I get the impression that San Jose State didn’t really think through the implications of these badges.
They just need to announce “price rollbacks!” on faculty salaries, and the image will be complete.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
But is it someone who is a faculty and greets people, or someone who greets faculty?
Or, for the Glaswegians out there, ‘a sobbing faculty’?
‘Ach! Dinna Greet!’ as my granny used to say.
I’d be less concerned about the wording and more concerned about the ‘aciiiid’ smiley faces. Is it a university or an acid-house rave club?
Because nothing says “We treat our roles as university educators seriously” quite like foil stars and glittery happy face stickers.
Full disclosure: the stickers are an after-market addition (if you will). Experience suggests that they put nervous graduates at ease and make it easier for them to recall (in their state of sleep deprivation) which of the academic-gown-wearing faculty people it was that had a map about which college was lining up where.
Were I expected to wear such a badge in a professional capacity I’d feel insulted and infantilized. No thank you. Not a 2nd grade teacher.
in case you don’t want to be an asshole about it, read comment #5 and this over here.
The only things I remember about SJSU is gigantic cockroaches, crappy drinks, and a rather impressive industrial arts (esp. glass blowing) setup.
This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, but I haven’t slept since yesterday morning, and I felt like sharing.
Not a funny anecdote: the previous university president once called our university the Wall Mart of colleges. He went on to try to explain that it wasn’t meant to be negative, but there was a fairly significant blow-up over it here locally.
We joked on and off about getting vests and badges to teach.
I think this badge (and the on in Chas’ link) are cute. Maybe the people up on stage shouldn’t be wearing smiley faces (maybe), but for greeters/conductors, why not? Lighten things up a bit. I mean, it’s commencement, it’s grim enough already.
But then, I would have skipped my commencement if I hadn’t been required to attend to graduate, so I may not be the best person to judge.
wtf!?
You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.
Chas giving advice on not being an asshole? Rich.
It’s not a big deal, it’s just an aesthetic I dislike. No one needs to “lighten up.” We get to have opinions about things, just like you! No one needs to care whether I like it; it’s not my event.
Jadehawk @11, Yep, I was required to attend graduation as a pre-requisite for graduating. Still is a requirement, actually, check out the very bottom. Not an onerous requirement, but funny.
Josh @13, my apologies for belittling your opinion. I meant “lighten up the event with a little humor”, not “people (i.e. Josh) need to lighten up”, but I phrased it very poorly.
Gah, I screwed up the link again: http://undergraduatecatalog.richmond.edu/requirements/
Now the star-badged greeters had badges with stars,
but the plain badged greeters had none upon thars.
No stars on their badges; no stars upon thars.
Now those stars weren’t so big, they were really quite small.
You would think such a thing wouldn’t matter matter at all.
OR ONLY ONE MATTER, FOR THAT MATTER
That is truly bizarre.
Over here, universities don’t even have commencement ceremonies. Or, like, any ceremonies other than the optional graduation ceremony (the legally binding part is where you get sent your degree by mail after you’ve signed the oath saying you’ll be a scientist).
What is a greeter?