Fwd: 2nd year cohort and SOE Tea

[Enrique Suarez]

Message from Anne regarding SoE Tea.

Thanks for asking!

Honestly, I have no idea how long it's been going on but it has been happening for years.  I think it was in the library out of convenience because the goal is to give the PhD students and faculty a time to get together, get a snack and have a little social interaction.  I asked if it was going to end with the dismanteling of the librabry and was informed that it had nothing to do with the library and that it would be up to the next cohort to figure something out -eek, sorry :/  - On the other hand, maybe there is a way to make this more convenient for you guys.  I certainly couldn't be there this year since the library hours didn't work for me.  I heard that it could fluctuate from about 5-15 people depending on the week and it generally doesn't start until a few weeks into the semester to give everyone a chance to get back in the swing of things.

I have heard that, in the past, people have brought snacks (that they made) to share, in addition to the stock supplies, but I didn't see this happen last year or this year.  The stock supplies I brought were:

Coffee/Tea/Cocoa

Salty- pretzels/chips...

Sweet- cookies, holiday candy, granola bars (sometimes sweet, sometimes salty)

Fresh- baby carrots, apples, clementimes

I did NOT buy everything every week.  In fact, I didn't buy anything every week.  Often I brought in new supplies every other week and only as needed.  Most of the Coffee/tea/cups/napkins... lasted the whole year with a restock after a cold spell- when people wanted hot drinks.  Generally, a few boxes of granola bars and pretzles and a bag of something fresh would last for 2 "teas" but we were doing tea every week and it doesn't need to be weekly.  When I asked, Sarah said it's really up to you guys to decide how you want this to work as a "social break" but that it could be every other week, twice a month, monthly... whatever works for you guys.  I gathered that the faculty like stopping in weekly (since some of them are actually in the building consistently) but that the attendance was sporadic.  Last year, Jax did Tea in the library weekly from 2-3 and then moved it second semester 3-4.  2-3 was attended by more people.  This year, Brigget wanted to be out of the library by 2:30 so it got moved up and since she had staff she decided to open the doors from 11-2.  However, I heard that the attendance stayed about the same over this 3hr window as it was during the 1 hour from 3-4.  I think attendance is really time and day dependent since many of us are not on campus certain days or are in classes.  It worked out in the library this year because Brigget was interested in having it there and was willing to give staff support to extending the time.  However, when I suggested 2-3 and the library was closing before then, Sarah's suggestion was to find a different place for whatever I wanted to do.  Historically, I've been told, 1 person took on coordinating Tea for 1 semester, but last year Jax got "stuck" with the whole year when no one in her cohort would step-up for the second semester.  Ultimately, the same thing happened this year except I was coordinating closely with the Library so this was not a huge problem.  That's is really why there has been discussion of how to make this a collaborative effort rather than 1 person taking on all of the responsibility.

(AND- everything is on a rolly cart in a closet on the 3rd floor.  You don't need to start from scratch or bring coffee pots, or anything like that.  It's just a matter of making sure you have what you need for the "Tea" and that someone is available in a space and time that people can come socialize-often this means get a cup of coffee, grab a snack, say 'Hi' for a minute and then move on.)

I hope that helps!

Anne Davidson MA-SpEd

Ph. D. Student- Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity

Graduate Research Assistant- School of Education

University of Colorado, Boulder

anne.d...@colorado.edu