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February 2008
Campus Life
Faculty and staff who reside on Pomona's campus find life among the
students an enriching experience.
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By Mai Thai '10
It’s time for dinner at Frank Dining Hall and the students clamor in,
making their way through the food area and then settling down to sit
with classmates and friends.
Sarah Visser helps her daughter Emma pick out something good to eat. |
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But at one table, Emma Visser,
who turns 2 later this month, sits in her booster seat and waits to
be fed. Like most of Pomona’s students, Emma is also a resident of the
campus. She is the daughter of Sarah Visser, the interim Associate Dean
of Campus Life, who moved into Mudd-Blaisdell dorm this past summer with
her family. The two-bedroom apartment came with the position
she recently accepted.
“We eat in the dining hall frequently, and we’re always bumping into
students in the hall,” she says. “It’s a joy being with the college
students.”
Though she is not new to Pomona College, Visser’s living experiences at
the College are fairly new. Other staff members, however, have also
forged the same path of living on campus. Tomás Summers Sandoval,
Assistant Professor of History and Chicano Studies, has been living at
Pomona for a little over a year, and Heather Williams, Associate
Professor of Politics, has been living on campus for almost two years.
They are among the several people who simultaneously work and live
within the Pomona College community.
According to Ric Townes, the Dean of Campus Life, the College is committed to having members of faculty and Student Affairs staff living
on campus because of Pomona’s mission as a residential, liberal arts
college. “The point has always been to have them be involved in all
areas of the student experience, including such things as where students
live and where they eat,” he says.
Though Visser’s residence came with her job, other faculty members who
want to live on campus fill out an application that is looked over by a
committee of deans and assistant deans. Different faculty members occupy
the residential areas every three years.
Before moving into her current home, Williams had been mostly exposed to
only the academic settings of the College as a professor. “I get a
glimpse of a different side of college,” she says. “I thought it would
be fun for a while to be a part of the life of college in a residential
setting.”
For Summers Sandoval, as a graduate of Claremont McKenna College, he
liked the experiences he had with his teachers who were closely involved
with campus life. “This is the embodiment of what I like in being a
professor—to interact with students,” he says. “My wife and I wanted to
make the move here so that I could make a stronger connection.”
Summers Sandoval says that the most common interactions with students
are the informal ones, including the unanticipated meetings that come
with life in the campus residential community. “We’ll take evening and
weekend walks with my wife and [family]. It’s those casual
interactions beyond the nine to five, Monday to Friday.” Williams has
also enjoyed her unplanned interactions with the college residents—she
once went surfing with some students and a couple professors on a whim.
As a part of their roles as residential faculty members, Williams and
Summers Sandoval often plan formal events for students. At her home,
Williams has hosted several dinners, including those with food from
Pomona’s own organic farm—at one point, she had a record 51 students at
her home. Last year, with support from the Latin American Studies
program, she also sponsored a dinner and a showing of Milagros: Made
in Mexico with two directors from the film.
Likewise, Summers Sandoval has held receptions in his home. He has had
intimate gatherings of students and professors for informal dinners, and
even turned his space into a soup kitchen during finals week. He says
that he wants the students to see that his residence is their space as
much as it is his family’s home. Outside of his home this semester, he
is holding a film and discussion series relating to Chicanos and Latinos
at the Chicano/Latino Student Affairs lounge.
“The best value of the program is that it brings students together in a
different venue in a less formal kind of way,” Summers Sandoval says of
the events he plans as a faculty resident. For Williams, she is grateful
to have gotten to know the many students who have helped her with her
events, and hopes many others would take the initiative in interacting
with faculty.
“People should feel free to knock on my door and say, hey--you have
cable…Can we watch The Daily Show?’” she says. “If people want to
come by to take a break, they should.”
A Little Noise, But a Lot of Benefits
Visser, Williams and Summers Sandoval all seem to enjoy campus life,
though some drawbacks are inevitable.
There is a consensus that noise is an issue to be expected on all
college campuses. “It can be loud at certain times,” Summers Sandoval
says. “The north parking lot between Pomona and Claremont McKenna is a
weekend highway for foot traffic.”
Williams says that people have been considerate, but she does take note
of the night owls on campus. “You’ve got to have a really high tolerance
to the noise,” she says. Visser has found a coping strategy: They
use a white-noise machine.
Matters such as this also bring up the idea of personal space for each
of the residents.
Visser and her husband Matt often eat meals at Frank
Dining Hall. |
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“At first, we were like—are we going to have privacy? But we feel like
we have our own space and it feels like our own home,” Visser says. Each
of the faculty and staff residents has a private yard and a fence.
The children seem to be enjoying it just as well. Visser is excited when
she discusses her daughter’s interactions with those around her. “She’s
a very social kid. She loves being around college students and they love
her,” she says. “She loves the hall and always points to the door and
says, ‘Outside! Outside!’”
Summers Sandoval also enjoys Pomona College with his wife, Melinda, and
children, Benito and newborn Lil. “Part of the fun of the program is not just me as a
professor to play a part in campus life—it’s my family,” he says. “This
is a great place to have [children]. There is a lot of walking
space; it’s safe to let a two-year-old off the leash.”
As for Visser, the newest resident, her family is also growing like
Summers Sandoval’s—she has a new baby boy, Maxwell. Unless circumstances change
for Visser, she is anticipating living at Pomona as long as she can.
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