Once a month, all University of Idaho students receive a special email.
Like many emails, this one is from an administrator. But instead of a notice, this email invites the student to dinner.
Kim
Jean Kim, vice provost for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, hosts a dinner with 15 UI Kim students every month to talk to them about their time at the university.
When the email is sent out at the beginning of the month, the first 15 to respond have a spot at the table.
“After each dinner I walk away with a sense of why students got here and why they stay,” Kim said.
Kim has been hosting dinners for students since she began working as a vice provost of Student Affairs at the University of Hartford in 1991.
Kim said she first began the dinners after she realized that despite being the chief officer of Student Affairs, she had little contact with students. She said she wanted to be able to spend time with general college students.
Unless she scheduled time for them, she wasn”t sure she could meet them.
Kim said she began hosting the dinners at Hartford and has been doing them at every school since. Originally, Kim called the dinners “Conversations that Matter,” but when she got to the UI she changed the name so people would not confuse them with the Honors Program”s “Things that Matter” events.
For Kim, the dinners are an opportunity to find out more about the student experience at UI and conversation about how to make it better.
At previous schools there were other dining available, but at UI, they use a private dining room at Best Western University Inn.
Kim said she begins each meal by having the students introduce and talk about themselves. She said the students also come up with topics they would like to discuss.
The topics are wide ranging, Kim said. Everything from what they like at school to student problems are open for discussion.
“It gives a sense of what we should be paying attention too,” Kim said.
The students at the dinner are predominantly undergraduates, but in her time here, there is usually at least one graduate student, she said.
“Each dinner creates its own kind of dynamic,” Kim said.
She said the dinners allow students to see that they are being heard. Kim said she is able to inform and correct students, and sometimes follows up on problems they are having.
Kim said she can give students more information about particular areas, and advocate for students who are not getting the help they need. Kim said she has passed messages along to other departments and connected students with people that can help them.
Kim said she believes these dinners have made her a better leader and administrator, as well as a more capable advocate for students.
Katie Colson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @katiecolson007