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Student Leaders Report
The Importance
of
Faculty-Student Interactions
I keep hearing about "faculty-student interaction." What is this? Why do all these reports continue to talk about it?
One aspect of this is a yearning for the better pieces of the Oxbridge model. During a trip I took to Cambridge (England) last year, I was struck by the integration of each college's faculty Fellows into the overall life of the university. Our host was New Hall, one of three all-female colleges, founded in 1954. At New Hall, several nights a week the faculty and students dined together in a formal setting – a little stuffy by MIT standards, but an effective method for bringing together faculty and students. The Cambridge colleges also have a teaching-advising system which appears to bring students and faculty into closer intellectual contact, which I won't describe here. I'm not advocating for turning MIT into Cambridge, but it does seem that there are certain aspects of our English peers that are somewhat enviable.
Not too long from today, we will have a number of Cambridge undergraduates amongst us, studying here as a part of the Cambridge-MIT Institute. Will they be surprised at the relative divide between faculty and students? Perhaps.
I also believe that the cry for closer faculty-student ties is a recognition of the failure of the traditional, large lecture-style teaching that we all too often employ at the Institute (see my column from the last issue). By utilizing passive learning techniques, we further increase the divide between faculty and students.
There is no one to blame here. Largely, I suspect that the "faculty-student divide" is due to our unique MIT culture. The environment is intense for faculty and students alike, we're driven by the constant need to publish, to complete the project, pass the exam, finish the lesson plan. Outside of UROP and small seminars, we don't have much time for each other.
I've heard faculty complain that students don't seem to be interested in talking to them; no one shows up during their office hours or talks after class. I've also heard students complain that faculty aren't interested in further interaction; faculty-student mixers in the living groups are often forty undergraduates and two graduate student TAs.
Neither faculty nor students are more "responsible" for the divide. Faculty, at the end of the day, have families to return to, children to see. Students return to their "safe haven" living group to retreat from academic rigors during the day. Many students tell me they are not interested in spending more time with faculty; I hear their comments echoed by many in the faculty.
To our credit, though, MIT does have a program which brings faculty and students into frequent close intellectual contact – UROP. One indicator of UROP's success in this area is the fact that the largest proportion of student recommendation letters are written by UROP advisors. Another is the anecdotal evidence I hear from peers. The UROP program is one of MIT's premier programs, and it is my hope that all opinion leaders in the Institute community will continue to recognize its importance.
The success of UROP is proof to me that despite cultural norms, students and faculty are happy to interact, given the right settings. A potential example: everyone needs to eat. Lunch is an untapped opportunity for community gatherings. This term, the Dean's Office has sponsored monthly freshman-faculty lunches (FFLs). The FFLs have been quite a success! Using the draw of food and interesting conversation, each of the FFLs has brought together interested freshmen and motivated faculty to discuss choice of majors, academic life, MIT culture, and much more.
I'm very interested in continuing to look for ways to bring together faculty and students. I'm here because the greatest faculty and students are here, and I'd like to take advantage of that during my time at the Institute. I hope you'll all want to join me.
If you have any ideas or thoughts, please send me an e-mail at ua-president@mit.edu. Together, we can make this a great place for everyone.
In closing, I'd like to say that this will be my last column as Undergraduate Association President. It's been a great experience, and I've enjoyed working with the faculty and administration to make MIT live up to its tremendous potential. On May 8th, I'll pass the reins to Peter Shulman, a junior in mathematics. Peter is very much looking forward to continuing our dialogue through this column and other means, and will be a great representative of students.
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