The idea behind our current Canvas, Coffee, and Cookies is as old as time. Be it Bagels and Blackboard, Donuts and D2L, or Cereal and Sakai, they all use food to drive some faculty towards our doors in the hopes that we can field a couple questions, meet new faculty, or put out a fire or two. It is a tried and true strategy that is nothing more than a food bribe. It works.
We do have one small twist here in our bribery. Instead of letting all the faculty know that we have excellent coffee and fine cookies here in our offices, we take our wares on a trip around campus. Like a food truck only different! We have a damn mobile cookie cart and cool pink thermos. We wander around the campus halls looking for faculty to share with! Really, is there anything better?
That is a good story and a strategy for interacting with more faculty which is of course something we need. So, we do that. But, I wonder how this story might play out in the classroom?
My first couple of years as a student in college we had many of our “office hours” with faculty in a bar that, for better or worse, was located about 60 feet from the single building the was the college. As they say, location is everything and the qualities that come with a small bar and restaurant can make a conversation different than one that might happen in a faculty office. That is an important thing to note. Again, for better or worse, the atmosphere of the small bar allowed for different interactions with faculty that, at least for me, helped me internalize the conversations and built trust that I may not have been able to create in other spaces.
I’m not saying we should be feeding our students coffee and cookies in the classroom, but I do think there is time in all classes to have a simple cup of coffee, or tea, and a bite to eat. In the class or somewhere else, leveraging the unique qualities of different spaces is something to be aware of and use as a “teaching tool.”
Maybe meeting at a café before or after class. I know we all know faculty who do this, or we do it ourselves. And sometimes it works well and other times you sit there waiting for students and no one shows up. Like online office hours… But I think with time and effort, and the right expectations, we could all share a bit more of our work in spaces beyond offices and classrooms.
Of course, in my case the Canvas, Coffee, & Cookies is a completely selfish adventure. I love coffee and cookies.
