New student convocation ???

Yeah, it's been way too long since I had the time to write a blog, what are you going to do about? Anyway as it turns out this morning I have a bit more time on my hands. You see my ride to work no longer goes to work, she's done with her crap ass job and as a result can sleep in. This however does mean that I now have to find my own damn way to work. So unless I want to take the meandering route to the university, which incidentally has the most stops along the way, I will now be getting to work before 7:30 am...oh joy.

But maybe it is for the greater good, because now I feel that this advanced hour of my arrival entitles me to spend more of my time goofing off in the morning, hence the blog entry. Actually the blog entry was spurred on by the most asinine email I have seen in some time. See as a postdoc at the university I'm considered to be a "staff member" so I get random odd emails directed to what I would call the actual staff. I make a distinction, you see for me staff are people who care about their working environment and invest something into their place of work. I on the other hand am a contracted employee and I'm just doing this so I can get a better job elsewhere, so you can be pretty sure that I'm not going to be all fired up with staff pride...if there even is such a thing.

Well judging by the email there must be, because why else would I want to volunteer for "The New Student Convocation"? That's right people, they are doing a convocation celebration for the people who are STARTING university. Though seeing as they students just had a high school convocation (and a whole bunch of open house parties) I'm sure that they need more celebration, after all they just made it through a long hard summer. Though maybe this is all part of Bush's "No child left behind policy", thus ensuring that every student who enrolls in university gets to have a convocation. What's next, an annual drop-out convocation?* Please note, the above image is one of many found while searching Google images for: "new student convocation", it seems that this is not a rare phenomena in the US

But I suppose that this isn't all that surprising, it seems that the universities here coddle the incoming students like mad. All year long you can encounter these groups touring the university being lead by some backwards walking undergrad pointing out things like "This is the chemistry building, but don't worry you probably won't have to go in there unless you take chemistry". The really sad part about these tour groups is that I have seen some where the number of adults is greater than the number of incoming students. It seems that the parents really need to know where the cafeteria is in relation to the gym before they will decide if this is the right school for their adult child.

But maybe I'm just a cynical asshole because I don't feel the need to have an opening ceremony to my academic career. Nor did I ever even really look at my university before I started class, and somehow I don't think I missed out on much of the academic experience...well maybe the ridiculously expensive tuition of American universities (one year tuition here for an undergrad would have covered all of my undergrad tuition). I wonder how much money goes into paying for tour guides, visitor gifts and "The New Student Convocation"?