Most students would be intimidated to have lunch with the dean of a college. Dr. Mary Patton, dean of the College of Education, is trying to change that for her students. In her first year on the job, Dr. Patton created the Dean’s Lunch Bunch so education students could feel free to ask her questions. "Twice a semester I invite students to come and have lunch with the dean and talk about the college and their experiences and ask questions,” Mary says. “It’s very informal.” Her intent is to make the students’ relationship with the dean less intimidating.

 

“My goal was to give students access to the dean because I know in a lot of colleges, no one knows who the dean is and never sees the dean. I want to be visible and I want to be accessible as a dean because I think we’re here for the students and that’s the only reason we’re all here, and I think it was a success,” according to Mary.

 

Typically, about 75 students are invited to participate and 10 to 15 respond. Dr. Patton notes it’s not a very large response, but it works because she wants to keep it under 15 students so it’s intimate and they can introduce themselves and be able to ask questions. “We get sandwiches or pizza. It’s very informal and it’s just a conversation,” she explains.

 

“I’m inviting two groups of College of Education leaders: our senior mentors and our Four-One students because their knowledge of the college is very deep and they’ve been here a long time, and because they’re in leadership roles, they just have a lot of information they can share with me,” Mary says. “I’m looking for their expertise.” Four-One students are those who combine a bachelor’s degree with the Master of Education degree in five years.

 

“They ask my advice on graduate education, about why teachers leave the profession and one question was about my greatest accomplishment,” Mary says. Students also ask about her favorite place to teach, how to become a professor and what scholarships are available. In the future, she intends to invite new guests, not just the introductory students she typically invites. “I want students to be comfortable and feel like they can ask questions they always wanted to ask, but don’t get the chance to,” she explains.

 

Samantha Winkelman, a middle school math education student from Houston, says the Lunch Bunch was beneficial. “I did not really know who she was before this,” Winkelman notes. “I didn't even know what she looked like, so after this I had a very positive perception of her — she was very helpful and very nice.”