Today, most agree that the idea of communal lunch is much less common than it was before. Faculty take lunch alone, at their desks—between writing books, planning classes, and conducting research, a leisurely, conversation-filled lunch hour is a rare luxury.
“That’s one of the things that I think has been lost...to find out how someone from biology relates to someone from philosophy,” says Shinagel. “I think one of the problems—the University has become cut into little pieces, into departments.”
And yet some see the decline of the faculty at the Faculty Club as an inevitable consequence of a diverse academic body.
“Ken Galbraith once described the Harvard faculty as like polar bears,” says Shinagel. “Each on its own ice floe.”
—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Kevin J. Wu can be reached at kwu@college.harvard.edu.