Ed,
IMHO, you are entirely correct about the benefits to be gained from the 
collegiality of a communal dining experience.  I, too, lament the passing 
of this custom at UTC.  Although you may not have been aware of it, a 
second sitting of merely adequate (but not going anywhere anyway) faculty 
would gather at the same time downstairs at two or three tables among the 
hoi polloi and the unwashed masses of students.

The downstairs crowd thought of themselves as spurning the hoity-toity 
snobs upstairs, but it was equally spirited, collegial, and capable of 
solving all the problems of the world, the economy, Washington, Hollywood, 
and the University.  [One thing that's absent from the present lunchroom is 
movable tables capable of seating more than four.  Some days there would be 
two or three tables of six to ten each.  It must have looked and sounded 
like a bridge club/knitting circle of old ladies in a  retirement home.]

Of course, what made that assembly valuable was the quality of the 
participants.  Larry Ingle, Maurice Edwards, and Harry MIller, to mention 
only three, have since been driven away from UTC by shoddy treatment from 
the administration.  The lunch crowd dwindled over the years; faculty eat 
lunch off campus, bring their lunch, or otherwise eat in the solitude of 
their offices like caged animals.

The decline of this tradition is symptomatic, IMHO, of the precipitous 
decline in morale in recent years.  It wasn't the crappy pay.  It was the 
development of a culture that disrespects the idea of quality liberal arts 
education, that seeks to attract flashy high profile programs in the short 
run and then discards them, that hires ever more contingent faculty at ever 
lower pay, that curtails and ends tenure, that pursues the inappropriate 
winner-take-all reward system set up by an evidently niggardly and 
mean-spirited university president.

Ah, yes,  the "Old Timers."  Those were the good old days when giants 
walked the earth.  I'm afraid those day are gone forever, Ed.  Meanwhile, I 
hang out for an hour or so every day around 1.00 pm in the vicinity of the 
windows overlooking the new grassy knoll on Vine Street.  Join me if you wish.

Fritz.


At 05:34 PM 9/23/2005 -0400, Ed Smith wrote:
>I seem to be especially active on RAVEN today, but all the discussion
>about food on campus and people going elsewhere to eat made me start
>recalling some history.
>
>
>
>Some of the other "Old Timers" around here may remember years ago when
>Food Service tried providing a dining room for faculty and professional
>staff in the Chickamauga Room in the University Center. It lasted
>2-3yrs, I think. It was never really heavily patronized. For me at
>least, I believe it was because it was just a little too much and too
>elaborate for everyday lunch. It was usually very good, however.
>(Similar to the Faculty Club dining, where the food was excellent, but
>more formal and expensive than one might want on a regular basis. Also,
>I believe the less central location of the Patten House was a factor).
>And an important added advantage was that it was buffet style so that it
>never took very long to get served, leaving time to eat at a casual
>pace, and more importantly to sit for awhile and dine with other UTC
>faculty/staff.
>
>
>
>Which gets me to my point. This was a time fairly early in my career at
>UTC. But it helped immensely in building a "foundation" of colleagues
>that still serve me well today (not the colleagues but having a base of
>faculty and professional staff that I know and can call or refer someone
>to). And it allowed us all to spend time discussing the current issues,
>be they national, state, local, or UT System, or UTC Campus. And, I must
>admit, there was the occasional gossip morsel digested on rare occasion.
>Despite the limited number who utilized it, because of the usual group
>that would be there pretty regularly, the folks like me who showed up on
>a less regular basis, and guests, dignitaries, and job applicants from
>off campus being hosted  there, it was a good cross-section of
>departments and other campus segments.
>
>
>
>OK, I'll really get to my point this time. The Chickamauga Room provided
>one of those things that doesn't show up on cost/benefit sheets or that
>can be quantified in monthly reports. My guess is it lost money, hence
>it being discontinued. But, for me at least, it helped in my roll on
>campus and my job in general in a less tangible way that I believe does
>pay off. It was a way of knowing who was who, what the issues in various
>departments were, and how things sort of interrelated to give one a more
>subjective, holistic sense of "the system". Now, the faces of newer
>faculty and staff I recognize, but the names or much knowledge about
>people's roles in their depts., what's going on around campus, etc. are
>fewer and farther between.
>
>
>
>And to this day, I believe if they had included less heavy or formal
>options such as sandwiches and grill items, it would be frequented more
>because of the less hectic experience than the main dining area and the
>time saved during a busy day.
>
>
>
>It would be nice to have something like that again.
>
>
>
>ED
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Ed Smith
>
>Psychologist and Clinical Services Coordinator
>
>UTC Counseling and Career Planning Center
>
>
>
>NOTE: Email communication should not be considered confidential, so
>cannot be assumed to be privileged communication as described in
>Tennessee State Law
>
>