Students and faculty meet for lunch, leave with greater sense of community

What begins as a lunch date with a faculty member quickly becomes an opportunity to build a greater sense of community for students taking part in the new Dine with Faculty program.

The program, created by the Office of the Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Campus Living, is designed to encourage faculty and students to get to know one another in an informal setting while enjoying a meal in one of UB’s dining establishments.   

“Even though UB is a large research university it is also a community,” says Teresa Miller, vice provost for equity and inclusion.

“Students report feeling a greater sense of community when they have opportunities to get to know their professors outside the classroom setting.”  

Dine with Faculty takes place from 12-1:30 p.m. on Mondays in the Tiffin Room in the Student Union and from 5-6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in Crossroads Culinary Center (C3) in the Ellicott Complex. It continues through Nov. 29 — excluding Thanksgiving week —with space for seven students at each session on a first-come, first-served basis.

At the program’s first lunch on Oct. 24, Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Organization and Human Resources in the School of Management, hosted a mix of finance, supply chain and business administration majors.          

To start things off, Siaw-Asamoah asked everyone to share their name, major and a fun fact about themselves. The conversation then shifted to school work and classes.

To get a better sense of what she and other faculty members can do to help their students, Siaw-Asamoah asked the students what they liked or disliked about their classes and professors.  

“I appreciate when professors humanize themselves and make themselves relatable,” said Samantha Frank, a senior finance major.

Frank added that she prefers smaller class settings and isn’t a fan of digital access courses, where recorded lectures are available online. Many of her peers agreed.  

Sonya Tareke, a senior business administration major, said that while the digital access courses are a nice tool to re-watch lectures, she often forgets and ends up not using it.

Siaw-Asamoah told the students that when she attended college she didn’t have access to the digital options that are now available to students. She asked what was new on campus that students wished had been available to them when they were freshmen.  

Frank said she wished she had known earlier about certain facilities, like the Undergraduate Learning and Community Center in Jacobs Management Center. Exclusively for School of Management undergraduates, the center provides technology, classroom space, tutoring facilities and a group study area that Frank said would have been useful when she was an underclassman.  

Siaw-Asamoah encouraged the students to look into the Career Ambassador Program, a volunteer group for management undergraduates, after Christian Tjahjadi-Lopez, a junior finance major, mentioned that he wanted to join more clubs on campus.  

As the conversation continued, students took the opportunity to ask for some career advice.  

Siaw-Asamoah urged the students to start building their professional networks by attending events and meeting people within their majors. She talked about her experience of working at General Mills and attending college while raising a family, emphasizing the importance of having a mentor.   

“When meeting with mentors, make sure the conversation is about them and their career,” she advised. “That’s how you learn from them.”

The lunch ended with Siaw-Asamoah offering some encouraging words for the students.

“I hope each of you recognizes that there is a unique gift in you,” she said. “And if you go out there and share that gift with the world you can make a difference.”    

More information and the Dine with Faculty program schedule is available online.     

Faculty members wishing to participate can contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion at vpei@buffalo.edu or 645-6200.