Faculty Profile

New Faculty-in-Residence Program Launched

By Noel Gallagher

Food microbiologist George Chang has earned a reputation — in the classroom and the lab — for his abiding interest in students. Peg Skorpinski photo

Fall 2005 | Associate Professor George Chang’s eyes are twinkling as he lets you in on a little secret he’s learned in his 35-plus years teaching at Berkeley: “Being around students is the closest thing there is to a fountain of youth.”

Good thing, since he has volunteered to live in the midst of several hundred students as the first professor participating in a new faculty residence pilot program.

He and his wife, Abby Jang, moved into a three-bedroom suite on the ground floor of Towle Hall during the spring semester, and so far, it’s going great. Chang says he’s eating most meals with students in the dining hall and running into them in the hallways, laundry room, workout room, and study rooms. He keeps an office in the academic center, holds regular office hours, and teaches a tai-chi class on Sundays for his residence hall neighbors.

Chang will live at Towle for two years, with free room and board in exchange for eight hours of service a week, according to Troy Gilbert, acting director of academic programs in the Office of Student Development.

The model is different from faculty-in-residence programs at some other schools, Gilbert said. At Berkeley, the faculty member isn’t expected to take care of a student crisis, per se — resident assistants and others are available to handle the day-to-day issues that crop up in a residence hall.

“It’s more of an academic model,” Gilbert said. “Ninety-eight percent of first-year students live in residential communities. Outside of seminars, it’s hard for them to get to know the faculty. Our hope is that this program will give them the chance.”

It’s certainly giving Chang a chance to get to know students. Before, he said, he mostly got to know students who took his classes.

“I’ve had a filtered look at the freshman experience,” he said. Now, he more fully appreciates the full diversity of students.

Chang, a food microbiologist at Berkeley since 1970, has long been known for his warm manner, approachability, and deep interest in students. He’s often asked to speak at CalSO (Cal Student Orientation) programs, and he teaches a popular freshman seminar called “The Freshman Experience.”

Living in the residence halls wasn’t a tough decision, Chang said, noting that he has lived in college communities since his childhood as son of a professor. He lived in the residence halls at Princeton University while getting an undergraduate degree in chemistry, and when he came to Berkeley for his Ph.D. in biochemistry, he first lived at International House.

This kind of background is exactly what the Office of Student Development envisioned for the program.

Chang particularly enjoys listening to students and helping out when he can. “It’s a privilege to be part of this process,” he said. “And some day these students will be helping others with their process. That’s close to immortality.”

Along the way, he’s getting a good look at how students spend their time (mostly in “one form or another of courtship,” he says) and the hours they keep.

“It’s surprising how nocturnal students are,” Chang said. “It’s really quiet in the very early morning, but it’s amazing how the place comes alive at night. It’s almost like a nature show.”

But one of the big benefits — and maybe this is what keeps him so youthful — is having a perpetually new audience.

“I love to tell stories,” Chang confesses, noting that his wife has heard most of them again and again. “These students haven’t heard all my stories,” he says with a grin. “I’m having so much fun, I could do this forever.”