Students treat professors to lunch

Dine in style at the Nittany Lion Inn with four of your classmates . . . and your professor.

The Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly and the Instructional Development Program Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching are co-sponsoring special lunches throughout the semester at the Nittany Lion Inn , 200 W. Park Ave., to help students in large lecture classes become more familiar with their professors and vice versa.

The "Take a Professor to Lunch Challenge" was developed so professors and students could communicate in a more intimate environment than that of a class with 300 or more students.

"This is for people in large classes because we want to give them the opportunity to talk about what needs to be helped in classes," said Neill Johnson, Instructional Development Program (IDP) coordinator.

But some students said they would not take their professors to lunch. Robyn Wheatley (junior-microbiology) said she would be more inclined to use this program to take professors teaching her smaller classes to lunch.

"I think in my smaller classes I would, but in my larger classes I wouldn't because they're more general classes and I wouldn't have (the professor) more than once," Wheatley said.

The challenge is one of two original proposals developed to facilitate student/professor interaction. The other option was to sponsor events where the entire class would be invited to talk with the professor. This idea was rejected because it would be too hard to generate enough interest, Johnson said.

"The lunch idea won because people in large classes have a vested interest in getting to know the professor," he said. "The problem was in the past, students were afraid."

The co-sponsors are trying to generate enthusiasm from professors as well as students so professors will be more approachable, Johnson said.

Five students must ask the professor if he or she wants to go to lunch with them to participate in the program. The students may then call the IDP Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to schedule the free lunch at Nittany Lion Inn.