i take with me memories of the midwestern friendliness that so surprised me when i arrived in st. louis 8 years ago. since moving to new jersey, i am sad to say, nobody has asked me where i went to high school.
i take with me the memory of the short-lived computer science graduate student social committee lunches. the idea was that groups of cs grad students were supposed to take turns cooking a monthly lunch. but after one grad student prepared a pot of chicken that poisoned almost the entire cs grad student population and one unlucky faculty member in one fell swoop, there wasn't much enthusiasm for having more lunches.
i take with me the memory of a more successful graduate student effort, the establishment of the association of graduate engineering students, known as ages. started by a handful of engineering graduate students because we needed a way to elect representatives to a campus-wide graduate student government, ages soon grew into an organization that now sponsors a wide variety of activities and has been instrumental in addressing a number of engineering graduate student concerns.
i take with me the memory of an engineering and policy department that once had flourishing programs for full-time undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students.
i take with me memories of the 1992 u.s. presidential debate. eager to get involved in all the excitement i volunteered to help wherever needed. i remember spending several days in the makeshift debate hq giving out-of-town reporters directions to the athletic complex. i remember being thrilled to get assigned the job of collecting film from the photographers in the debate hall during the debate. and i remember the disappointment of drawing the shortest straw among the student volunteers and being the one who
had to take the film out of the debate hall and down to the dark room five minutes into the debate - with no chance to re-enter the debate hall after i left.i take with me memories of university holidays which never seemed to apply to graduate students. i remember spending many a fall break and president's day holiday with my fellow grad students in all day meetings brought to us by the computer science department.
i take with me memories of exams that seemed designed more to test endurance and perseverance than mastery of the subject matter. i managed to escape taking any classes that featured infamous 24-hour-take-home exams, but remember the suffering of my less fortunate colleagues. and what doctoral student could forget the pain and suffering one must endure to survive the qualifying exams?
i take with me the memory of the seven-minute rule, which always seemed to be an acceptable excuse for being ten minutes late for anything on campus, but which doesn't seem to apply anywhere else i go.
i take with me the memory of friday afternoon acm happy hours, known not for kegs of beer, but rather bowls of rainbow sherbet punch. over the several years that i attended these happy hours they enjoyed varying degrees of popularity, often proportional to the quality and quantity of the accompanying refreshments - but there was always the rainbow sherbert punch.
