to engage with LLCs and can bridge the gap between student affairs and academic affairs.
Eidum and Lomicka: The idea for the vignettes started as a way to offer perspectives from individuals whose experiences were not typically represented in academic research, i.e., those practitioners on the ground who might be busy doing the work without the time, or need, to write about it.
We were very excited to include a vignette with each chapter. As we conceived this idea, we wanted to offer unique perspectives from a variety of faculty and staff who could provide tangible examples of what this work really looks like for those who might be new in their roles or simply want to hear other perspectives.
Eidum and Lomicka: Our vision and goal for the book were clear from the start: At the core, we wanted to understand why faculty matter in LLCs and to provide recommendations for how to support faculty-student engagement in living-learning communities. COVID-19 hit early in the writing process, and although we mention that in the book, it was not a driving force behind our work. As we moved through both the pandemic experience and the writing and editing process, we recognized the ways that COVID-19 reinforced the value of in-person residential experiences for college students. In the absence of such experiences, students on our campuses reported a yearning for connection. As students – and the faculty and staff who work with them – grapple with mental health challenges and academic challenges due to their experiences in the pandemic, LLCs offer important pre-existing support that may prove valuable for vulnerable student populations. Of course, we would be interested to see what research shows about this.
The timing of this book’s publication is in some ways fortunate as campuses regroup after COVID-related staff turnover, budget challenges, and changes to student populations. We provide ideas for both new and seasoned professionals in our book. Whether they are looking for alternative perspectives, new ideas, or a fresh start, there’s something for everyone.
Eidum and Lomicka: An important ingredient, and maybe the secret ingredient for successful partnerships, is communication. Communication about roles, expectations, expertise, and challenges is critical for successful partnerships. This communication should be regular and intentional. For example, both of us made the practice of getting to know our colleagues as neighbors before diving into the work related to our roles. It is valuable to remind partners that LLC work may only be one small aspect of their larger role at the institution. It is really important to understand that all partners in LLCs have complementary expertise that strengthens the partnership, and so going into partnerships with open communication, respect, and trust establishes an essential foundation for LLC success.
Eidum: I think it’s useful to think about barriers to entry on both professional and personal levels. Professionally, I think that the largest barrier to entry for faculty is understanding what LLCs are and the many ways one can get involved. Often campuses highlight (and reward) the most involved roles, like LLC advisors or faculty-in-residence, which is absolutely necessary. But there are many ways a faculty member can be involved with LLCs, ranging from one-time discussions to ongoing casual interactions. I think administrators and staff involved with LLCs can do a better job on many campuses to promote the many pathways to involvement that might align with where someone is in their career at a particular time. They should also be clear about how this work is valued on that campus within the merit (tenure and promotion) process.
On a personal level, I have noticed that faculty can have poor boundaries between work and home. I think some folks fear pushing that boundary even more toward the work side. It is obviously very important to weigh, along with their family members, what their personal and professional boundaries are for the season of life they are in and how connecting with an LLC might support their goals. LLC work is necessarily after hours, in the evenings and on weekends.
Depending on one’s season of life, they may want to make those after-hours connections. I know of faculty-in-residence who had high school kids who took dual-credit classes on campus. I know of empty nesters who worked with LLCs because they suddenly had free time. I know of faculty who were developing a scholarship of teaching and learning research track and wanted to work with students from their discipline in an out-of-class context, thus reinforcing their professional goals. For me, living on campus with a young family was a really rewarding way to blend work and family to maximize connection and community.
Lomicka: I had never set foot in the residential side of a residence hall prior to becoming a faculty-in-residence. It’s just not something faculty do. That said, the residence hall quickly became our home for six years. While we loved every minute of our experience in residence, there were many hurdles to face, especially just after we began our residency.
Our family did not commute back and forth from our off-campus residence. We spent every living and waking moment in the residence hall itself. When students were gone for breaks and during the summer, we continued to live in residence. With younger children at the time of move-in, it seemed like the simplest thing to do. We found ourselves having to find spaces for the children to play (not having a backyard) and having to figure out playdates with friends and birthday parties. We also faced hurdles associated with our designated parking spaces being constantly taken by others; fire alarm drills and evacuation; maintenance issues and Wi-Fi outages that occurred during holiday vacations, the weekend, or after hours; figuring out cards and swipe access for our family who did not have university ID cards; receiving mail and UPS and FedEx packages (especially during the pandemic when our building was locked); and dealing with noise. We managed to find solutions to all of these with some creative thinking.
