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by Jeff Watts
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Faculty
in Residence Brings Dialogue, Perspective to Students Over Dinner
During
John Richardson’s first semester in Anderson Hall, the fire alarms
were frequent, jolting him from his slumber numerous times. Over the past
four years, though, he’s become a seasoned resident, laying his
clothes on a chair near his bed so that, if the alarm sounds at 2 a.m.,
he’s prepared. The giant yellow bowl, brimming with miniature chocolate
bars and peanut butter cups, and adorned with flashing red lights, is
nearby, as well. That, Richardson says, is as essential as his shoes and
shirt.
“It’s funny, we’ll all be standing there in our pajamas
in the middle of the night, and you’ll just see these flashing lights.
Then he’ll come around and offer you some candy,” laughs Shayna
Hayes, a resident assistant in Centennial Hall. “That’s just
John.”
Richardson, AU’s first faculty in residence, has called a cozy apartment
on the first floor of Anderson home since January 2002. What began as
a way to cut down on his weekday commute after he and his wife built their
dream home in Hume, Va., has become “one of the most valuable and
rewarding experiences” of his career.
“I get at least as much as I give and probably more because I’ve
learned a great deal about students and their lives, dreams, hopes, and
concerns,” says Richardson. “These are things that, in 28
years of being a university faculty member, I had never known before I
moved in here.”
The big bowl of candy is just one way Richardson, a professor in the School
of International Service (SIS) and director
of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), tries “to make
life more pleasant for students.” His fridge is stocked with Klondike
ice cream bars, a student favorite, and his couch, a popular spot for
conversations about everything from politics to literature, is inviting
and well worn.
Five or six times each semester, Richardson, a culinary enthusiast, prepares
an international feast for 12 to 14 students. “I’m going to
go into the catering business when I’m done here,” he laughs.
Juggling their plates and flutes of sparkling cider, the group gathers
around the coffee table in Richardson’s living room to swap stories
and share laughs. An ornate Sri Lankan oil lamp in the corner of the room
is always safely lit (thanks to a string of Christmas lights)—a
traditional gesture welcoming visitors.
Richardson, who chronicles his adventures on his blog, www.dormgrandpop.blogspot.com,
says he’s acclimated to dorm life; even those pesky fire alarms
have become routine, he says. Like any new resident, though, it took some
time to develop a true sense of belonging.
“I was surprised at how difficult it was to get noticed, at first,”
he recalls. “Moving on campus was a significant event for me, and
I thought it would be a significant event for students, but it really
wasn’t. It took some time, and it took me doing different kinds
of things to be noticed; I really had to reach out, and not take for granted
that they’d value me and come to accept my presence.
“That experience led me to realize and respect how much students
are coping with,” says Richardson. “They’re uprooted
from a structured environment, placed into a room with one or two other
people, and expected to not only adjust, but thrive.”
For the majority of AU’s 3,552 resident students, this is their
first taste of life away from mom and dad. It’s a paradoxical independence,
though; students are no longer under the watchful eye of their parents,
yet they’re still accountable to their roommates and neighbors.
Richardson
says he views living in the dorms as an opportunity to recreate his own
undergraduate experience at Dartmouth College. “There was quite
a lot of dialogue between faculty and students out of the classroom, and
a real sense that academics and campus life are interconnected,”
he says.
“That’s why I’m here,” Richardson continues. “I
see American University as a community—a community of learning and
of living.”
-Adrienne Frank, originally published in American Weekly
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