Courtesy of Alex Gates

The College Houses, a cornerstone of sophomore residential life, often host events and programs for the broader campus and Brunswick community. Many of these events are coordinated in order to bring faculty and outside speakers to College Houses.

In years past, each College House had up to three faculty or staff member advisors. Up until a few years ago, this structure worked very well.

Before Covid-19, the College Houses regularly planned programming with faculty and staff. However, as a result of the pandemic, a lot of the institutional knowledge and consistency in running those events was lost. In order to keep the productivity of the events, Residential Life (ResLife) restructured the program this year by allowing all faculty and staff to opt into being affiliated with a house.

“Our goal is smaller, more intimate chances for faculty, staff and students to connect, because that’s something that the College Houses were really great at once in their history, and [it] has gotten a little harder over the last few years,” Alex Gates ’22, assistant director for Residential Life, said. “I know students really enjoyed getting to talk with people they don’t normally talk with.”

Hannah Klupt ’29, a resident of MacMillan (Mac) House, attended a Faculty Affiliate Kickoff event celebrating the restructured program. Mac had mocktails for attendees, as well as cards for staff and students including questions to ask each other. There was a rotating schedule to encourage mingling amongst the groups.

“It was great to meet staff who we don’t generally get to interact with,” Klupt said. “I was talking to the person who’s in charge of pre-health advising, and I’m not a STEM major, but it was great to get to meet her and welcome her to our house.”

There are over 600 faculty and staff from student affairs and academic affairs within the academic departments who have successfully been integrated into the program. In an effort to diversify the people at the events and incorporate as many people in the Bowdoin community as possible, ResLife started a pilot program with staff from the Office of Safety and Security, the Dining Service, the Office of Admissions and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. Around 70 staff members from these offices have participated.

“[It] might be a great opportunity for them to connect with students that they don’t normally,” Gates said.

This new program also provides more opportunities for students to take advantage of the Donald R. Kurtz and Barbara B. Kurtz Residential Life Fund. The fund is meant as an avenue for students to enrich their residential experience by connecting students with the greater campus community via the College Houses. Two of the largest programs facilitated through the fund are Dinner with Six Strangers and the Kurtz Book Club.

Gates explained how a portion of the fund is now exclusively available through the new College House Affiliate Program.

“We now have a portion of [the fund] marked for funding events that happen through this faculty staff affiliate model,” Gates said. “So we have a chunk of money that people can apply to, and that link is on the Bowden ResLife website.”

Many faculty, staff and students are excited about the possibilities that the restructured program will bring to campus.

“I think it would be really cool if we kept doing [events],” Klupt said. “A lot of people seemed really interested. It honestly was just nice to see that people took the time out of their day to come see what the houses are about.”