Mar 18, 2008 8:00 AM

Dinner for 12

This year, a record 75 faculty members came to dinner to offer something that wasn't on the menu. Their participation in "Dinner for 12 Strangers" gave scores of students the opportunity to get to know the human being standing behind that lectern.

Sponsored by the Student Alumni Association, the beloved tradition involves UCLA alumni hosting dinners for students, faculty and staff in their homes, clubs or other informal settings. What started 40 years ago with two dinners has now grown to 124 separate meals, with more than 1,500 participants.

Still, the number of faculty who accept the association's invitation to dinner hasn't kept pace with the demand.

According to alumna Karen Wagener, who has hosted a dinner annually for the last 15 years, a major component of a successful evening is having a faculty guest. So in the past, when she and her husband, Tom, weren't assigned a faculty member, they went out looking for one.

"One year, we invited Michael and Kitty Dukakis to come to the dinner to represent the faculty, so the students had the chance to talk to someone who had run for president," Tom recalled. "Another year, we invited Al Carnesale, when he had just accepted the job as chancellor. Before he walked in, we told the students, 'We have the man who can answer all of your questions. Ask him about anything you want done at UCLA.' "

Jim Goodman, a dinner host for 20 consecutive years, speaks enthusiastically about his past faculty guests.

"We assumed the inorganic chemistry professor coming would be boring," he remembered, "but we ended up learning that he was about to sell a substance that, when wrapped around a beverage, would keep it cool. It was going to be used to make picnic coolers."

To make up for the lack of faculty members at some dinners, some brave professors have done double-duty. Math Professor Herbert Enderton attended two dinners this year because there weren't enough professors to go around. But, he said, that just made it twice as fun.

"What got me hooked was the very first one I went to 25 years ago," Enderton said. "One of the students was from Vietnam and talked about being on one of the last passenger planes to take off from the Saigon airport. And a fellow who had been in the Peace Corps talked about how it had changed his life.

"Once in a while, a student turns out not to be a stranger," Enderton said. "This year, one of the alumni hosts had taken a class from me. That had never happened before."

Hosts and organizers agree that faculty and students don't often have the chance to enjoy each others' company in a casual, social environment. And the dinners often bridge disciplines, so that a science major, for example, can chat with a history professor.

If not for the sheer pleasure of interacting with students socially, faculty might want to consider "Dinner for 12 Strangers" as an opportunity to educate a captive audience.

This year, one professor surprised guests when he arrived for dinner with an overnight bag. Inside were 12 autographed copies of a textbook he had written — prized souvenirs of the evening.

1