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Cornell University

Residential Programs and Faculty Involvement on Campus

Who will be there for you at Cornell?

Living on campus provides you with a built-in support system of faculty members, staff members, and seasoned students:

Resident advisors or graduate resident fellows – upperlevel or graduate students who live in your building and have been at Cornell long enough to know the place well

Full-time residence hall directors and graduate residence managers – professional staff members who head up our residence halls, Program Houses, and graduate/professional student communities

  • Each of the residence halls and Program Houses are led by a full-time Residence Hall Director, who lives on-site, sometimes with their families.

House-professor-deans, House Fellows, House assistant deans – faculty and staff members who lead our West Campus residence and live on-site, along with their families

  • Transfer and upperlevel students living in the West Campus House System form strong connections with their house professor-dean, a faculty member who lives in each house with their family. Houses also have approximately 30 house fellows each, primarily faculty members, who interact with student residents over meals and programs.

Faculty-in-Residence and Faculty Fellows – faculty members who engage residents in discussions and activities outside of the classroom

  • These two programs virtually guarantee that faculty members will become a real part of your residential community. Faculty members in residence live in the residence halls in apartments adjacent to student rooms; faculty fellows are affiliated with specific residence halls and graduate/professional student communities. Both interact with residents through programs and social events.

Dining Discussion Program – A part of Cornell's First-Year Experience, the Dining Discussion Program enables new students to meet their professors for meal-time discussions in the dining rooms. The goal of the program is for students to enhance their understanding of courses, to explore related academic, intellectual, and cultural interests, and to get to know faculty members in an informal small-group setting.

Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professorship: Named for Cornell's ninth president, Rhodes Class of '56 Professors visit campus at least once per year, typically staying in the West Campus guest suites for a week. Professors have included R. Spencer Wells, scientist, author, and documentary film maker, and Robert Parris Moses, civil rights activist.

Cornell A. D. White Professors-at-Large: Residents of Cornell housing work directly with this program to sponsor events featuring A. D. White Professors, all of whom are eminent worldwide in the arts and sciences. They have included such noted figures as John Cleese (actor, author, lawyer, and Monty Python alumnus) and Jane Goodall (primatologist, ecologist, and conservationist).

Many people and resources dedicated to helping first-year students, transfer students, and international students adjust to their new lives and thrive at Cornell