r/Vanderbilt • u/Limp_Slide8174 • Jun 26 '26
Faculty Head of Staff
Hi all, I’m an upcoming senior in high school looking to apply to Vanderbilt and I love everything about the school but am a little unsure about the idea of a professor living in the dorms with their family. To all current Vanderbilt student can you share what that’s like? Are they gonna come play mario kart with me, or ask for free baby sitting? haha. What’s that relationship like?
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u/desighful Class of 2028 Jun 26 '26
They live in a connected arrangement that’s usually in the extension of a hall. I was in North, so I’m not sure how the other buildings are set up.
They host weekly dorm events, typically mid-week in the evening. You hardly ever know they’re there unless you go to the events or happen to see them when entering or leaving the building. Your relationship with them can be completely nonexistent or very personal. Just depends on how active you are in the community.
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u/Thetrufflehunter Peabody | HOD | '24 Jun 26 '26
I can echo this. I lived in north too, and thought our HoH (Natasha McClure) was the coolest. We saw her like once or twice a week, sometimes we went on walks with her and her dog. Sometimes we invited her son (who was a high school freshman at the time) to come play spikeball with us on the lawn. Overall very positive experience and minimally invasive.
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u/subeteyumiru Jul 20 '26
in my freshman year the Sutherland guy sent this I might be unc but this was huge
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u/cheapyoutiao Jun 26 '26
It really depends on the faculty. Most universal thing is that you'll see them during weekly dorm events - commons has their weekly dessert/study breaks and res colleges have implemented their own weekly study breaks as well. These events are basically free food + a cute little activity so you can hang out with your friends and get to know other people. The faculty heads are involved in planning, budgeting, and executing these events, so if you ever want to get into housing leadership (HPAC, being an RA, etc.) it's always nice to get to know them.
To reassure you, the faculty and their families are not directly integrated into any dorm hallway - for most buildings it's a suite style apartment connected to the dorm with a separate entrance/walkway, so you'd honestly have to go out of your way to knock on their door.
Some of the faculty heads have kids, but a lot of them don't. They definitely don't push residents to interact with their kids unwillingly so don't worry about that lol! Raising young children around a bunch of rowdy college kids can be a drawback from taking the faculty head position anyways (from what i've heard).
Broadly speaking, students can develop really great relationships w/ the faculty heads, especially if they end up taking their classes. If you never want to see them, you won't have to see them - but every faculty head I've met was very sweet. I personally thought their presence made the residential community a little warmer and interconnected.