"The Commons represents the very best of academia: a community of scholars living and working together towards a greater good. My two Portuguese Water Dogs, Tuck and Stick, and I are eager to launch this grand adventure with the class of 2012. I especially look forward to building a collaborative community that is fun, challenging, and life enhancing."

"The three principles that guide The Commons experience—welcome, connection, and leadership—resonate deeply with my personal goals for creating a stronger, more vibrant intellectual community on Vanderbilt’s campus. The Commons will transform living and learning for our academic community, and I am prepared to participate in the creation of a welcoming place where first-year students connect in meaningful ways with one another, the faculty, and others in the Vanderbilt community as they discover their leadership potential."

"I accepted the responsibility of being the community and intellectual leader of the Hank Ingram House because I have much to learn from students and close proximity will provide opportunities for intellectual exchange and thus mutual growth. Students do not fully appreciate what professors do and rarely see our passion for learning outside the classroom, but they will when we all live in the same neighborhood and eat at the same table and walk across campus together on our way to and from classes."

"The Dalhouse family welcomes you to the Commons! I, along with my wife Mary Ellen and twin sons Teddy and Braden, are glad you will be our neighbors next year. I am the faculty Head in East House and am a member of the Department of History and Director of Vanderbilt's Office of Active Citizenship and Service. Whether it is joining me on a 'Rolling Seminar' bus trip to explore civil rights history or working on a Habitat build on the weekend or just hanging out with me and my 1 year old sons, I look forward to working with you in this great new venture at Vanderbilt. You are about to enter a community that will offer you unprecedented opportunities. Chief among those opportunities will be our invitation to you to join us in creating new and innovative ways of exploring the life of the mind with your fellow students, your professors, and your new neighbors in Nashville. One of my heroes was Robert F. Kennedy. He was fond of closing his speeches to students with this thought: 'some people see things as they are and ask why? I dream things that never were, and ask why not?' The Commons is our opportunity to ask, 'why not?' Welcome to Vanderbilt."

"The Commons is an endeavor of place and identity and developing a deeper sense of communion. That place is a residential community, a neighborhood, of teachers and learners, of sharers. What we will share in The Commons will be academic and personal and catholic in its scope. What we will share in The Commons will be meetings and programs and smiles; and daily bread. I trust that we—students, faculty heads of houses, and staff—will grow from this exposure to each other. As a writer and teacher, as an individual, I trust that I will grow and learn, as I strive to teach, enlighten, and ultimately, share with my neighbors in The Commons."

"The Commons is a place to belong to, certainly, but one that transcends your individual experience there. At The Commons you will be part of something much larger than yourself, which you will shape with your leadership, reflection, and unique identity. This shared living and learning space is really a doorway to the rest of your life, where you will set a lifelong course of intellectual inquiry, engaging your fellow residents in meaningful ways. An important goal is to leave this space well versed in how to live, learn, work, and play with others from different backgrounds, cultures, and families."

"In our postmodern and global era, college education at Vanderbilt is just about to undergo a major overhaul, starting with the Freshman Commons! Beginning with the class of 2012, all students will experience the pleasures – and pain – of a holistic personal, educational and relational formation and transformation. My wife and I – along with our three-year old son – are excited to be a part of the team that seeks to leave a life-long imprint in our future leaders who have learned to serve the community of Vanderbilt, Nashville and much much beyond."

Ron Schrimpf is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of Vanderbilt’s Institute for Space and Defense Electronics. Ron will draw on his experience in conducting large research projects and organizing international collaborations to help students learn about, and participate in, the cutting-edge research that takes place at Vanderbilt. Ron and his wife Kathy enjoy music, entertaining, and international travel. They look forward to working with the residents of Memorial House to organize an active social program in a relaxed home-like environment.

"I am very honored to be the first Faculty Head of House for Murray House in the Vanderbilt Commons. I hope to bring a vision of how communities thrive, share the Nashville community with our freshmen students, help us to become compassionate and caring citizens, and to help us frame our role, as members of the university, in creating a civil society. I look forward to contributing toward molding and shaping an environment where students, staff, and faculty live, learn, and form strong bonds of friendship with one another. I expect to become a more insightful, reflective, and creative teacher and person because of this experience…it should be life changing for all of us."