Our Chair and cordon bleu chef, Dan Montello, sums it up:
“The Spring 2015 Barbecue was another rousing success. A nice turnout consumed the usual 40+ pounds of seasoned tri-tip, with a few pounds of hot links thrown in for variety. Yingjie Hu tastified the portabella caps for vegetarians with not one but two varieties of teriyaki sauce. The evening was sunny but cool and a little windy (grilling at the beach requires big cutting boards or the equivalent to block the wind and increase the efficiency of the charcoal). Among many joyful moments, the attendees toasted a bittersweet goodbye to Professor Phaedon Kyriakidis, off to Cyprus. The half barrel of Firestone 805 was gone by 7:45, and the crowd moseyed off into the sunset (after cleaning up, of course).”
“A good time was had by all, which confirms the ongoing good times and bonhomie engendered by the Department’s social events, including the fall and spring barbecues and the December holiday party. This was recently attested to in the strongest terms by the results of this year’s graduate student survey, conducted by the campus program review panel in preparation for Geography’s formal program review next year. Fully 99% of students responding (66/77 graduate students responded) reported that overall, the morale of graduate students in Geography was “excellent” or “good” (OK, one student said it was only “fair”). That 99% is the highest percentage reported by any of 54 comparison departments recently surveyed on campus! We know that a variety of factors contribute to this high morale, but according to several narrative responses, the department social events like the barbecues play a substantial role.”
Dan’s concluding comment is backed by correspondence from graduate students regarding the barbecue. For example, Song Gao comments that, “We really love this traditional Spring beach BBQ celebration at the end of one academic year. We enjoy the most delicious “Chair Tri-tip” from our talented chef Prof. Montello, the Chair of Geography. We really appreciate the department for keeping this tradition and building this friendly environment for grad students, staff, and faculty members to interact, to hang out, and to have fun together.” That sums it up!
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Dan for providing this text (not to mention his experise at grilling gourmet goodies) and thanks as well to staffer Guylene Gadal and grad students Song Gao and Yingjie Hu for providing photos of the event, all of which have been posted on our Event Photo page.
