Washington, March 5 (AP): When John Richardson wanted to avoid a lengthy commute to American University's campus, renting a nearby apartment just wouldn’t do.

Instead, the easy-going 68-year-old professor decided to settle into a sprawling dormitory teeming with hundreds of students. Suchan arrangement isn't unusual: These days, catching sight of your professor on the way to the shower happens all the time.

Educators say a growing number of faculty are moving into dorms as colleges seek to revitalise campus life and shift away from the utilitarian, high-rise halls that sprouted when enrollment soared in the 1960s.

“There's been a separation between the culture of academic life and the culture of campus life,” said Richardson, who suggested moving into a dorm after students complained that interaction with faculty was lacking outside the classroom.

There wasn't much structure to Richardson's living arrangement when he first moved into his one-bedroom suite in Anderson Hall about four years ago, said Gail Hanson, the university's vice- president of campus life. The plan was to have him take it all in and see what happened.

Today, Richardson can be found handing out candy from a giant plastic bowl with a blinking red light attached as he greets bleary-eyed students during dozens of middle-of-the-night fire alarms.

The well-travelled culinary enthusiast also prepares a buffet-style dinner for students a couple of nights each month, serving up Peking duck, Sri Lankan curry and Moroccan lamb.

“It kind of feels like you have a grandfather or an uncle living with you,” said Aimee Malin, 20, a senior.

Having professors live among students is not a new idea, said Robert 'Hara, a higher education consultant who has written a book and created a website on the subject. The tradition stretches back hundreds of years to colleges in Great Britain and was adopted in the US in the 1930s by Harvard and Yale.       

The concept was largely ignored, however, as colleges ballooned in size when the baby boom generation began coming of age.

In many cases, 'Hara said, students were housed in what he calls “cinder block student ghettos,” where they were robbed of important relationships with faculty.       

“There's been a real sense that ‘Boy, what we tried in the late ‘60s has been really a flop so we'd better try something different,’” said 'Hara. The more recent faculty live-in arrangements, he said, came partly in response to a party culture on many campuses.

Research shows that increased attention from faculty leads to higher academic achievement among students and a greater sense of belonging, said Karen Inkelas, a University of Maryland professor who studies programmes that seek to integrate the in- and out-of-classroom experience.