SCUE Lounge opens to students, faculty

The group designed the room to encourage student-faculty interaction over meals. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education celebrated the opening of a new lunchroom where students and faculty can make breakthroughs and break bread at the same time. In the works for over a year, the SCUE Lounge at the Hourglass Grille Room -- located in the Faculty Club at 36th and Walnut streets -- is designed to encourage student-faculty collaboration outside the classroom on a daily basis. "We thought it would be great to have students and faculty come as friends, each paying for himself," explained SCUE Chairperson Ari Silverman, a College senior. To dine in the lounge, students and professors must make joint reservations. A waitered lunch -- which includes an entree, soup, dessert and a beverage -- costs $7 a person and can be paid using cash or through meal plan. The lounge -- which will be open Monday through Friday year-round -- is set in what was formally the bar and grill room of the Faculty Club. Dark wooden tables, a marble fireplace and a grand piano give the room an aura of elegance. Several University administrators, including University President Judith Rodin, Provost Stanley Chodorow, Executive Vice President John Fry and Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, attended the ribbon-cutting. Rodin said she has already made reservations at the lounge to meet with students later this week. "What universities are all about is not only what goes on in the classroom, but what goes on beyond," she said. After Silverman and Rodin cut a blue ribbon officially opening the Lounge, SCUE members surprised Rodin with a two-tiered birthday cake. "I'm glad you didn't bother to put all those candles on there," joked Rodin, whose 53rd birthday is today. SCUE Secretary Jason Marbutt noted that student-faculty interaction has been a running theme within his organization's programming. "It's something we always try to improve upon," the College senior said. The new lunchroom expands upon "Take a Professor to Lunch Week," a program SCUE has sponsored every semester for the past 10 years. "Why have only one week a semester where you take a professor out to lunch?" asked SCUE member Aaron Fidler, a Wharton sophomore. To promote its new facility, SCUE will cover the cost of faculty lunches every Friday for the remainder of September, although students will still have to pay. "I think we really have a great opportunity here," Silverman said. "I'd like to see this room packed." The lounge is a product of SCUE's experimental education package, which has sponsored other initiatives such as student preceptorials and the Undergraduate Advisory Board.