Earlier this term, one posting on the Activities for Students bulletin caught the interest of both students and faculty -- a free meal from Hanover Inn. The "Take a Professor To Lunch" program has been a tremendous success, with different student-professor pairings showing up daily at the Inn to take advantage of the free meal.
The program is the product of the combined efforts of the Director of Student Activities Linda Kennedy and the manager of the Hanover Inn Matthew Marshall. The program is designed as a way for both undergraduate and graduate students to bond with their professors over a cost-free meal.
Kennedy explained this program will provide them with a valuable experience that will help them to get to know each other on a more personal level, outside of the academic setting and outside of the designated roles of student and professor.
"It is really wonderful to see that so far, people are genuinely interested in getting to know each other, sharing interesting conversations that is not necessarily academic, through this program," she said. "In this respect the program seems to be a success."
The lunches are available Monday through Thursday at both Zin's and The Daniel Webster Room of Hanover Inn. One voucher covers the cost of the full meal, tax and tip for one student and one professor at either one of these restaurants. Alcoholic beverages are not included in the voucher.
Five vouchers are available each day at the Hanover Inn Catering Sales office in advance of the lunch date, and Marshall said the vouchers have been selling out quickly every day.
Kennedy said the current program is a revival of an old program that was launched in the 1980s. The old program was designed for a student-professor pair to bond over a meal at one of the College's dining halls, at the expense of the student.
Medicine and biochemistry professor Lee Witters said his lunch with Angela Poppe '00 did not revolve around academia, but rather about their personal lives.
"This is a wonderful activity in terms of community building. This effort to boost the interaction between students and faculty is excellent and very timely with all the issues currently surrounding the Student Life Initiative," Witters said.
Witters explained that beyond just getting to know each other better, the program signifies a truly valuable experience for both participating parties. For the faculty, it provides for a wonderful change to learn about student life. On the part of the students, it is really a great opportunity to show the professors their true personality and character outside of the academic environment, a bonus when it comes time to collect faculty letters of recommendations.
Witters said that although Dartmouth has a relatively commendable student-faculty interaction compared to most other higher education institutions, he said there is room for improvement. He said Take a Professor to Lunch is a giant step in the right direction.
