As a dove-tail to Eamon’s post last week, I’m working on setting up a pilot program for next semester for student-professor dinners. Dinners would be student-initiated, and would help build personal relationships with professors. Although faculty can currently receive reimbursement for meals with students, field-trips, and meetings over coffee, there is no institutionalized program so that a small group of students themselves can organize a dinner with a professor. My plan would build such a program.

As I’ve written it thus far, the program would be a simple system of reimbursement at any restaurant up to $15 per student; any fraud would be accounted for by trust in the form of signatures and acknowledgment from professors that each dinner did take place. The as-yet-unnamed program would be integrated with the Dean of Students Office’s system of faculty reimbursement mentioned above.

I am looking for student input as to how such a program would best serve you. What should it be called? How would it best be advertised? Is the system of reimbursement as outlined fair? What, if any, set limit should be imposed on the number of students participating in any particular dinner? What are your thoughts? Thanks for your input!

~ Will Yale

Class ‘12 Senator

Academic Affairs Committee

Just in case you haven’t had a chance to check out our page recently these are some of the things we’ve been up to:

Current Issues:

1. Working to provide more services to students with learning disabilities
2. Proposing one day a week where faculty are strongly encouraged to eat in Mather with students
3. Reflecting on use of common hour and schedule changes
4. Establish blackboard “how-to” seminars for freshman
5. Investigate number of 101 Art classes

we are meeting with Deans and faculty to further understand these issues and handle them accordingly. If you have any information or would like to know more about these issues please feel free to drop me an email!

A goal of the mine in relation to my work for Academic Affairs is to encourage the school to hire a learning specialist this semester. I have done a lot of work to focus the attention of the college to this issue during my time here. If you have a learning disability / would like to get involved in advocating for learning services / are interested - please email me to get involved. The more people involved the better!! sophia.simpson@trincoll.edu

My name is Verdell Walker and I am the 2007-2008 Academic Affairs Committee Chair. The purpose of my committee is to oversee all affairs related to the academic life of this college.

I became the chair of this committee because I am concerned with the academic climate of this campus. I firmly believe that we attend one of the premier institutions of education in the world. I want the academic power of Trinity to be a prime focus of the way we present ourselves to the world, especially prospective applicants. While our athletic and other non-academic achievements are important and laudable, the most important part of Trinity transpires within its classrooms. But I want to see that academic excellence and engagement expand beyond the classrooms and library. I want to see students take it to their dorms, to the dinner table in Mather, to the couches in Gallows Hill.

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