Twenty new faculty members joined the College of Business faculty this week. Eager faces, with occasional looks of confusion and uncertainty, about what the next few years would bring. The orientation process has been detailed and comprehensive.
My role is different. I want to educate them about our culture and that lies outside the scope of manuals and professional protocol. I want to step outside the traditional roles of academe and tell them stories of ‘our’ University of Tampa (UT) family.
I tell them stories of what makes UT special. I tell them about the baby showers they held for me 25 years ago. I tell them about the shoulders of support and the comforting hugs when my parents passed away. I tell them about Michael, Fez, Alan and Judi — people who touched my life in inexplicable ways. It is these people who define our culture and what makes UT home. They have since left and passed the baton to me to carry out the proud tradition of this wonderful institution.
Beyond the degrees and the professional accomplishments, I have a burning desire to engrain in these new people the importance of embracing our values and what it takes to fit into our dysfunctional family. Their long term success will be determined by how well they fit our mold. We get to establish the norms because we got here first, and because it’s ‘our’ family.
About Hemant Rustogi