In a Class by Itself

In traditional college life, students and faculty orbit separate worlds, usually intersecting only in the classroom.

At Caltech, however, that traditional paradigm has always been challenged, from the informal dialogue encouraged between students and their professors to the 3-to-1 student-faculty ratio. Now it has been extended to student and faculty living arrangements as well.

The beginning of the current academic year saw the opening of Avery House, an 80,000-square-foot residence hall that houses students and faculty. There are about 130 students and three faculty members, two with families, living in the Spanish Colonial building.

“It’s very rare to see residence halls go beyond the concept of undergraduate or graduate housing. It’s rare to see faculty living in campus housing and rarer still to see three faculty living in campus housing,” said Sue Friedman, Caltech’s assistant director of resident life.

This is not the first departure from traditional college housing concepts for the internationally renowned institution. All freshmen must live on campus in one of seven houses--not “dorms,” as Caltech’s Web site (www.caltech.edu) admonishes. Eighty percent of the students continue to do so for the remainder of their four-year tenure.

“Living in a house at Caltech is part of your identity--you’re affiliated with that house as long as you are here. It’s the starting point for your community,” said Friedman.

Each of the houses has its own character and traditions, and in true Caltech style, its own Web page. This special form of residential college life is designed to provide not only a sense of community and identification, but also a kind of extended family.

Because of its mix of students, faculty and visiting entrepreneurs, “there is nothing like it on any campus in the country,” said Max Benavidez, a spokesman for Caltech. “It’s an incredible place, a whole new experiment.”

Until the state-of-the-art Sherman Fairchild Library was dedicated this month, Avery House, with its red-tiled roofs, arched, covered walkways and open courtyards, was the newest building on the 105-year-old campus.

Inside, students and faculty can eat together in the dining hall , meet over coffee, listen to fireside chats in one of the four lounges, check e-mail at computer ports, brush up on entrepreneurial skills or take part in a videoconference.

One feature of Avery House, the visiting residents program, is unique to the house. Visitors can live in the house, sharing their knowledge and experience with the students, and be a part of the Caltech community.

At the behest of benefactor R. Stanton Avery, a Caltech trustee and alumnus and founder of Avery Dennison Corp., emphasis is placed on entrepreneurship in this and other programs at the residence hall.

Resident visitors, who can stay from a few days to two weeks, have included Caltech alumni Bill Gross, who founded a children’s software company, Phil Meches, a multimedia pioneer at Lucent Technologies, and Yale University geophysicist Karl Turkian.

Like most new buildings, though, Avery House did have its share of start-up problems, such as a dearth of medicine cabinets, clear glass in bathroom windows and shower curtains that were too small.

But these are minor problems, especially when, as the authors of the Avery House Web page maintain, they have “better food than any of the other houses”--a most important aspect of college life.