In response to growing student requests, the Engineering Student Council will expand the Cavalier Card program to include Engineering students.
The card allows students to take professors out to lunch anywhere on Grounds for free. The program will be available to Engineering students starting April 1.
The Arts and Sciences Council created the Cavalier Card in the fall of 1997 for College students.
Council president Courtney Salthouse spearheaded the effort to sponsor the Cavalier Card.
Salthouse said disappointed Engineering students contacted her first semester wondering why they could not use the Cavalier Card to treat their professors.
Council included funding for the Cavalier Card in its budget earlier this month.
Council will fund the card with Engineering student fees.
Paxton Marshall, assistant dean for Engineering undergraduate programs, said he approved the program.
"I think it's a good idea," he said. "The Cavalier Card is designed to give students and faculty an opportunity to get together for lunch and develop a relationship outside of class."
Faculty Senate Chairman David T. Gies applauded the Engineering Council's initiative.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," Gies said. "This is exactly what the Faculty Senate had in mind when it was trying to foster student-faculty interaction."
He said he hopes undergraduates in every school eventually will be able to use the Cavalier Card.
"I hope this will encourage the other undergraduate schools to get on board," he added.
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Gies said he hopes the expansion of the Cavalier Card will increase student use of the Garden Room, an on-Grounds restaurant where students are encouraged to use the card. "I think students will discover what a nice place it is," he said.
Council hopes Dining Services will help fund the Cavalier Card, Salthouse said.
Dining Services now funds 10 percent of the money spent by College students using the Cavalier Card.
President of the College Matt Rose said there has been a great deal of student interest in including the Engineering School in the Cavalier Card program.
Engineering School "students have frequently sent us e-mails inquiring about the Cavalier Card," Rose said. "We know the students will use it."
He said the Arts and Sciences Council has set aside $36,000 for the Cavalier Card. The Arts and Sciences Council gets its funding from a student fee of $4 a year.
He added that only half the funding now is being used.
"It's definitely not getting used as much as it could be," Rose said.
He said he thinks utilization of the Cavalier Card would increase with the addition of Engineering students to the program.