Grad Grind

Did I mention that we were all up in Dublin at the end of last week? I did! The primary purpose was not to deliver Knockroti to my adult offspring - they having been reduced to making Devon Splits instead. Nope, the main event was to witness Dau.I dressing cod-medieval to be given her MLIS cert by the President of the Dublin Business School DBS. MLIS = Master of Science in Information and Library Management.

I've been quite the bore explaining that I don't 'believe' in doing medieval in order to bear witness to getting a college degree. But I guessed the parents like it - having in some cases paid for it all. And here I was as The Parent, trying not to be curmudgeonly . . . not least because I paid for none of it. All our offspr left home very close to each 18th bday and have been making their own way ever since. They've worked hard, while holding down a regular job, to earn, so far, 3 college degrees. It takes a family to raise a degree, and we've all put in the hours critting and editing dissertations, presentations and essays for whoever is currently studenting.

Last Friday, therefore, we left home in the dark and arrived in the RDS before The Lead Actor. It's midterm, Friday, in the WFH era so traffic was super light and on-site parking was possible for anyone who had €10. The DBS was lifting €100 from each of their graduates, which I consider to be mean-spirited after they have lifted €14,000 in fees for each non-EU student. There was an Irish tradition of returning the luck penny to the buyer after you'd sold them your cow for proper money. €100 is less that a penny in the pound. And why am I emphasizing The Foreigners is this discourse? Because for the bundle of degrees being conferred with the MLIS - FinTech, DataAnalytics, HR management, Cybersecurity - the demographic was overwhelmingly.:

I counted ~290 backs-of-heads while enduring the relentless parade of strangers being marshalled into lines and getting their 7 seconds of fame on stage receiving their parchment from The DBS Pres. Dau.II (whose main interest in library work is diversity, inclusion and the dispossessed) counted the faces which, like hers, passed for white . . . N ~= 20. In a delicious irony - ya couldn't make up - the faces of the Gospel Choir which had been hired for inter-act entertainment were all parchment white:

Not a good optic for the DBS. POC are fine for mulcting of fees; paying for their talents, not so much.

The Dau.I? She done good: she took the course seriously; learned a lot, some of it useful for her work; and clocked a First Class Honours Degree - much better than feckless me achieved.