Inducing Academic Labor

It is official. I have arrived. This afternoon, at 4:00 or so, I officially finished the induction cerimony, which is not nearly as fun as it sounds (and it does not sound all the fun). During the Fall Semester, this is quite the festival, and hundreds of organizations come together for a week long orgy of meetings, coffees/teas, and hand shakes.

The Spring Semester, as I have found, is a far less glamorous semester, and no one seems to know what to do with us. When I was originally scheduled to get here on campus, I received the induction email a good month out from the beginning of the semester. Compartively, it was confirmed that there was an induction cerimony the afternoon of my first full day in Aberystwyth, two weeks ago.

What, you are probably wondering, did you learn?

Very little that I didn't already know. Basically, it amounted to a lot of wait-until-later type of information.

It all began with a brief welcome message from the new Dead of Post Graduate Research. He is not so much new to the position, as the position is new to the University. It seems that one dean for all postgraduates was not enough, so this very pleasant man, a political science lecturer, was suddenly thrust into his role. In his words, "Don't ask me what I do, because I don't really know myself. I'm sort of figuring it out as I go along."

With that auspicious beginning, he handed it off to the President of the Postgraduate Guild. This woman had some notes scrawled on a paper, but it seemed pointless to me. She runs an organization that supports postgraduate students as a student (as opposed to the administrative support staff, which, at times, can have severe conflicts of interest). It seems that their main function is to provide a social output for postgrads, and at this time, she informed us, there was nothing on the calendar. But there would be. Just wait.

She needed notes for that.

Then, the head of the student support department came forward to talk about whole person development. Here is where I started to finally feel good about this choice I made, to pack up my life, leave my loved ones behind, and start anew in The Middle of Nowhere, Wales.

It turns out that The Times Higher Education's Student Satisfaction Survey ranked Aberystwyth #1 in Wales for Student Experience in 2009, and #8 throughout all of the United Kingdom (behind these no name Universities like Oxford and Cambridge). Aberystwyth ranked #1 in Wales for most categories, and #6 across the entire UK (though, when I checked The Times website, they did tie for eighth with four other schools in over all satisfaction (81%), but ranked #46 overall; granted not all categories are listed on that table, but some of them on their are problematic). There was one category not mentioned on the website that I found interesting: Friendliness of Staff and Community. Aberystwyth ranked #1 both in Wales and the UK in this particular category. So generally, despite lacking in some academic categories, Aberystwyth is a surprisingly satisfying University. This leads me to believe that Aberystwyth provides the student body with the resources to be successful, but the student body may not be motivated enough to use them.

That is good: motivation I have in spades.

The Student Support director went on to list all the non-academic activities that the University provides, included adult classes at the Arts Centre (and a cinema) and the Sports Center which provides consuling services and on-call nursing staff dedicated to dealing with the stress of postgraduate work. Unfortunately, the Sports Center cost money, which was one of the nicest parts about SIU, but the fee is minimal, so it would be worth my time.

This was nice, useful information presented in a useful and immediate manner. How unlike the next presenter. Ironically, I needed this person to be useful: this was information about the Research Training Modules that I have to take, and was lead to believe would begin this semester. Turns out they don't, or at least I don't think they do. He handed out the Research Module Handbooks, told us to refer to them for questions, and then spent the rest of his presentation talking about how science PhD's didn't have a particular course set like liberal arts students did (not that I know what that course is, or what it looks like, or when it happens). Evidently, like most other things, I have to wait to find out.

The last presentation of the morning was for the Career Services department. This, I was unprepared for. Here, these people offer free courses and advice designed to get you ready for work; not just in academia, but anywhere. There are presentation skills workshops, CV writing seminars, interview skills training and practice, and then the ability to sit and discuss your plan (they said that, 'a plan' to develop yourself professionally for the market). If I got the gumption up to run a conference here, or through the British Library, they would help me accomplish this goal. Holy hell, I thought these people care about me. I was taken back to my time at SIU, where people talked, often, about professional development. The random "Getting Published" presentation would come our way from the department, but on a whole, I was sorely left to figure things out on my own. Here, in Wales, is an entire department focused on getting me a job; and in this current economic climate, I am grateful for the resources.

After a brief tea and coffee break, another student gave 'helpful' pointers for meeting with our Supervisors (this amounted to: don't be stupid...talk to your supervisor if you have questions). Then, the dean talked a bit about what the supervisor will do for us. Evidently, and here again, I was very surprised, one of my supervisors sole purpose is to make sure that I am developing the right professional skills so that I am successful, and this supervisor will work with the Career Services people to make sure that I am ready for the job field. My other supervisor, my main supervisor, is there to make sure that my thesis gets done. Again, I was shown that my experience matters, and this University will do anything to make sure that I am happy.

Again, that a University cares about what I do once after my money stops coming in seemed like some sort of cruel joke. I feel like, if I try to go to this Career Services department, there would just be a door that opened up to the outside world. Once through the door it would close, and you would be forced to find your way back home, alone. Just like at other schools I have been to.

Then, to make this pie that much sweeter, it seems they have a whole lab, much like the SIUC Writer's Lab, set up for Post Graduates to work out our dissertations. This lab does not hire students, but instead has two professional writer's-in-residence who will sit with you for an hour and try to help you get your head wrapped around this massive undertaking. Whether I want to bounce ideas around or I have a specific section that needs reworking, I can go to these people and they will help me. And again, not my fellow students, but hired professionals.

I was dizzy. For the first time since I embarked on this academia journey, the real world suddenly loomed large and real on the horizon. Crap, I thought, the honeymoon is nearly over. So much for the comforting thought that I could do this forever.