University: Day 1. The Mould Is Cast

Butterflies that had been busy since sunup worked themselves to a frenzy as the first year social work students gathered. The seats were arranged on a very social worky way, in a circle around the room. Its supposed to represent an equality among the attendees, but Terry noticed a distinct separation of the five seats backing onto the office door & the rest. It was the kind of hypocracy that plagued the social sciences. Welfare organisations competing for scarce funds & even clients were rife with jealousy & back bighting. It was easy to identify the Christian roots of many of those agencies. 
A the students entered, a junior member of staff smiled weakly & softly encouraged the two dozen or students to "grab a seat". The ruse about seat spacing was unmasked by their avoidance of kthe elite seats. 
Finally, like any procession, the seniorwmbwrs of staff filed out, smiling, at ease with the equality role play farce. 
As only a handful of men were present, he was unsirprised that he'd been identified as " The TAFE Graduate". Unlike other students that had filtered through the usual cjannels, well regarded students from college were accepted into this elite Bachelor's Degree. But the privilege rankled; "Who the hell do they think they are?", he mused. 
There were brief introductions & of course a divisions into smaller groups so we could " get to know one another more intimately ". The leader introduced herself as a "facilitator" & asserted that the boutique department was a rubber stamp for success in the field for graduates. 
Again the hypocrisy filtered through, feigning egalitarianism while clearly portraying an elitist clique, her smile more a thinly disguised snarl, complete with nose wrinkle. 
As the sharing circle progressed suspicions grew & encouraged a ready cynicism among those without starry eyes. 
Too late to back out though, accommodations locked in, job resignations sorted, meagre budgets locked in. There was pride too, the "oh wow!" responses from others fed into a belief that any student would be mad to knock back an offer of a position on the course. Locked & loaded, rough road ahead.  

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