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Graduate Commons faculty directors work to make Harvard Housing feel like home

400 to participate in First-Year Day of Service

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Graduate Commons faculty directors work to make Harvard Housing feel like home

News +

Graduate Commons faculty directors work to make Harvard Housing feel like home

Doreen and Jim (not pictured) Hogle open their home to all tenants at Peabody Terrace each month with themed open houses. On “Pie in the Sky” night, residents snacked on pastries while resident and novice astronomer, Jordan Reeves (pictured with laser) helped spectators locate constellations and planets. Photo by Bob Keene/Keene Vision

For hundreds of Harvard affiliates and their families living in Harvard University Housing, it’s the sense of belonging and community connection that makes all the difference. Eight faculty directors with Harvard Graduate Commons Program (GCP) work every day to help make that possible.

These intellectual leaders, together with GCP staff and community advisors, host social and academic events to engage their neighborhoods. Whether welcoming residents and guests into their homes each month for lectures and dinner discussions, or integrating intellectual and social opportunities through events like game nights, networking happy hours, and off-campus excursions, the faculty directors bridge the divide between the learning, living, and cultural experiences at Harvard.

Since its inception in 2008, GCP’s unique interdisciplinary effort to create a “home away from home” for a diverse residential population including graduate students, faculty, staff, and their families is now a thriving living-learning community for all residents.

Some of the faculty directors shared why they choose to serve in this capacity.

Jim and Doreen Hogle, faculty deans for Dudley House, have served as faculty directors at Peabody Terrace for nearly seven years. Photo by Bob Keene/Keene Vision

Graduates of the Class of 2018 gather at 10 Akron St. for an annual resident tradition, the “Cheers on the Charles” champagne toast, hosted by Guhan Subramanian and wife Helen Clement.

Photo by Bob Keene/Keene Vision

At the Cronkhite Carnival, Nancy Hill (from left, image 1), Charles Bigelow Professor of Education at HGSE and Rendall Howell, both faculty directors at the Gardenside Area, are joined by their son Theo. Jonathan Harounoff (from left, image 2) and Stephanie Posner join Nancy and Chris Winship, Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology. The Winships, who have been faculty directors at the Gardenside Area since 2014, say they feel enriched by the experience.

Photos by Mary Kate James/MK James Photography