The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1 - 48

book clubs, speaker series, ﬁlm discussion
series, recreational activities, voter registration
programs, museum trips, community service
projects, and additional programming efforts.

THE BENEFITS OF
FACULTY-STUDENT INTERACTION

and learning communities, have been well
documented in the literature (Golde & Pribbenow, 2000; Inkelas, Soldner, Longerbeam, &
Leonard, 2008; Kuh, Douglas, Lund, & RaminGyurnek, 1994; Matthews, Smith, MacGregor,

The beneﬁts of student-faculty interaction for
students are well documented (Astin, 1993;
Chickering & Reisser, 1993; Gaff, 1973; Kuh,
Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 2005; Lundberg & Schreiner, 2004; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Sax, Bryant, & Harper, 2005; Vito,
2007). Student-faculty interaction positively
affects the overall college experience, GPA,
degree attainment, graduating with honors,
and enrollment in graduate or professional
school (Astin, 1993) in addition to scholarly
self-conﬁdence, leadership ability, degree aspirations, and retention (Sax et al., 2005).
Faculty also beneﬁt from these interactions.
Vito (2007) posits that faculty participation in
a faculty fellows program, a program in which
student-faculty interaction outside of the classroom is arranged, correlates with higher levels
of satisfaction and engagement and with the
increased loyalty that faculty members feel for
the institution. In addition, as Rhoads (2009)
explains, "by building social connections with
students, I have been better able to address
some of their education-related concerns" (p.
20). A faculty-in-residence experience provides
"faculty the opportunity to further develop
as educators through increased interactions,
playing new roles, and experiencing a holistic learning environment" (Sriram, Shushok,
Perkins, & Scales, 2011, p. 53). Many of the
student-faculty programs in residence halls,
such as faculty fellows, residential colleges,

48

By examining FIR programs

& Gabelnick, 1997; Pasque & Murphy, 2005;
Pike, 1999; Pike, Schroeder, & Berry, 1997;
Schoem, 2004; Washington Center, 2007;
Zhao & Kuh, 2004; Zheng, Saunders, Shelley,
& Whalen, 2002). FIR programming in residence halls, however, is a unique opportunity
for student-faculty involvement that is supported by a high level of commitment from faculty,
students, staff, and institutional resources.
The FIR program described in this study is
vastly different from learning communities,
residential colleges, and faculty fellows in that
the faculty do not teach classes within the residence halls, their residence is not connected
within an academically related cohort, nor
is the FIR program connected with a themebased community. We acknowledge that at
some institutions these ideas are combined.
For example, a living-learning community

using an exploratory qualitative
approach such as phenomenology,
researchers and educators may
and
students in FIR programs.

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1

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