Small Victories?

Picture, if you will, the following New Campus vignettes:

Two faculty members bump into each other on the way to their respective classes. They exchange the usual pleasantries,

• Fac #1 – “So, do YOU have an office yet?”
• Fac #2 – “No, I’m camping out in [insert other faculty/department name here]’s office for now. They have internet and a phone!!!”
• Fac #1 – “NO KIDDING?? I have a room that locks, but no furniture, A/C, phone, internet or electricity.”
• Fac #2 – “Yup, I know how that goes. I’m hoping for a locking room by the Eid .”
  • October 6th is when we return to school after the festival – Eid. Classes began September 7th. Many of us are HOPING for an office, not necessarily having the same level of functionality that we LEFT on old campus, ONLY a MONTH after classes have begun.
• Fac #1 – “Good luck with the office – maybe you can get a computer too, insha’allah.” [Manic laughter from both faculty members as they depart]

A faculty member walks into their lecture room as another faculty member is finishing their class. The faculty member in the lecture hall is erasing the white board,

• entering faculty – “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT ERASER???”
• finishing faculty – “I was in the Provost’s office yesterday and they had them. I asked if I could have one, and they GAVE me one!!!!”
• entering faculty – “Really??!! Yesterday??? Do you think they have any more?”
• finishing faculty – “There were only about 5 when I got mine.”
• entering faculty – “I still have 5 minutes before class begins, I’m going to RUN to the Provost’s office to see if I can have my own whiteboard eraser [a faraway, misty expression crosses faculty’s face]”

This is our current state on New Campus. Ahh how far the mighty have fallen.