2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This GIFT paper presents the inspiration, implementation and analysis into a new initiative by the author to meet students by taking walks around campus.

In the spring of 2022, the author desired a means to meet more students in a less formal setting than office hours, a format that was more approachable for students, and a modality that was more active in nature. The outcome was a new initiative by the author to take near daily walks around campus with one or two students. The walks are scheduled using a Google Sheet that the author populates every few weeks with the times of the walks and the starting locations. The walks purposefully are not referred to as office hours and are advertised as a separate type of interaction all together. The walks are typically around 30-45 minutes and the scope of the discussion is completely up to the students, although the author will bring up new topics to continue the dialogue if necessary.

While the initiative was meant to be a means to meet more students in an active setting, upon discussing this initiative with colleagues at the university wellness center, they shared that walking has not only physical, but also mental and psychological health benefits. Additionally, they shared that the more approachable format of not requiring eye-to-eye contact may result in the students being more honest and forthcoming with questions and comments. The full GIFT paper will investigate this literature more fully.

To date, the author has gone on over 90 walks (totaling over 160 miles) during the second half of the Spring 2022 semester and the first half of the Fall 2022 semester. The full GIFT paper will also outline more statistics about the walks, including breakdowns of who goes on the walks by gender and academic year. Through the author’s personal observations, traditional office hours typically attract a higher percentage of female students, while the walks have had a more even balance between female and male students. To date, the topics of walks typically focus on major discernment, extra-curricular clubs/activities, future course selection, and summer internships or abroad exercises.

The author still provides traditional office hours for students to ask academic questions that are easier to address with whiteboards and/or computers. Additionally, to ensure an inclusive environment for all students, the author is happy to do an informal meeting or coffee with students in lieu of a physical walk.