DINE WITH THE DEAN

Pull up a chair and come face-to-face with your Dean over a hot meal at the new Dean�s Dinner Series sponsored by the Faculty in Residence. Students can enjoy good food and conversation during the Dean�s Dinner Series at the Fresh Food Company at Moody Towers.

After the new addition of the dining hall, the Faculty in Residence decided to sponsor the dinners in an effort to give students the opportunity to meet and share their thoughts and experiences with the leaders of their colleges. Co-hosted by Dr. Catherine Horn (Moody North), Dr. Carroll Blue (Moody South) and Dr. Raul Ramos (Cougar Village) the faculty in residence hoped this would further their mission to bring students and faculty closer together.

�Hosted over dinner, the intent is for the encounter to be informal, comfortable, and fundamentally, a way for students to begin to understand the campus�s focus on student success and the long term benefits of a University of Houston degree,� said Dr. Horn, associate professor in the educational psychology department

So far, two deans have dined with the students during the month of October, Dr. John Roberts of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and Dr. Robert Wimpelberg of the College of Education. Dr. Wimpelberg said he met two of his college students that were both teacher candidates in their undergraduate QUEST program.

�I am so impressed with them: they have just the qualities of intelligence and commitment to the work of instructing our youth. And I am most impressed that they know exactly who they want to teach: middle school kids in one case, and upper-elementary kids in another. Finally, both of these College of Education Cougars talked about their life experiences and the influence of those experiences on their decisions to become teachers. Impressive and heartening!� Dr. Wimpelberg said.

Over dinner, the deans shared their stories from their own undergraduate years and shared their hopes for the UH colleges. The students wanted to know about the dean�s majors or first jobs as well as their current goals for improving the colleges.

�Both the students and the Deans seemed to enjoy getting to know each other and swapping stories,� Dr. Horn said.