Adjunct Faculty

… are some of the nicest people working in Library. Kind and helpful and friendly…

26 Committees!

Okay, I lied. Something did happen at the department meeting. There was a discussion about who is on what committee and Doc and I were assigned to work on about 5-6 committees each? I am not sure how much work this will entail but everyone else appears to have similar assignments? I am not getting any information about or sense of what is appropriate… Time will tell. Either I will be tearing my hair out or it will be okay.

Faculty Meeting or Holding Court?

I have never experienced a meeting quite like it! No important issues presented, no discussion, no voting. All the department did was gaze blankly at their agenda and check each item off in order as Miserly brought it up.

I did think that Miserly liked presiding over the meeting, it certainly didn’t require much, but shouldn’t we be doing something? It was about two hours of our valuable time spent with nothing to show for it. I am used to meetings with a point. If you don’t want to share information or debate or decide, why bother? You could just send a memo saying, “Nothing going on here…”

The Key is Mightier

We all have keys to almost everywhere in Library. What trust! What power! But you may find papers mysteriously left on your chair or desk and wonder who left them or you may find your office door suddenly unlocked and opened by a fellow faculty member who didn’t know you were within. I choose to keep my door wide open at all times so this hasn’t happened to me but I’ve heard tell.

There is just one portion of the realm that is off limits – special key required – and that is the realm of Bully-boy.

And they’re locked!

They are everywhere. It impedes the flow of faculty and staff when it was maybe only meant to stop students from walking out with books? You must carry the key everywhere:

• to the mail room
• to get a cup of coffee
• to go to the bathroom
• to enter the offices of faculty members who don’t want to get up to answer their always-locked doors and just yell “Come in” assuming that you have your key but if you don’t, you have to yell back “I can’t!” and wait to see if that will disqualify you from entering at all.

This is annoying at the most basic level and disturbing at another.

Behind Closed Doors…

…with the blinds drawn (if you have windows), and the door locked, and the implied “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. That is what it is like in Library. The librarians are all in separate corners of Library, as if held apart by great forces of repulsion and no one really visits or talks to each other. I find the staff willing to chat but the librarians just do not exude welcome. I wonder what they are doing behind those doors?