There is little better than a friendly gathering.
Example of a Departmental Tea poster.
That is the idea driving Bryn Mawr’s love of teas. Teas are an art form–one which is rarely carried out to its zenith but is nonetheless enjoyable to partake in. Because we are a free and easy lot, “tea” is used to refer to essentially any kind of social gathering. There are academic teas, dorm teas, and organizational teas (such as Haffner Dining Hall teas).
Just to start, the hallmarks of any successful tea are: good attendance and FOOD!
Without food, the whole entreprise is doomed to tank.
Academic teas are hosted by departments in the hopes of luring students to majoring with those professors. The professors of the department advertise the tea (and craft the posters, I assume). As the hosts, they provide snacks to lighten our spirits and discuss future course offerings within the department. The whole point of having academic teas is so students can know (1. which professors are within a certain major, (2. whether they think they can work with these professors/are interested in their subject, (3. what other students who are already majoring in that department have to say and what they think. All in all, academic teas are helpful for the indecisive. Don’t know what you want to do? Then why not go and eat someone else’s snacks and let them try to cajole you into joining them?
Dorm teas are held to encourage community within your place of residence. These can be held by your Peer Mentors (students who are designated to give academic advice to others), Hall Adviser (upperclassperson who is in charge of fostering a bond of wellbeing on the hall), Customspeople (sophomores who mentor the freshman), or Dorm Presidents (they don’t really do anything). Cookies, drinks, pizza, Chinese, or Tiffin (the local Indian place) are served and games are played. Most of these teas are also themed, such as an HA tea geared towards talking about how to manage stress.
I attended two very successful teas just this past week. The first, the French tea, was populated by lovely individuals who were handing me plates and plates of FRESHLY-MADE CREPES! I’ve literally never gone to a tea where the food was that high-quality, warm, or just…awesome. Needless to say, I ate 3 ham, cheese, and egg crepes and 2 Nutella ones.
Soap and deodorant arrayed in my window.
I also attended the Green Ambassadors’ (natural) deodorant making-tea. They had all the fancy organic supplies laid out and all I had to do was stir a pan and collect the booty. I’ve taken advantage of their generosity in the past–I have some lovely natural soap.
