SCUE's Take a Professor to Lunch Week begins Monday

If you want to get an A, don't point out that he chews with his mouth open. And during next week's Take a Professor to Lunch Week, don't play with your food -- it's rude. For the ninth year in a row, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education is sponsoring Take a Professor to Lunch Week next week, giving students and professors an opportunity to get to know each other. "This is really a way to see professors as human beings outside the classroom and to learn more about who they are as individuals," said SCUE member Jackie Einstein, who is co-organizing the event. According to SCUE Chairperson David Kauffman, about 500 students do lunch with their teachers through the program each year, noting that certain professors are taken out for lunch several times during the week. SCUE's program provides an incentive for students to meet with their professors outside of class, but Einstein stressed that next week should be only the beginning. "I wish students would take advantage of the opportunity to get to know their professors more during the semester," she said. "This is only supposed to be a model, not something you wait for." Some professors said yesterday the culinary brown-nosing breaks down the barriers between teachers and students. "It provides an opportunity for professors and students to get to know each other on a personal level," Civil Systems Professor John Keenan said. "It reminds you that every person is an individual and has their own story and that's an important thing to know." Keenan said students take him out to lunch about once a year. And Physics Professor Alfred Mann, who has never been treated to lunch through SCUE's program, said "anything that helps to provide informal relationships . . . between students and faculty is a good idea." Some students said the program is a good way to let good teachers know they are appreciated. "There's one professor that I'd really like to take," Wharton freshman Peter Ehrich said yesterday. "She's really competent . . . Because I took her class I'm going to switch my concentration."

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