I had forgotten that, as "staffulty,"* I am required to attend at least one graduation ceremony in full regalia. The first graduation since I've started working at the library was only two or three months after I'd started working there, so I decided to skip that one and go to the one in May instead. Graduations always make me nervous, and I might feel worse during this one because I'll be one of only a few members of the faculty/staffulty, rather than one of many graduating students. I wonder if any other librarians are choosing to attend this graduation...?
*Staffulty - One of the librarians used this word, not long after I was hired, to describe our position in the university. Although we are not tenure-track and are not required to publish or present, doing presentations or getting published can help with promotion. Faculty members are required to attend all graduations in full regalia - we're required to attend only one per year (for now - there's been talk of requiring librarians to attend all of them, just like faculty). Actually, other than graduation and being paid better than staff, we're like staff in every other way (paid less than faculty, fewer days off than the faculty, etc.), unless there are other things I haven't been told about yet. So, we are staffulty.
"Staffulty." Love it. I think I'll borrow. At my library, we are tenure-track, but many of the same unfaculty situations apply. We don't have to attend graduations, though. That seems a bit odd to me. Why would you be nervous? You just have to file in and sit there, right?
ReplyDeleteWhile you're probably right that I won't have to do much during graduation, I can't help but worry about things like "What if I trip and fall on my face?" and "What if I fall asleep while they're reading off people's names?" Remember, I am the Queen of Worrying.
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