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Letter from Boston

Physics Graduate Reception

By MASAKO YAMADA


大学院新入生歓迎パーティー

最近、雅子さんが在籍する大学院の物理学部で、新入生歓迎パーティーが催されました。以前開かれた同じ学部の学部学生のパーティーで、豪勢な料理が出されたのを目撃していたので、今回もきっと…と、料理に期待したのですが、ちょっとあて外れの結果に——。

For weeks, the Boston University physics department had been sending me messages about a reception that was going to take place at the beginning of the school year. Although the department has traditionally skimped on sponsoring extracurricular activities, the department chair wrote a fairly long message explaining why it wanted to host such a party this year. Basically, he said the department felt that it had come a long way in reaching its immediate goals and he wanted the department to be able to indulge in some nice luxuries.

One of the luxuries, the physics graduate reception, would be a party at the beginning of the year for all of the students, to welcome the new students. This would also be a nice opportunity for the elder students who had gone off to different labs to catch up on each other's news. The messages claimed that not only would food be served, but that the physics department would hire a professional photographer to take pictures of each generation of students based on the year they entered the department.

The physics department has also hosted a similar event at the beginning of the year for the undergraduate physics majors. I saw the menu for their event and was shocked: Cajun steak, scallops with bacon, pizza, bagels — they were even giving out free BU physics department T-shirts!

There are very few undergraduate physics majors at BU — far fewer than there are graduate students — and it always seemed to me that the faculty and staff work extra hard to keep those students happy. One of my graduate student friends in the department and I noticed posters for this party and we went by the party room to see if we could sneak in and grab some of their food. Unfortunately, it was a small party in a small room, so we knew that we'd get caught. We would have to wait for our own reception.

I told all of my graduate student friends about this fancy buffet and I urged them all to come to the graduate student reception. I figured that it would be similar to the undergraduate menu, since both were being catered by the same place. Some of my friends skeptically suggested that the reason the undergraduates had such a nice party was because they actually pay tuition, but I figured that since we are doing active research for BU, the department would think of us as being just as worthy of deluxe food.

When the party time came, a bunch of us headed down to the lobby of the building. Indeed, the department administrators were setting up the buffet table. But where were the steaks and the scallops!? All I saw were some veggies, cookies and chips with dip. Later on, a dish of small pastries arrived, but that was it. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I even overheard some faculty saying that the undergraduate reception had had better food.

I decided to get over my disappointment and piled my plate high with raw vegetables. After everybody had their first nibbles, the speeches began. Basically, the chair and associate chair of the department greeted the new students, introduced some of the faculty, and then introduced the new students, by name and country, to the others. They came from many different places — China, India, Iran, Turkey, Serbia and Boston. The photographer must have had a great time taking pictures of the motley group.

The tradition of taking pictures of the entire incoming class is new, but the policy affected the older students as well. It was hard to keep them around after the food was gone, but, somehow, the photographer managed to take some nice pictures. We third-year students started out as a group of 24 students, but only eight of us remain at BU, and two were absent on the day of the picture. There were so few students in the older classes that we had to consolidate to take a large picture together.

After the pictures were taken, many of us lingered outside in the sunshine. I took some more casual, personal pictures of my classmates. We all talked about how few of us were left, but rather than making us feel sad, it somehow made us laugh.


Shukan ST: Sept. 25, 1998

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