via PBS: Pres. Renu Khator on Student Success

via the Houston Chron and AP: UH Professor Raul Ramos Immerses Himself in Dorm Life

This story appeared in the Chron last week, but it’s now been picked up by the AP news service.  Kudos to Raul Ramos and his adorable family.  Good thing he has his dogs with him, too.  The students miss their dogs.

HOUSTON — In retrospect, Raul Ramos says his first eight years at the University of Houston were spent in “blissful ignorance.”

“I didn’t know how parking works, how the dining halls work, how financial aid works,” said the associate professor of history. “Now I do.”

Ramos, 43, is fully immersed in campus life, living in a dorm for the first time in more than two decades, along with his wife, Elizabeth Chiao, and their sons, Noe and Joaquin Ramos Chiao.

Even their dogs are there.

“It’s not like we really need more on our plate right now,” said Chiao, an infectious disease doctor at Baylor College of Medicine. “But it’s a neat opportunity.”

It is part of the university’s efforts to engage students and, ultimately, to improve graduation rates, in part by encouraging more informal interactions with faculty.

UH CTE Board Member Catherine Horn is also mentioned in the article, as another UH prof residing with her family in the dorms.

Thanks to all UH faculty for committing to student life in this way.

DM