The Q

Well, of all the odd adventures of the last few years, and there have been a few, I'm just embarking on arguably the oddest. Last week I moved into the brand new Quarry Hill Apartments in South Burlington, and will be serving as a Faculty In Resident for the next year. It's a new program at Champlain (based, obviously, on a very old model) or having faculty live with the students and provide some academic life lessons. My nice two bedroom apartment is on the fourth floor, and the other Faculty In Residence, my friend Mike Kelly, lives on the second floor - along with his wife, three kids and dog (more on them later - they're great). There are three RAs (all great kids) and Amanda from residence life, so I don't have to worry about writing anybody up or laying the smack down (I can just reserve that for my students in class). Instead, I'm responsible for academic programming, which should actually be both challenging and fun. I've already had a lot of my colleagues at Champlain volunteer to help out. I'm going to have the philosophers out when the students are all reading Plato's Republic in our Concepts of Community class and the literature folks out to discuss Othello, which is a required reading in our Concepts of the Self class. I'm also arranging visits from the faculty in charge of our different majors - for instance, my friends Scott and Tom are coming out this week to discuss International Business with the students here at Quarry Hill. Beyond that I have some open hours every week to meet the students and give them advice on school. I think it's actually going to be a lot of fun, and will probably inspire a fair bit of blogging. Although the place is officially called Quarry Hill, it has already been labelled "the Q" - so fill in the appropriate Star Trek joke of your choice. To get prepared I rewatched Goodbye Mr. Chips.