Orientation and Disorientation

The line between hope and fear, orientation and disorientation is so thin!!! This is something which has been brought home to me this past week while going through the grueling orientation schedule I mentioned earlier. Orientation has been both a positive and negative experience this week. Negative because I have had to work on my APSA paper after getting home around 5pm every day. Positive because I met a lot of nice people and got to know a lot more about the school than I did before.

However, as you can imagine, I feel overloaded by information. This happened by the end of Tuesday which was only my second day of orientation. This may be because that was the day we listened to Human Resources personnel talking about disability benefits, health insurance plans, retirement plans, dismemberment benefits, life insurance etc etc. Now, I am an excellent money manager (I balance the checkbook and make sure we stay within budget) but I know nothing about investments, retirement plans etc. To make matters worse, all the people I asked (both at the University and outside it) had different pieces of advice. The situation was not made any easier when Gregg sat down with a calculator and said, “It all depends on how long you live!!!!” My head, already reeling from all the financial and academic advice I had received in the past two days, felt like it was going to burst. Orientation was clearly disorienting when it came to financial matters.

When it came to academic matters, things went well. I learnt a lot about the policies of the school, its student body and its campus life. But even here, lines became blurred. Any talk of tenure led to an increased heart-rate. Since the tenure system is divorced from the promotion system here, promotion was just as frightening a subject as tenure. The large chunks of information regarding the various services available to faculty and students – how to deal with students with disabilities, class reserves, FERPA, disruptive students, academic support, student affairs etc. – were overwhelming. While I am starting the school year hoping that this is the beginning of a successful career here, I am also terrified that this is not the case, that something will go wrong, that I will not get tenure etc. etc.

The good thing about such an extensive orientation is that while you may not remember all (or, in my case, any) of the information you are given, you do get information about who to contact with questions. It also gives you a good idea of the culture of the school. What do they value? What are its students like? What is the relationship among faculty, students and administration? By reading between the lines as well as talking to people, I have gotten a lot of good information about the nature of the school. You also get to know the people who are starting with you, giving you a ready-made group of acquaintances.

How do you feel about new faculty orientations? Did you go through one? If yes, what was most helpful and unhelpful? If no, would you have wanted one?