'Lunch' program ends this week

Students hungry for a free lunch and a better relationship with their professors have their last opportunity to participate in the Take Your Professor to Lunch Challenge which comes to an end this week.

The university-wide program is co-sponsored by the Center For Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) and Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly.

Lynn Hendrickson, assembly member, said the program offers students a chance to get to know professors who teach large classes by meeting them informally.

The program is in its fifth semester, said Neill Johnson, CELT program assistant.

"People get to meet and talk to the instructors in a setting that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the course . . . It's the sort of thing you expect to happen at a university but doesn't in large class sections," he said.

Katie McClelland (junior-kinesiology) took her Kinesiology 360 (Movement Skills) professor, Mark Latash, to lunch in order to become more comfortable going to her professor with questions.

"It makes the class seem a little bit smaller," she said. "I'm more willing to study because I know he's willing to help."

To qualify for the program, the student must select a professor who teaches a class of at least 100 students, and at least five students must participate.

Students must register online at www.psu.edu/celt/large class/take-a-prof.html at least three days before they wish to have lunch. A Housing and Food Service restaurant of choice will provide meals.

--by Kate Dailey