The coordinators of
Next Step Program recently finalized a partnership with the Grove Caffe that
will allow the program’s student participants to take their professors out for
coffee at the eatery twice quarterly.
Created in 2005 by the Revelle College Council, Revelle
Provost Daniel Wulbert and Dean of Student Affairs Renee Barnett-Terry, the
program was designed to encourage upperclassmen to develop relationships with
faculty members outside of lecture halls. The yearlong program pairs up to five
Revelle third- and fourth-year students with each involved faculty member based
on the student’s major.
In addition to promoting ties between students and faculty,
Revelle Senior Representative and Next
Step Coordinator Aria Jafari said that a major goal of Next Step’s partnership
is to provide publicity for the Grove, which last year was languishing in
funds. He said that the Grove is an ideal place for informal meetings with
faculty members.
“Having students and faculty go to the Grove is a good,
cheap alternative [to the Dine-With-a-Professor Program] and also helps an
on-campus business,” Jafari said.
According to Revelle Junior Representative Shibani
Rajadhyksha, the program’s benefits include a $4 pastry and beverage deal as
well as the opportunity to meet with a professor at the Grove twice per
quarter, in contrast to the one-time policy of a similar but older Revelle program, Dine-With-A-Professor.
Jafari credits the success of the program to the
communicative improvements made the process of pairing of students with
faculty.
“Next Step has become a tighter-run program and still has
potential for continued growth and success,” he said. “The new partnership with
the Grove can only offer more opportunities and a pleasant venue for
relationships to develop.”
While both Jafari and Rajadhyksha feel that the program has
been beneficial to Revelle students, they agreed that expanding it to become a
campuswide program would be problematic. They already struggle to recruit
enough faculty members from the most popular discipline choices, and said that
campuswide recruitment would be an even more difficult task.
According to Rajadhyksha, the program’s current success is
due to the close personal relationships between program coordinators and
specific students and faculty. However, she said that she would support a
larger-scale program if the A.S. Council agreed to organize it.
Barnett-Terry said she supports the program, and would also
like to see it implemented throughout campus.
“I don’t think any college has a program like this,” she
said. “Some of these faculty members are inviting students into their homes.
How many programs allow you into the life of a faculty member at UCSD?”
