(A prize to anyone who gets the reference in the subject line . . . )

Well, I'm sitting here in the public lab at That Community College. I'm here instead of in my office because my office is barely what you'd call inhabitable. No, I take that back. It's uninhabitable. I don't have a phone, nor do I have an ethernet connection, nor do I have a key to lock and unlock the door. I didn't even have an ethernet cable earlier, either - but one of my new colleagues let me borrow a spare, saying, "I've found that it's helpful to have extras around here." Well, no problem: we have dozens at home. But I didn't think I'd need one today, and I don't have a spare one floating around in my bag (as is sometimes the case).

*Sigh*

I'm not in Kansas any more. Or maybe I am in Kansas, instead of Oz . . .

The faculty meeting this morning was very enlightening. I got a good feeling in the room, in terms of people seeming collegial with one another, and I got a good feeling about the Dean - it seemed that people reacted to him in a friendly way. The tough part of the meeting came when the Director of Instruction started explaining that we need to find ways to ensure that sufficient students finish classes with at least a 2.0, because our Perkins funding (which amounts to a million dollars annually) is tied to this benchmark. She believes that in the future, our $25 million state funding will be tied to a similar metric. No College Student Left Behind, I guess . . .

I'm just watching and listening, mostly. But I did notice that any suggestion that the metric was unrealistic was met with a countersuggestion that the person making it ought to take the issue up with the legislators . . . which made me wonder what the institution as a whole is doing to raise this issue in the appropriate government offices. Is it our collective responsibility to find ways for students to "succeed," but our individual responsibility to question the mandated definition of success? Hmm, curious. I would have thought it would be the other way around.

Then it was (a very bad) lunch with my writing colleagues, who seem like a really nice bunch of people. In fact, everyone I've met seems nice, and very welcoming. I do feel that, on first blush, the atmosphere seems a lot more relaxed than at the 4-year institutions where I've attended similar kickoff events.

Well, I've checked my mail and composed this message and my hands are no longer shaking from Internet withdrawal, so I think it's time to go back to the office and [a] try to get my phone and computer up to speed and [b] start working on the quizzes, etc. that I didn't finish in the previous weeks . . .