Visiting scholars find comfortable housing at residential colleges

Visiting scholars find comfortable housing at residential
colleges
…………………………………………………………………

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News Staff

For his one-month
research stint at Rice University, John Brown already has
found his new apartment at Wiess College a saving grace.

Its homey atmosphere
and proximity to his chemistry lab have been a welcome living
arrangement.
When he is not working in the lab with chemistry professor
Robert Curl and his group on the methoxy radical, an important
chemical intermediate in the chemistry of the atmosphere,
Brown has found a warm camaraderie with the students at
Wiess.

Brown, a visiting
scholar from the University of Oxford, is one of two professors
staying at the new college apartments. Kent Nelson, a visiting
professor from Colorado, is spending the semester at Martel
College while he teaches environmental literature and an
advanced fiction writing workshop.

A third apartment,
which was just completed in August, is located at Brown
College.

“I chose
to stay at Wiess College because it provides me with a very
convenient academic and social base while I am here,”
Brown said. “The students and staff with whom I have
talked have been both interesting and friendly. I feel very
comfortable and at home there; no doubt this is in part
because we have a very similar college system at Oxford.”

This new living
arrangement for visiting scholars is an effort to increase
the amount of casual interaction between faculty and students.

“This will
help students learn about other life experiences than academics,”
said Walter Isle, vice provost for academic affairs and
the Clarence L. Carter Distinguished Service Professor of
English.
Living on campus with the students could also lead to more
constructive social and academic interaction, said John
Hutchinson, assistant vice president for student affairs,
professor of chemistry and director of academic advising.

“It’s
designed for short-term visitors to interact with our students
and give our students an opportunity to interact with our
visitors,” Hutchinson said.

By conversing
with the visiting scholars, students will have a chance
to learn more about different types of careers, academic
interests and other parts of the world, he said.

The author of
three novels an dfour collections of short stories, Nelson
said living on campus among the students is an opportunity
to get different viewpoints and provides a way of broadening
the reservoir of his personal knowledge of people from various
backgrounds.