One Mellow Summer Friday

Still, there was plenty going on, mostly behind the scenes, as I began my self-guided tour, which has become a rite of summer and a chance to catch up with folks when the constant deadlines of the regular term aren’t staring us squarely in the face.

 

In the shade of the Flippen Hall courtyard just a few steps from my office, I found Elisabeth Jacobs, our MS administrative assistant, watering two large green potted plants.

 

The one she was tending when I walked up was a peace lily, which usually occupies a space in the office of Charlie Blair, head of the Middle School.

 

“If I don’t water it,” Elisabeth told me, “it will die.”

 

“Can’t let that happen,” I said. “As crazy as the world is now, the last thing we need is even one wilted peace lily.”

 

Smiling kindly at my attempt at humor, she moved on to what I learned was a rubber plant.

 

“It lives inside in the winter and outside in the summer,” Elisabeth reported. “It used to sit in Charlie’s office, but it got too big, so I put it out in the hall.”

 

“So what’s your day been like, other than the plant-watering?” I inquired.

 

“(Assistant MS head) Fletcher (Collins) and I just sat down with three computers and looked at all the 8^th grade schedules to make sure they were right,” she responded. “I have provisional advisory lists together. Put them on a spreadsheet. Made sure all the numbers are right. Today they are. Sent out some report cards. Quiet.”

 

I took my leave and headed to Pitt Hall where I found Dr. Linda Rouse at her desk in Room 103, engrossed in the Upper School schedule. In front of her was a laptop, and taped to the wall and cabinet doors behind it was a large, multi-colored jigsaw puzzle which, come late August, will have her division running like clockwork.

 

“I balance students, rooms, faculty,” she explained. “I schedule it all. I’m trying to make sure right now that we don’t have 20 people taking Shakespeare and three people taking satire.”

 

“Do you have any idea how many hours you spend on scheduling?” I asked. “Must be in the zillions.”

 

“It would be way too frightening to put a number on it,” she responded with a smile. “Literally, though, it starts in November when I do the course projections and talk to folks about courses they want to offer in the upcoming year and then start putting together the course catalogue which comes out in February and then start doing registration in March. The ‘real time’ begins once I have all of my data.”

 

“Looks really complicated,” I offered.

 

“I actually look forward to doing it because my mind likes to make sense of things,” she said. “I think of it as a gigantic Sudoku puzzle.”

 

“Are you anywhere close to finishing?” I asked.

 

“Oh, I’m super close,” she said. “I have the entire schedule built. This (points to the multi-colored puzzle before her) is where all the classes will be. This (points again) is who teaches everything. I’m just trying to resolve some things before we make the schedule live to the students. Most of that has to do with balance.”

 

I left Linda to finish her work in peace and walked next door to the Hershey Center where I encountered fine arts assistant Kate Parthemos.

 

Turns out she’s keeping tabs on a couple of SPARC-sponsored camps with about 60 kids on site, splitting time between her building and McFall Hall.

 

“They have a talent show at 2 today, so we had to set up for that in McFall,” Kate said. “Next week, they have their end-of-camp performance so we’ve been setting up chairs and moving things around for them.”

 

“Are you looking forward to the newly renovated Oates Theater so you aren’t running all over campus?” I asked.

 

“Yes…very much so,” Kate answered gleefully. “It’ll be so fabulous. We’ll have more people able to sit downstairs than we could fit in the whole theater before. Over 700 seats in the place and more legroom between each seat. More space between the rows.”

 

Connie Tuttle was on hand this Friday afternoon to assist – but only in a supervisory sense – the move of a grand piano from McFall Hall back to Hershey.

 

A crew from Famous Jerry Piano Moving did the honors.

 

“It took them 20 minutes from the time they came on campus, put the piano on its side, took the legs and pedal wire off, walked it up here on its side, and put the legs back on,” she noted. “I was just there to hold the doors and let them know which room we’re taking it out of and putting it in.”

 

Next up was a visit to the Help Desk where I caught up with Dave Sherman, our systems engineer. His job entails support of the Collegiate network: switches, routers, servers, phones…basically all the technological stuff that keeps us connected.

 

“Your job title,” I said, “suggests that if something goes wrong, you have to fix it. Right?”

 

“Pretty much,” he responded with a smile.

 

“What excites you about this gig?” I asked.

 

“Learning something new every day,” he said. “Learning new technology. Troubleshooting issues as they arise.”

 

“What’s the biggest problem you’ve solved?” I inquired.

 

“That’s a tough one,” he responded. “We haven’t had any major issues yet.”

 

“Let’s keep it that way,” I said.

 

We talked a bit more about some network upgrades and installation of AV equipment that will occur while the rest of us are vacationing.

 

“I’m here for the duration,” Dave said. “Summer vacation for me will be the third week of September.”

 

With that, I bid him farewell. My time was up on this peaceful (if very warm) Friday. I learned something on each stop, same as I do on each trip around campus. And that, friends, is a Collegiate gift that continues to give.

  -- Weldon Bradshaw