Time Well Spent for Professor-in-Residence

Serving as professor-in-residence at Wall Residential College at Tulane University demands a major time commitment outside a faculty member's regular teaching duties, including lots of interactions with students living in the residence hall. Fortunately for professor-in-residence Paul Colombo, his wife, Lyle, and their daughter, Audrey Paige, have embraced the move to the center of campus. Meet them in this video.

Learn what it's like for a faculty member and his family to live with students at Wall Residential College in this video produced
by Alicia Duplessis Jasmin.

Last year when Colombo and his family were considering applying for the position, they went to the residence hall one evening. "We came and sat outside on the steps and met with some of the students," says Colombo, an associate professor of psychology. "They took us in and showed us around and introduced us to other students. We had such a positive experience then, that we knew we wanted to at least apply for the position."

Other faculty members also vied for the position through a rigorous application and interview process. Colombo was notified last spring that he and his family had been selected to move in.

The Colombo family is the second to live in the residence hall since it opened in 2005. Christopher Dunn, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and his family were the first "family-in-residence" at Wall.

Professors-in-residence are asked to commit to a three-year stay. The two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom faculty apartment features a private entrance, full kitchen, dining area, living room and large study. The professor-in-residence also has a reserved parking space.

Lyle Colombo, who taught philosophy at Loyola University for eight years before becoming a stay-at-home mom, says that she is thrilled at the opportunity to get back to a university setting and have the opportunity to interact daily with students.

"This is such a wonderful and stimulating environment for myself and Audrey Paige," she says. "It has turned out to be a really amazing experience."