soapbox

So, I had thought the most uncomfortable friend request one could receive on facebook was from that old pseudo-acquaintance from high school who you never intended on speaking with ever again. Or perhaps from the random underage girl who thought that you reminded her of someone she saw on the street one time.

What, that doesn’t happen to everyone? Maybe it’s just me…

Regardless, let me tell you that when your mother befriends you on facebook it is way way creepier.

It’s like my whole world has been turned upside down. I feel like she just walked in on me doing something totally juvenile and I wanna tell everyone, “Quick, hide the #@$!!.”

How on earth is my facebook page supposed to remain cool with my mom as a friend? Someone explain that to me.
Am I overreacting here? Does anyone else have parents as friends on facebook? Is my mom just that cool or am I just that lame?

And before you start thinking that this is just my problem, let us not forget the 2 degrees of separation on facebook. By her being my friend, she is now only a stone’s throw away from all of your pages as well. Just think of that… my mother has access to all of your facebook pages. How long until YOUR parents join up? Maybe they already have!?!?

Run for the hills!!! AHHHHHHHH!

-Still Reeling in Hanover

This is a post requesting some input / discussion from people. Contribution would be much appreciated.

This spring I think it was, a number of “reviewers” came to visit and review our department as a whole. A number of the 4th/5th year students had lunch with these reviewers, and some discussion of the role of graduate students in the physics department followed, mostly pertaining to the fact that we have a small role in any of the decision making / department culture as compared to other physics departments, or even other departments on campus.

Examples of things of concern here include, but are certainly not limited to:
1) Creating a voice in department politics / decisions (ie faculty meetings, tenure, hire, etc …)
2) Graduate admissions (sort of included in the above, but
3) Adviser / advisee relations (broad, but important topic as some people know)
4) Organization / social structure (tea, incoming student mixer, prospective student events, etc)
5) Restoring a greater sense of community among physics students (ie digging older grad students out of their research caves, creating more general interaction and so on…)

Now, I’m not sure what I’m suggesting with this post since it is mostly to get feedback. However, some physics departments have their own physics grad student council (see MIT). I don’t think we have enough people to necessarily warrant that much organization, but I think periodic discussions as a student body would be good, and having a way to air grevances and have a voice in the department would be extremely beneficial.

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