Yes, you're thinking, this is a good idea! Help students learn to have table manners that will help them fit in with the middle or upper classes!
Except, it's not aimed at students. Nope, it was apparently sent to faculty and staff.
Okay, now take a closer look.
And, respond!
We have these for students. From time to time people suggest they have one for faculty. Maybe the department took them seriously.
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems a little bizarre, especially as it's from the professional development office...but given that it doesn't actually seem to be about social rather than professional behavior, and that you have to pay for a plate (which makes it seem more like a "fun" event and less like an obligatory work thing), I don't see anything too horribly offensive about it....
ReplyDeleteI guess I can kind of imagine such a thing being offered by my college, and certain sectors of the campus jumping on it as a fun/helpful pre-holiday thing, while others (i.e. nearly all the faculty members I know) would roll their eyes and ignore it.
(What's weirdest is that it implies that faculty and staff haven't *had* a fine dining experience. OK, the more I think about it, the more I'm sticking with "bizarre.")
Bizarre sounds about right to me. I found myself focusing on the "Etiquette tips," which I assume are a sort of overview/preview of the content to be presented. They strike me as a rather mixed bag, but several (ideas for hosting, gift giving, tipping/toasting/wine/glassware) sound like the sorts of topics that area merchants and/or service providers might offer to present on, as a sort of extended commercial for their products and services. What do you want to bet this event is in some way a "partnership" with members of the local (or not-so-local) business community, and the organizers are essentially delivering a captive audience of faculty to said business partners (this would also explain why it isn't targeted at students; faculty, at least theoretically, have more money, though that might not be true in practice. They might be better off trying to skim another sliver off the student-loan pie.)
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering of the university has a large number of faculty that are not American since some of the etiquette topics seem to be about American customs.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's time to remove one's feet from the dining table and use the grapefruit spoons properly. Since one must survive on potato chip dust and dead cockroaches in graduate school, this event sounds like it's tailor made for professors.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I went there. Sorry for the gross hyperbole. :) What do people think -- that you're all cave dwellers?