The Saga of Professors

Saga had a lot of professors in it today. Yoder was there. So was President B-Rob. And of course Dr. K. I've always been envious of the science majors because they get to eat lunch with Kamesh Sankaran, who is affectionately known as "The Rocket Scientist," or Dr. K.

The man is a fixture at campus dining services. Or anywhere else. He makes a point of eating with students, talking with students, asking names, opinions, and challenging critical thinking skills. It's always been a farfetched goal of mine to have lunch with two persons. Bill Robinson (he also scouts saga for unsuspecting students sometimes) and The Rocket Scienctist. I mean, anyone who VOLUNTARILY eats at saga on his own buck has got to be committed to a cause. Alas, I am not ever anywhere near the science building except for film class so my chances of dining with the immaculately dressed Dr. K have always been slim (the man wears a full suit and tie every day, which is unusual as most Whitworth profs prefer the sweatervest-and-clashing-shirt look).

But luck would have it that my freshman friend Elizabeth knows a couple of science kids, who were eating lunch with us today, and who should sit at our table but the elusive Dr. K. And so one more thing was checked off my "experiences to have before I graduate" list.

We talked about Christianity and evaluating speakers that come to campus and things. Well, he asked questions and I watched the freshmen stagger through them, trying to feel smug while confusedly sorting out what this guy was really getting at. The fact that I had been to neither of the lectures they were referencing didn't help (although in this case I can honestly say that the excuse of "I can't, I have rehearsal" was legit). All in all, I enjoyed it a lot and left early for some procrastinated homework leaving behind three intrigued freshmen and one of the coolest professors on campus.

Whitworth has started a new program called "Dine with a Mind," where students can ask professors to come share in a delicious meal of saga food. It's cool. I would do it. If it wasn't so inherently awkward. "Um, excuse me Dr. Person-who's-really-busy-and-is-probably-fawned-on-by-students-all-day, would you have dinner with me? Maybe a short movie afterwards? We can talk about Plato's allegory of the cave..." It's just not the kind of thing I would do. Yet there are several professors on my list that I would love to sit down with and say "what do you think about X?" And the mere fact that I have the opportunity to do this makes me love Whitworth more than ever. Long live college. Now if I could just get B-Rob's number...