i was invited to facul-tea
danny caballero
In my department, we have a student group called Women and Minorities in the Physical Sciences (WaMPS). They have started to host coffee/tea time with faculty.
They call it ‘Facul-Tea.’
I was invited to join them for the first of these today. They have designed the event so they can ask faculty questions about the career, research, life, hobbies, pretty much anything. It was so much fun.
building community
Based on my experience, this kind of event seems great for building community. It’s a chance for students to get to know faculty in a relaxed setting. And it’s a chance for faculty to learn more about the students, their interests, and their concerns. It’s an important way to break down barriers and start to build relationships across the department.
As a student, I would have been helped by this kind of regular interaction with my classmates and the faculty. At that time, I shared many of the concerns and questions that students asked today. I now have the resources and support to answer many of these questions - at least from my perspective and experience. Designing these kinds of events is a good way to institutionalize those resources and that support.
sharing different perspectives
WaMPS will host these events regularly with different faculty across the department. That is a important thing to do. Each of us has had different experiences in physics. We’ve run into different challenges throughout our personal and professional lives. And we have different perspectives that we can share.
It’s important to have those perspectives because each of our students is working to find what path is best for them. They share some of our experiences, but not all. And they have many of their own. Their job is not only to do their research, but also to learn about the many different ways they can be physicists. Facul-Tea is a great way to help them do that.
some surprising questions
The conversation was loose and wide-ranging, which I really enjoyed. Students asked about my background, how I ended up at MSU, and what kind of path I took to get here. They asked some great questions about leadership, organizing, and work-life balance. They made me reflect on my own ideas and career; I appreciated that so much. We had conversations about the systemic problems with working academic research, how we make can make choices to change those things and how we need community to do that. We talked about my pets, my love of biking, and my kids.
A few questions that really surprised me were (rephrased from my memory):
- Were some points in your career where you made a decision that changed your trajectory?
- How do your experiences with organizing relate to your work as a physicist?
- What is your favorite color?
- What will you do when you retire?
- What is your life philosophy?
The last one really stuck with me. I never really thought about it before and I didn’t have a good answer. I didn’t realize I gave off “life philosophy” vibes, but that’s pretty cool if I do. ✌🏽
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> i was invited to facul-tea (1/31/25)