A tangible hurdle for me was learning students’ names. With 230 residents, I found it easiest to carry my “Bible” or student photo roster around with me 24/7. I took notes next to each person’s name as I found out something about them, which would later become talking points for conversations I’d have with them in the dining hall, the community kitchen, or the lobby.
For me and many other faculty, the challenge of just entering, much less living in, a residence hall is likened to doing something almost foreign to what you know how to do or are good at doing. Suddenly, everything you know how to do and manage is hard to figure out. You quickly make many new friends on campus who can help you find solutions to the challenges.
Many of these hurdles are similar to issues that faculty face when teaching, whether in the community classroom or in the dining hall; there are so many teachable moments. As faculty, we need to be flexible, think quickly on our feet, and figure out creative solutions to issues at hand. Teachable moments go both ways: living with and learning from each other.
Eidum and Lomicka: LLCs, and more specifically residential colleges, can be a valuable addition to any institution. For larger institutions, they can serve as a microcosm of the university. For smaller institutions, they may function more as a community of students who share a similar major or interest. For both, LLCs offer a mechanism for creating community and belonging among students, faculty, and staff where students can thrive academically, socially, and personally. Even with limited resources, you can find creative solutions to making an LLC work effectively. For example, hosting a slime-making party simply requires some glue, baking soda, and saline: all things that are relatively inexpensive. It is especially fun if a faculty member brings their children to the event. Or do a chocolate tasting. Four bars of chocolate broken into many small pieces can allow students to taste chocolates from around the world, and a faculty member could share information about chocolate rituals across cultures or the economics of the chocolate trade.
Eidum and Lomicka: One of the best motivators for faculty involvement is learning about the experiences of other faculty who have participated in LLCs. I’m not sure that anything can be more powerful than that. That’s one reason we chose to include the vignettes as a way to start each chapter: a personal story or anecdote to help faculty who are curious about LLCs see what some of those lived experiences may be like. Honestly, from what we have seen, most institutions do not weigh these types of cocurricular experiences heavily in the tenure and promotion process, so faculty motivation must draw from rewarding experiences such as serving as a mentor or simply being part of students’ lives. That in itself is a rewarding and humbling experience.
Of course, because of the immense value that faculty involvement in LLCs brings to the institution, we argue that institutions should find ways to formally recognize faculty who do this work and to incentivize more faculty involvement. Senior leaders should define how advising students, teaching residentially linked courses, leading an LLC, and other ways of being involved can be counted towards teaching, research, and service. There are clear connections between LLC work and teaching and service. For faculty who work at institutions that value the scholarship of teaching and learning research, like ours, there are opportunities for really innovative projects.
Eidum and Lomicka: For faculty who live in residence, having your partner, spouse, or family on board and prepared for the experience can make or break a successful residency. Similarly, ensuring that one’s home department understands why a faculty member wants to undertake the work and the value it brings back to the department is essential for success. Faculty-in-residence are the smallest population of faculty involved with LLCs, but because it is the most intensive, this work brings unique challenges. The lived experiences of faculty themselves are so important to read and hear, yet this perspective was one we found missing in the literature. We hope that this book helps prepare future faculty-in-residence, and their families, to thrive in their roles.
Eidum: There is a lot happening on a campus outside the classroom, and getting involved with an LLC allows faculty to get to know their students not only as, well, students in a classroom, but also as campus leaders, as social beings, and as young adults trying to figure things out. As a faculty-in-residence, I have learned so much about the rhythms of campus that I never would have noticed before, and this has made me a much better teacher. From simple things like the timing of assignment due dates to the deep understanding that although students may really like my classes and appreciate all they’re learning, my class is often one of the least important things to them at any given time – and for good reason! They’re doing other important things that supplement their college education like working, volunteering, and learning how to be a young adult.
Lomicka: For me, this experience was unlike any other I’d had in a university setting: for me, for my children, and for my spouse. I would do it again in a heartbeat. As a faculty member, it allowed me to see students from the out-of-the-classroom perspective, like when we all had to evacuate for a fire alarm at 2 a.m. and wait outside. Time spent with students in the community kitchen, the junior common room, the dining hall, or even in the back gardens led to very deep, intellectually engaging, and thought-provoking conversations that have inspired me and allowed me to see sides of students I did not know before living with them 24/7. Why should faculty get involved? My answer is because you can make a different impact than other staff at the institution.
James A. Baumann is the editor of Talking Stick magazine. Lara L. Lomicka is a professor of French and applied linguistics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Jennifer E. Eidum is assistant professor of English at Elon University in North Carolina.
