RD Duties - January 15th, 2018

What will you be doing on the ship? was a question I encountered before I left home.  Although I may have provided an answer, it wasn’t really clear to me either.  I think the succinct answer is, “a lot.” 

Daily we meet as a Student Life staff for 1-1/2 hours to bring attention to any “Students of Concern.”  At the moment this typically involves students who are homesick and want to head home at the next port, roommate conflicts, or academic concerns.  The meeting often entails a list of “other duties as assigned” like checking in with international and gap students who may be living on our decks or planning a Martin Luther King celebration for 2 days hence or shipboard concerns that need addressing. 

Every evening there is a session by a faculty member at 7pm.  Student Life does a 8 pm session.  At 9 pm there is often “beverage service” that 2 RDs are required to be a presence at each time(nope, we don’t get to drink).  Students are limited to 2 drinks a day –  so far it’s been pretty tame.   The good news is that it’s held on the pool deck so we get some nice ocean breeze.  The bad news is that it lasts from 9-11 pm. 

A special treat for students is that the Captain allows visits to the bridge.  It’s fascinating to see the equipment, hear about the ship and be able to see out over the water, And, yup, it’s the RDs who accompany the students on that visit. 

Everyone takes the Global Studies class which meets every other day for 1 ½ hours.  It’s co-taught by 2 exceptional faculty members.  Alex is wizard at technology so each of his classes feels like you are in multimedia heaven as he talks about various cultural issues of the areas we will be visiting.  Julia still seems to be finding her way in the large format, but she brings a phenomenal intercultural lens to the class.  I am so delighted that the students have this kind of preparation for the ports they will be visiting.  The class has periodic reflections after the ports for a chance to reflect on how their experiences match with the class.  This is a revamped course and I can’t imagine it could be better.    

And then there are the “sea” (floor) responsibilities of learning the names and faces of my 94 students, getting them to turn in roommate agreements, and then having follow up meetings.   Space for gathering is a real limiting factor in terms of availability, size, and equipment.  This means we are likely to have only 3 sea meetings throughout the voyage.  In the meantime I communicate by seamail, post-it notes, knocks on the door or finding people at dinner. Everyone is pretty friendly.  Many say hi by name, which makes me feel badly since that is not my area of expertise.   

At our first sea meeting we found Sea Olympics Captain and Sea Council (e.g., advisory) reps for our sea.  They are stepping forward quickly with leadership.  The Sea Council will be holding sessions to help students find others to travel with on independent travel.  The Sea Olymics will be a day long of competition among the seas for some sort of prize (like being the first to disembark at the end of the trip).  I was assigned the “Arabian Sea” as some of you know and came prepared with Tigger as our Arabian Tiger mascot and a tiger striped blanket that can be transformed into something spirited.  One of the RDs is the lead in planning this event  but we will be “all hands on deck” as the day nears.  There are a variety of other traditional events like Neptune Day (when we cross the equator), talent show, alumni auction, and alumni ball that the RDs are all involved in planning.  

As an RD team we are becoming more adept at just rising to the occasion and making things happen.  For MLK there was a sunrise gathering on one of the back decks to listen to his “I Have a Dream” speech that someone had brought along.  Someone else got 3 students to write a paragraph for the daily newsletter on how MLK impacted them.  Another RD and I found 6 students to be on a panel on the Impact of Service.  They were amazing, I might add, with service experiences in Equidor, Zambia, Peru, Nicaragua, Tanzania, South Africa as well as in Sunday school, Texas flooding, and as an EMT.   Which I guess says something about some of the students on this ship, but more on that in another post.  Despite their international focus the themes of service to your own community, developing a sustained relationship with the community and the benefits to those who were serving seemed to emerge nicely.  

Dallawrence, one of the RDs, and I are joining forces on some of the diversity and inclusion and held our first session on “Difficult Conversations” which was an AVP style workshop.   We hope to keep those going moving on to “I Messages,” difficult conversations with family, and on to identity.    

The RDs also have office hours for 2 hours a day to work on whatever tasks are part of our ongoing “collateral assignment’ (in my case Spirituality and Wellness).  We have about 5 student assistants who receive some financial aid/scholarship money in return for working 2 hours a day (when not in port).  They’ve pulled together a session on feminism for tonight that will run before showing Wonder Woman.  Another student is helping me pull together a “Stress Free Zone” for Study Day tomorrow—and I guess that says something about how fast the semester goes for the students.  They have had 5 A-days and 5 B-days so it is time for a study day in preparation for exams beginning, two more classes each day and then we will be in Japan!

MISSING: January 16

Well it is official.  We passed the International Dateline during the night, leaving Tuesday, January 16 on the cutting room floor.  This kind of freaked out some of the students.  Hope you had a happy day.  We are now 18 hours ahead of you, I think.