Faculty and staff members are working to remind students that while their families may be miles away, they aren’t alone.

These volunteer faculty and staff members fanned out across campus, going door-to-door throughout the dorms asking students questions regarding their major, their relationship with their roommate and their overall experience accepting TCU as their new home.

“It’s a nice way for us to see and hear how students are doing, and hopefully a nice way for students to know that we care and want to come see them,” said Craig Allen, director of TCU housing and residence life.

House Calls are made every fall semester as faculty and staff members are sent to check on students and the overall community life in the residence halls on campus. Allen said more than 100 faculty and staff members knocked on doors this month.

Mary McKinney, an instructor in the Department of Spanish and Hispanic Studies, has participated in House Calls since the first year the program was offered.

“I always enjoy it,” she said. “It’s just a fun opportunity for me to get to connect with students I might never get to meet otherwise.”

Allen and McKinney said one of the benefits of House Calls is that it gives students a chance to learn about resources they might not know are available.

Allen said sometimes they come across a student who is having a difficult time.

“We can sometimes pick up on a student that may be struggling intra-personally,” he said, “Someone who maybe feels like I don’t know where to go for this, I don’t know what to do, or I don’t really know anyone here.”

McKinney said she wants students to know that her door is always open if a student just needs to talk or ask a question.  

“I think it’s important for them to see that we will take time out of our day to come and talk to them and make sure that everything is going okay,” she said.

First-year student and pre-business major, Cooper Budd, said the House Calls made him feel at home.

“It makes it feel like the staff isn’t just people above you,” Budd said. “It was like people actually cared.”