U-Council to propose monthly discussions

As part of its ongoing effort to address concerns about intellectual climate on campus, the undergraduate U-Councilors are asking students to support an optional program of monthly dinner meetings with professors and graduate students.

The proposal — which will be formally presented at Monday's CPUC meeting — calls for designating an hour each month during which no practices, rehearsals, meetings or classes would be scheduled. Instead, students could sign up for groups that would meet for dinner and discussion at the eating clubs and dining halls.

U-Council chair Allison Arensman '04, who developed the proposal, said she hoped the program would enhance the transition of conversations begun in the classroom to nonacademic settings. "Looking around, there are so many opportunities, so many kids doing amazing things, so many intellectuals, yet at the same time there are many underutilized resources," she said.

"This can make many Princeton students' experiences richer and could draw students to the University and make it stand out amongst its peers," Arensman said.

The proposal would "put other things on hold for an hour each month to create a time when people can schedule in relaxed dinner conversation with people they don't see too frequently about current events or a topic of their choosing," U-Council executive committee member Josh Anderson '04 said.

The proposed dinner meetings would be entirely optional. "This isn't something that we're mandating students," Arensman said. This is something intriguing to us, something appealing to our peers, and we want to see what people think about it."

Though various systems already exist to facilitate intellectual discussion between students and faculty, the proposal aims to "make people aware of these resources and make people feel less odd to take a professor to their eating club or dining hall," she said.

The U-Council has not yet formally discussed the proposal with the administration, Arensman said.

The proposal stems from a U-Council letter addressed to the University community regarding the intellectual climate on campus. The letter, published last September, cited students' lack of critical analysis and intellectual investment in the classroom, underutilization of academic resources and a lackluster intellectual climate.

"We hope to start something related to the letter . . . looking to create tangible ways to enrich the intellectual atmosphere," Arensman said.

"I think that there are some wonderful intellectual opportunities that I've failed to take advantage of and this is something I could get excited about once a month and I think other Princeton students could too," she said.