In a crowded collegiate lecture hall, students often split their time between absorbing the course material and staring at the big hand of the clock. When the time comes to escape the auditorium after class is over, they often pay little heed to the man or woman erasing his or her scribbled notes from the blackboard.
While textbooks will be sold and course knowledge may eventually fade, there is an increasing emphasis on not losing the connection with the person at the blackboard: the professor.
Colleges are taking an active role in fostering professor−student interactions. The University of South Carolina has instituted "Out To Lunch" and "Dinner Dialogue" programs in recent years, while the University of Virginia awards grants to professors who promote such initiatives.
At Tufts, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education sponsors the SPIRIT (Students and Professors Integrating Recreation, Intellect and Teaching) Fund in an attempt to encourage relationships outside the confines of the classroom.
Managed by Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, SPIRIT is a program intended to promote both formal and informal interactions between students and professors. Supported by the university's budget, the program allows professors to request funding for certain types of activities.
"It's been here for as long I've been here, so it has to be at least 20 years old," said Glaser, who manages the program and the allocation of its funds. "It consists of about $15,000 a year, and every dime of it is spent."
According to Glaser, most of the spending is directed toward professor−student meals, certain kinds of cultural or semester−ending celebrations and even dinner parties at nearby faculty homes. A portion of the fund is also spent on drinks purchased in Tisch Library's Tower Café, where students can enjoy free coffee with professors.
"All professors have to do is write to me and describe the need," Glaser explained, emphasizing how accessible the funds are. "There's been all different uses for the money, including buses to museums and tickets to movies relating to class material."
Glaser said that his only desired alteration to the program would be to raise the spending limit.
"I wish I had more money," he said. "But I will always kick in if I can because I think students expect this in coming to a place like Tufts; it is a really lovely part of being an undergraduate."
Funds may not be the only area of the program that needs improvement. On the most recent Senior Survey of the Class of 2009, 66.6 percent reported never having been a guest in a faculty member's home and 55.5 percent claimed to never have eaten a meal with a faculty member on campus at a time other than freshmen orientation.
"I only knew of the Tower Café option of getting free drinks," sophomore Matt Blumenthal said. "I'm definitely going to keep the program in mind with my future professors, though."
Though some students are unaware of the fund, others have been lucky enough to experience its benefits. Senior Katherine Sadowski is grateful for a dinner party her sociology professor hosted last semester.
"I took a really challenging course for my major, and on the last day all of the students had to give presentations on their semester's worth of research," Sadowski said. "My professor had us all over to her house and made us a huge, delicious dinner, and we sat in her living room and presented to each other there. It was an incredible way to end the class."
Sadowski has had additional positive experiences with professors outside of the Tufts campus.
"I went to the American Sociological Association conference with [my sociology advisor] during the summer of 2008," she noted. "And he and I got lunch together in the spring of 2009 in Paris when I was studying abroad, and he was visiting family. It has been an invaluable relationship throughout my time at Tufts."
Still, some students have not yet had any experience with the SPIRIT program or noteworthy advisors. For those individuals seeking strong relationships with professors, most of the advice seems to point toward two words that many undergraduates may choose not to understand: office hours.
"Professors have dozens, sometimes hundreds, of students, so they must rely on the student to initiate contact," Glaser said when asked about student−professor interaction apart from the SPIRIT program. "Remember, professors are here because they like students — if they didn't, they would be doing something different."
