Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Last July 7, our lab technician stopped going to school. According to the letter he passed yesterday (when he returned to work, but in a different office) he sent text messages to our school director, our associate dean and our director for administrative services about his "open-ended" absence, since his wife started labor on their first child earlier than expected, and all their relatives are in the provinces, so he had to stay with her.

Well and fine. After all, he is already a permanent employee, having passed six months of probation where he didn't show this behavior of suddenly not showing up to work after blaming technology.

Is it too much to ask to call instead of text just to confirm that he was able to talk to someone who got his message?

Besides, he left the lab in a lurch during the most crucial part of the term, which was the foundation week open lab, and in the one month that he has gone, the time that the lab has been closed is erratic (either the discipline officer will do it when he remembers, or we the faculty might forget until we find out the air conditioner has been on until 7pm, even if the lights are off).

It's also very difficult for the faculty to monitor when students are just hanging out there (sometimes with their girlfriends or boyfriends), and if any of the equipment are missing.

Some bolder students have also taken to installing and playing computer games on the lab's terminals, sometimes under the eye of slacker co-teacher, who only cares for the projects they submit at the designated deadline, but not what they do during class hours.

The administrative services secretary asked me about it earlier.

I said I didn't know if the director will make the decision to "rehire" or ask for a new technician by himself, or consult the other faculty.

Either way, the important thing is to get a substitute now, which should have been done weeks ago, when the old technician knew he would not be able to go to work for more than a few days.

Session 2301 knows how it would go under the staff manual. Class dismissed.