Wednesday, July 15, 2009
It must be the water
I had to come early to campus yesterday to cover a class for a colleague traveling. Early means about 7am, which everyone will tell you isn't prime time for me. It was raining heavily in St. Cloud at that time, and because of construction on campus they have me parking in a temporary lot with a temporary pass. The pass has to hang off my mirror, and it's big so that I can't leave it up while I drive. In my haste to a) get to class, b) get an umbrella over my head, and c) get out of the rain, I forgot to hang the pass yesterday. I blame lack of coffee.
It rained hard much of the day. We have had leaks in our building, and since we're on the top floor we get a fair bit of standing water; it's been twenty years since we've had any serious renovations of Stewart Hall. An old leak reappeared yesterday.
When I get back to the car, there's a parking ticket on my car. The ticket is in an envelope into which you're supposed to put your money. The envelope has water that I pour out. The ticket inside is waterproof; the ink is as legible as if it was sunny and 80 degrees.
I admired that, but I wonder: If you can make my damn parking ticket waterproof, why can't you keep water out of my classrooms and offices? What are this university's values? Is campus security more concerned about getting its $10 than the campus maintenance staff is about water in my rooms? Whose experience do we care about? Who's the customer of this campus? Who cares about them?
What you do well says something about your values.
Labels: higher education, SCSU
