The Value of Traditions

It  has been just over a year since I left Penn State University, which had been my home for nearly 15 years. There are many things that I miss about being at Penn State, especially at the end of each semester.

Traditions are a funny thing. We value them as rites of passage to joining new community, and as part of the institutional history. Some traditions come and go, as student leaders try to define their unique legacies on campus.  So every year, around exam time, there would be study breaks, and programs with food, and stress busters, and door decorating contests, and special dinners in the dining halls.

My favorite program among these was booking a massage therapist to give students five–minute stress buster massages on one evening of the exam week. We worked with the same massage therapist every year. Her name was Angie, and I got to know quite a bit about her  during these events. We would talk about campus events, news in town, and our kids. Angie is a single mother, and a Penn State grad. She was always pleasant to work with and loved talking with all the students. In some of the areas where we would book her, the staff would simply greet her, make sure she was able to set up, and then leave. I would always stay around and visit, drink coffee and smoothies from the coffee bar in the commons, and just have a good time joking with her and the students who came by.

Now that I am down South and on my own, I find that I really do miss the traditions that I helped establish and maintain at my old school. And at times around the holidays, I feel down and a little bit alone and I really miss the sense of home those traditions gave me.

But last week was different. I have a part-time career coach position at  Wesleyan College in  Macon, Georgia, and was invited to help host a table at their annual holiday banquet.

Anderson Dining Hall is much smaller and less modern than the fancy facilities I was used to at Penn State. In this great Georgian style room’s with high cathedral type ceilings and huge fireplace mantels at each end of the hall, with appropriately historic paintings mounted above them, teams of faculty and staff set 24 tables and decorated them for the students.

It was my first time in a college dining hall since leaving Penn State, and I realized quickly how much I missed being a part of the campus community. It’s clearly an event that faculty and staff enjoy just as much as the students. Tables are hosted by teams of two faculty or staff members, and each table has a theme. Since I volunteered last-minute and was matched with a faculty member I have yet to meet, our theme was  “Christmas.”  Really original, huh?  we had very simple decorations, bought hastily at Wal-Mart about an hour or two before the event–little clear candy bags with penguins on them, wearing Santa hats;   filled with cookies and candy, and finished off with a novelty swirly straw that had either Santa or a polar bear on them. Other than that, we had cardboard Christmas trees and glittery stuff.

I met my faculty partner, Dr. Karen Huber, a professor of history. Our table was basically assigned to students who had not registered early enough to be assigned another table. We went about assembling the candy bags and decorating our table and then joined the other faculty and staff to eat dinner in another dining room. At the end of the meal, we received our aprons and returned Anderson Dining Hall, as they opened the doors to receive students.

We were eventually joined by seven students and joined the rush of other faculty and staff to the kitchen for platters of turkey, dressing, squash, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and bread. We served each student personally and made conversation with them about school, their interests, and their holiday plans. After clearing the main course from the table, the lights were darkened in the hall, and the foodservice staff rolled out carts loaded with the desert for the evening, Bananas Foster, over vanilla ice cream. All in attendance watched with eager anticipation as the bananas were flash caramelized with burning rum,  and the glow of bluish flame lit the room.

It was a festive end to my first semester of contract work for this small women’s liberal arts college, which had welcomed me and made me finally feel at home again. Penn State had been my home for nearly 15 years, and I had known the comfort that comes with familiarity and tradition. There have been times over the last year when I have questioned whether I would ever have that feeling of belonging again.

I think that this is the feeling that many students come to campus with–a loss of home, friends, connections, and belonging. It serves as a great reminder that student affairs professionals and other members of the faculty and staff play key roles in creating a sense of belonging on campus. It’s no wonder, then, that many students return to their families in December, enjoy their vacation time, and return to the halls in January, saying “it’s good to be home!”

What traditions have you helped establish on your campus?

What role do you play in making your students feel at home?

And what traditions have helped you feel at home on your campus?

Please share your thoughts in the comments section. I’d love to hear what others are doing around the country. Happy holidays to all, no matter your personal traditions, beliefs, or hopes for the new year.