Most schools that have similar programs would envy our attendance at LTC lunches. These sessions bring our community together. It is the best forum that we have for joining faculty and staff. Despite how busy we are we have about eight sessions per term with an average attendance of 50 or so. When the LTC moved into Weitz for our sessions, we found a room that was large enough for a big group, and we expanded to that new proportion. Most of this is a good thing, but we have lost a bit of the intimate conversation that is key to important discussions about teaching and learning. I have tried to balance this with small scale meeting with faculty, talking over various teaching topics. I think there is more potential for this. If I can hope for something in the future of the LTC, it would be to increase the opportunities and participation in smaller scale meetings where we can learn from each other and focus on our teaching.
I had always been a pretty steady attendee at LTC sessions, but I have never come every week for three years in a row, as I have during this period. When you do that, you get a much bigger and clearer picture of how this place works, what goes into it, and how committed people are to making it the best that we can. Even after I have been here for many years, I learned a great deal about Carleton and its people. I think that before I had done a kind of editing, choosing sessions by topic, as most of us do. But when that editing gave way to seeing more of the sessions, even those that I might have thought were outside of my areas of interest, I was struck by how significant the LTC sessions can be.