Faculty Connecting With Students

By Lynette Cook Francis, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Cynthia Quijada, Special Assistant to the Vice Provost

Do you remember having a teacher or college professor who made the subject matter jump off of the pages of your textbook? Who took the time to get to know your name and maybe even a little about you?

Engaged, excellent faculty like these are not hard to find if you look at The University of Arizona's Faculty Fellows program.

The UA is a large institution with a great reputation. But, as with any large institutions, there are large classroom settings, sometimes with hundreds of students in a classroom. The Faculty Fellows program is one of many at the UA that helps to forge smaller communities out of a larger one.

The program was initiated in 1984 to enable students to have regular access to members of the faculty outside of the classroom, thus lessening the common apprehension students feel about interacting with faculty. Fellows hold office hours in residence halls, some Greek houses, cultural centers and the athletic department. The Fellows are among the most popular and engaged professors on campus and are faculty in a wide variety of departments, from Aerospace Engineering to Sculpture.

The goal of the program is to connect faculty and students by creating interaction that leads to greater student success in the transition from high school to university, more effective decision making on critical issues, an ever-deepening love of learning, and smoother paths to graduation. Fellows engage in countless activities with students: cooking them meals, taking them to Broadway shows, coaching them through job interviews and even sometimes tutoring them.

Over the next several issues, we will feature individual Fellows and how they find their own unique ways of connecting to students.

Lynette Cook Francis may be contacted at lynettec@email.arizona.edu
Cynthia Quijada may be contacted at cynthian@email.arizona.edu