The Deeping Wall
Classes tomorrow, classes Tuesday, but no classes today! Related: I have an initial therapy appointment Friday, as well as a chiropractic appointment. O students, you make me depressed and send my back to pieces. Well, the last batch did; we'll see tomorrow how this new set will do.
So, if there is a bright center of the universe, my office in the satellite Writing Center cluster is the point that it is furthest from. I'm in the middle of the Econ stacks, which is great in that it does remove the temptation that "zomg, STACKS! BOOKS!" inherently inspires in any breathing scholar. But! It does mean that I am a two minute fast trot from our copiers, printers, bathrooms, etc. Anyway, apparently that bright center of the satellite Center has been having trouble with students breaking into instructor cubicles, leaving trash in the common areas, students sleeping in the instructor lounge, etc. So the response has been to wall the Center off -- they're actually building a wall, which I once called the shield wall (from Dune) and, now that it's about halfway done, I have decided to call the Deeping Wall (from LotR, duh). They'd threatened to move those of us "outside the protection of the wall" (actualfax phrasing) mid-semester, which I objected to on the grounds that my students have trouble finding me when I draw them a map (even on their third or forth visit -- elite American higher education at work! Watch out for falling standards!), and have now decided that I won't have to move at all, since the space we would move to was vacated yesterday, and they still have to build actual offices and walls and doors down there. Also, I have a real door with a lock, and everything, and as a result I'm pretty safe and secure. ...possibly the hooligans don't realize that I'm off in this corner of the stacks, too. Though my students have apparently set up a little study nest a few feet away, which I try not to check since (a) creepy, and (b) I don't want to know what shenanigans they are getting up to in the darkened recesses of the library.
Anyway, there are steel beams being installed on top of existing softwalls (O Facilities, this is not stable, TRUST ME), and the urge to trot up to the gentlemen as they are sitting with their heads halfway into the ceiling, anchoring those beams to something structural, and request that they install laser cannons is increasingly strong.
Mind, why they're building a wall in the middle of the library is still a bit of a mystery to me, since small tasks are beyond them -- keeping our water running (water mains burst last week, library shuttered as a result) or our books dry (see going-on-8-months multi-million dollar project to remove and reinstall [properly] the sub-terranean membrane for the underground stacks; also, last summer's roof leaks) seems to be a challenge that Facilities cannot, quite, manage.
This entry was originally posted on a site that respects user privacy.
So, if there is a bright center of the universe, my office in the satellite Writing Center cluster is the point that it is furthest from. I'm in the middle of the Econ stacks, which is great in that it does remove the temptation that "zomg, STACKS! BOOKS!" inherently inspires in any breathing scholar. But! It does mean that I am a two minute fast trot from our copiers, printers, bathrooms, etc. Anyway, apparently that bright center of the satellite Center has been having trouble with students breaking into instructor cubicles, leaving trash in the common areas, students sleeping in the instructor lounge, etc. So the response has been to wall the Center off -- they're actually building a wall, which I once called the shield wall (from Dune) and, now that it's about halfway done, I have decided to call the Deeping Wall (from LotR, duh). They'd threatened to move those of us "outside the protection of the wall" (actualfax phrasing) mid-semester, which I objected to on the grounds that my students have trouble finding me when I draw them a map (even on their third or forth visit -- elite American higher education at work! Watch out for falling standards!), and have now decided that I won't have to move at all, since the space we would move to was vacated yesterday, and they still have to build actual offices and walls and doors down there. Also, I have a real door with a lock, and everything, and as a result I'm pretty safe and secure. ...possibly the hooligans don't realize that I'm off in this corner of the stacks, too. Though my students have apparently set up a little study nest a few feet away, which I try not to check since (a) creepy, and (b) I don't want to know what shenanigans they are getting up to in the darkened recesses of the library.
Anyway, there are steel beams being installed on top of existing softwalls (O Facilities, this is not stable, TRUST ME), and the urge to trot up to the gentlemen as they are sitting with their heads halfway into the ceiling, anchoring those beams to something structural, and request that they install laser cannons is increasingly strong.
Mind, why they're building a wall in the middle of the library is still a bit of a mystery to me, since small tasks are beyond them -- keeping our water running (water mains burst last week, library shuttered as a result) or our books dry (see going-on-8-months multi-million dollar project to remove and reinstall [properly] the sub-terranean membrane for the underground stacks; also, last summer's roof leaks) seems to be a challenge that Facilities cannot, quite, manage.
This entry was originally posted on a site that respects user privacy.