Grad school staffer prepares for seventh year as commencement volunteer

“It’s real exciting,” Buchmann says of commencement. “This is the time when all the work has been done, the sleepless nights are over, the blurry-eyed computer stuff is done and students can be with their friends, family and colleagues and be uplifted.”

And while new graduates are busy being happy, Buchmann is making sure they look as good as they feel. Her assignment on graduation day is to be in the staging area where everyone gathers to get in line, helping those who need help with their caps, gowns and hoods.

“As they come in the door I check to see their hats are on correctly, that their doctoral hoods have been attached correctly,” Buchmann says. “There are supposed to be buttons inside the gown and sometimes there aren’t, so I carry safety pins. And I have bobby pins for hats. I just go around and fix them.”

Buchmann wasn’t always so knowledgeable about graduation regalia. Her volunteer stint started when an international student came to the front desk in the graduate school, where she works as an office assistant, with his cap and gown still in the plastic bag. He asked her if she could help him figure out how to put it on.

Buchmann told the young man she couldn’t help him, but she knew someone who could, and she asked Associate Dean Elizabeth Feetham to come to the front desk and show the new graduate what to do. But Buchmann paid attention to the demonstration, and then she had an idea.

“I called the graduation office and asked if I could help cap and gown people. And they said, ‘We’d be happy to have you.’ “

And she’s been doing it ever since. In some ways it’s a natural extension of her self-described role as “graduate school mom.” Although Buchmann’s official job description has her doing things like purchasing supplies and answering phones, she’s always been interested in the lives of every graduate student who comes through.

“One time I congratulated a student and she started to cry,” Buchmann recalled. “I apologized and said I didn’t mean to make her feel bad, and she said ‘You’re the first person who’s recognized me.’ You see, doctoral students just finish when they finish and there’s no built-in recognition. So at that point I instigated what’s known as Barbara’s M&M peanut bowl on my desk. Every single student who graduates gets a handshake and a peanut M&M from me.”

And lest you think that it’s only kindergartners who respond to M&Ms, one student wrote her recently to say that even several years after his graduation, he still remembered what color that M&M was.

Buchmann tries to continue the encouragement on graduation day. “While I’m helping people with their caps and gowns, I work them all up, get them laughing and talking,” she says. “And as they go out the door I say things like ‘Put your smile on because your mom and dad are going to see you.’

“I like my students,” Buchmann continues, with the emphasis on like. “It’s very gratifying for me to go to commencement and see them in their beautiful regalia and see those gorgeous smiles on faces that look five years younger because the stress is gone. It just makes me feel good.”