Graduation

I am pleased to report that I made it through that crazy manic time described in my last post.  In fact I have now rebounded to the other side of the spectrum and am having the hardest time getting motivated to do anything substantial.  I did have to give finals, so I would be lazy for as long as possible and then work in quick bursts.  I think professors are much worse procrastinators than students.  Case in point: I am writing this blog instead of finishing grading.  I have 49 whole hours until grades are due! 

Today was our graduation ceremony.  At the end I realized that it was my first graduation as a faculty member.  (Last year I missed New Paltz's ceremony because I went back to Austin for my own PhD ceremony, 9 months after I actually got the degree.)  It is sorta fun to be on the other side, though at UT I sat on the stage a few times, so I did get more of an inside view.  It is already easy to forget what a momentous occasion this is for the students.  They are just SO excited and happy and cheering and yelling and hugging each other.  Meanwhile the faculty are reading books and playing on cell phones and chatting with each other.  Oh, did I mention that they read every single name and every student walks across the stage?  That's about 1200 graduates, though they actually are very efficient about it, reading a name every 3 seconds or so, but that still adds up to an hour of names. (<- math you can figure out during that hour.)  They also print every name in the program.  I'm sure that the graduates and families really enjoy it.

Today's occasion also means that I have worn my regalia three times (including our fall convocation), bringing the cost down to the nearly affordable price of $333 per use.  They charge $50 for faculty to rent regalia here (ridiculous!), so I think by the time I get tenure it will have paid for itself, counting the UT rental.  I also get many nice compliments and comments on the orange(ish brown) robe, which is fun.  The President of the University complimented me on it, so there is speculation that I am now a shoo-in for tenure.  Speaking of which, the university committee unanimously recommended my reappointment, yay.  I'm not sure if I explained it before, but every two years I go up for reappointment, and the third one, at six years, is the tenure decision.  Each time I must prepare a huge dossier of my life work and it goes through a department committee, department chair, dean, central university committee, and President.  Having made it through four of the five steps I think it is safe to say that I still have my job!  (Not that I was worried, but you never know.)

Well I guess I should get to grading.  If I can make myself finish this last push then it will be summer* and I can be really lazy.  Or actually get research done. Hmm.

*According to the calendar, not the weather. At 62 degrees and overcast this was my chilliest graduation ceremony to date.