Many people worry that the University’s unique tradition of close student-faculty friendships is fading. Why?  The University has grown, as have class sizes.  Teachers are under pressures to “publish-or-perish.” Moreover, fewer current faculty members attended the University as students and are simply unaware of the tradition and their role in it.

For this reason, a group of alumni have created a program which encourages faculty to become more actively involved with students and student life. 

Each year the Mead Endowment invites about a dozen faculty members to become a members of the Mead Honored Faculty.  The participants are handpicked by their Deans for their outstanding potential to become a friend of students and an example for other faculty. 

Their journey begins at the start of the academic year with an inspirational Rotunda dinner in their honor.  It is an evening filled with inspiration:

  • Mead Honored Faculty from the previous year share the results of their Dream Ideas
  • Alumni who comprise the  Mead Advisory Board share anecdotes of faculty members like Mr. Mead who greatly dramatically enriched their time at the University.
  • Often, students who participated in projects funded by the Mead Endowment share their experience.
  • One or more of the Deans reconfirms the importance of taking a personal interest in students. 

 

Then, to turn inspiration into action, The Mead Endowment gives each faculty honoree funds with which to host social gatherings with students.

Here are but two of the many positive reports:

Thank you for including me in the Mead Honored Faculty. I hardly need an excuse to get together informally with students, but this provided me with incentive for the kind of student gathering I'd never had before, namely a fancy sit down dinner party at my home. I invited nine students. We ended up talking all evening! Topics ranged from courses to UVA "life" to the Honor System to women's rugby to careers and so on... I honestly think that this experience was a first for most of the students. We agreed that it would be lovely to establish the activity on a regular basis. . . I thank the Mead Endowment for making this event possible.

Cheers, Clair Cronmiller, Biology

--

Thank you again for the great evening with the movie and pizza . . . I'll probably brag to my friends at home during break about how my History teacher took a bunch of his students out to see a James Bond movie. I have never heard of my friends at other schools having such interesting interactions with faculty and I really think that it makes U.Va. unique.

Sincerely,
Patty Convery, College '04

In addition, each faculty member submits a simple “Dream Idea” that would allow them to interact with small groups of students in a way not afforded by their normal classroom routine. The Mead Advisory Board selects several of the ideas and provides funding to make the dreams reality.

 

The ideas are wide ranging:

  • Richard Will organized weekly open jam sessions for students and faculty as a way to teach bluegrass ad roots music.  At the end of the year he took a number of students to an Appalachian music festival where they camped and played with musicians from across the region.  The program proved so successful that it is now funded annually by the music department.
  • Steve Majewski organized a contest among his students to propose an experiment that would require the use of a large telescope.  He then accompanied the winners to a world-class observatory in Chile to perform their experiments.
  • Will Thomas helped students create an extraordinary feature-length documentary on Civil Rights, using rescued footage from the archives of Virginia television stations.

 

One Faculty Honoree had this to say about his experience. 

The Mead program has made me refocus on improving the educational experience of my students.  Despite increasing demands on my time, I am dedicated to making more time available for interactions with my students . . . The Mead program is both wonderful and unique. I sincerely hope that it will continue its already successful mission of enhancing the UVa experience for both student and faculty alike, promoting exactly the kind of intense interaction envisioned by Jefferson.

-- Steve Majewski, Astronomy

 

Find out   how you can help encourage faculty to make these sorts of efforts on behalf of students.