Striking up a conversation with a professor can intimidate the most outgoing undergraduate, until the professor is asked to pass the peas.
Duke Conversations, a student-led program launched last fall, recruits professors to host student dinners in their homes. These dinners serve as a backdrop for informal discussions on a variety of topics, and are proving to be a popular way for students to better know the faculty.
More than 30 dinners took place last semester -- more than two a week, averaging 15 students each. More than 30 dinners are planned this spring. What started as a listserve of 80 interested students has grown to more than 1,000.
“Duke Conversations is yet another way to learn different perspectives from the people around you,” said Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost for undergraduate education. “I’m always telling students to meet new students and professors. They’re one of the greatest resources Duke has to offer. ”
Getting away from the buzz of campus, into the homes of professors and their families, is what makes Duke Conversations special, said senior Mariana Zindel Mundet Cruz, vice president of Duke Conversations. “You connect in a different way,” she said.
Senior Gayle Powell, president of Duke Conversations, agreed. “You see professors are human, they’re joking with you,” Powell said. “For example, Professor Tim Nichols shared funny stories about traveling in Singapore and his kids spilling Kool-Aid.”
The program also appears to help erase some student-to-student social barriers at Duke that relate to class years and interest group affiliations.
“Upon entering Dean Nowicki’s home, I was engulfed by the eager and hurried chatter of 19 other students who had never met each other, but already had at least one thing in common -- they craved taking part in a deeply intimate and candid conversation,” Cruz wrote in a blog. “With Dean Nowicki’s leadership, we pondered the question, ’Why Duke? Why are you here?’”
Student organizers make the process easy. Faculty members -- including President Richard Brodhead and Provost Sally Kornbluth -- pick a topic in advance to start off the conversation. Themes have ranged from millennials’ attitudes toward government service to issues of race and international refugees, to more personal topics such as finding one’s passion and the campus social scene.
Students then sign up for dinners whose topics sound interesting.
“There are amazing professors on this campus and research happening that students don’t know about,” Powell said. “Just being on the listserv allows you the opportunity to sign up for a diverse array of cool conversations.”
One of the dinners Powell particularly liked was that held by Nichols on contemporary methods in counter terrorism. People ended up talking about the crisis in the Middle East, Powell said. Nichols briefed the students on U.S., Iran and Russia’s policies, then encouraged them to share their opinions on what President Obama should do.
“We don’t tell professors they have to structure their dinners one way or another,” Powell said. “Some tend to talk a lot more than others.
Duke Conversations grew out of the Duke Colloquium, a now retired annual lecture series with distinguished speakers that was designed to nurture thoughtful campus discussions. Bailey Sincox, a Baldwin Scholar who graduated last May, came up with the initial idea for something less formal that would encourage more frequent interaction between faculty and students. Powell, also a Baldwin Scholar, picked up the baton and recruited her best friend Cruz to help get Duke Conversations off the ground.
Organizers use carpools or Uber to get students to professors’ off-campus homes, most of which exceed walking distance. The students bring prepared take-out food from local restaurants.
Powell said she and Cruz have identified strong younger leaders to carry on Duke Conversations and make it a Duke tradition. “It has been the intellectual curiosity of Duke students and their yearning for informative dialogues that has made Duke Conversations’ beginning so wonderful,” Powell said. “I cannot wait to see the program continue to flourish.”