The Midnight Mug will begin offering students and professors a sweet incentive to meet for office hours. Beginning Tuesday, professors who hold office hours at Lauinger Library’s Corp-run coffeehouse will receive free coffee and snacks.

The FRIENDS Initiative proposed the Midnight Mug Office Hours Program this summer and received funding from Lauinger Library, the Provost’s Office and The Corp, which owns and operates three on-campus coffee stores including The Midnight Mug. A $2,500 tab has been funded with $1,000 each from the Provost’s Office and Lauinger Library and $500 from The Corp. The Corp will show how much money remains in the fund and the program will run until the money runs out.

“We wanted to deepen the sense of community and the exchange of knowledge among faculty and students by encouraging informal conversations that could supplement traditional office hours,” Josh Bancroft (SFS ’04), the FRIENDS Initiative member who oversaw the project, said.

Provost James J. O’Donnell notified faculty about the program on Wednesday and Emily Kilcrease (COL ’05), the director of The Midnight Mug, said that the program has already received several reservation requests.

“It looks like this program is gonna rock,” Kilcrease said.

The contract between Lauinger Library and The Corp states that the Lauinger Community Room, which houses the Midnight Mug, would remain devoted to “programs each month during the fall and spring semesters that highlight Georgetown scholarship and creativity.”

Government professor Anthony Arend (SFS ’80) and Vice President for Public Affairs and Strategic Development and English professor Daniel Porterfield (COL ’83) began initiating informal office hours in Midnight Mug last semester, University Librarian Artemis Kirk said.

“Their interaction with students was so successful that the Programming Committee decided to offer the Community Room as a venue for faculty office hours, with free snacks for the students and faculty from The Midnight Mug,” Kirk said.

Every Monday from noon until 8 p.m. The Midnight Mug will be reserved for office hours, but professors can hold office hours in the coffeehouse anytime.

“I agreed to put up some of the funds this year out of my tiny provost’s discretionary budget because I believed that bringing faculty and students together to spend more time exploring common interests is fundamental to the university and even though this will cost some money, it’s actually cheap at the price,” O’Donnell said.

Kirk said that the Lauinger Community Room will continue to host special events, including a “share your research” program by students and faculty, literary programs such as poetry readings and performance events, including live music.