Faculty-Staff Associates Living and Learning Communities Program
- Providing undergraduate residents with role models and mentors.
- Building relationships with faculty/staff outside of the classroom.
- Encouraging residents to utilize faculty and staff as informational resources and contacts.
- Increasing contact and understanding between students, faculty, staff and student life at Southwest Baptist University.
Program Overview
The Faculty/Staff Associates Living-Learning Communities Program, developed by the Office Of Residence Life, is designed to provide opportunities to build relationships and increase interaction between faculty/staff and residents outside of the classroom setting. Associates are either faculty or staff members who work with a Resident Assistant and a floor of about 24 residence hall students for one academic year.
Faculty/Staff Associates are also instrumental in developing a sense of community on their assigned floor. Working as a team, Faculty or Staff and the RA can be involved in planning various activities such as eating together in the dining hall, attending a sporting event, a barbeque, a hall activity, etc. The program also helps to integrate Faculty and Staff into the life of the floor by allowing them to share particular interests, both academic and co-curricular, with the residents. Thus, these activities offer an opportunity for the residents to develop a significant relationship with a member of the faculty or staff by enabling them to be an active member of the floor community.
Faculty/Staff Associates involved in the program are on a volunteer basis only for one academic year. There is no minimum number of activities and/or programs required per semester by faculty and staff, although at least two per semester are recommended. Faculty/Staff also benefit from participating in the program by receiving informal feedback from students that allow everyone to feel more effective in and outside the classroom.
Goals for the Residential College Program
- Promote a strong sense of community among students in university housing.
- Develop communities that promote students' learning and personal development.
- To build meaningful interactions between students and faculty/staff outside the classroom.
- Encourage traditions, customs, and rituals that are unique to each floor/residence hall.
To get involved or for more information about the program, please contact the Office of Residence Life at 417.328.1826 or Email.