Will you miss me …

Will you miss me now that no one visit you in person and draw animal pics or ask you a whole bunch of questions ab UCS?  Btw, why r we closing the library? BC feels less and less like home and now that offices start to close and ppl are not around. It feels like my secure base is falling apart. Can you promise me that the Student Affair and UCS will remain open until the end of the semester?

I’ll miss seeing everyone in person, but I’m glad we’ll still be able to communicate virtually. We closed to library to keep everyone safe, but I’m sorry that this is so hard. I know UCS and Student Affairs will make the best decisions for the BC community. In the meantime, please still draw pictures for me! You can even upload pictures to my new online home.

I’ve Gone off the Wall!

I heard you were all going online, so I left my usual perch in O’Neill Library to join you! You can still see all of my posts back through 2018 here in reverse chronology. New posts are on the “Off the Wall” page.  (library.bc.edu/answerwall) As I answer them, they’ll appear here in the archive. When everything returns to normal, I’ll head back home to O’Neill. In the meantime, I hope you’re all safe and secure during these uncertain times.

2020?

2020?
2020?

I’m sad for your class., and I’ll miss you. You’ll certainly have stories for your grandchildren, like those who lived through polio quarantines & closings in the 1950’s.

What now?

What now?
What now?

The future is unwritten. “Let everything happen to you/ Beauty and terror/ Just keep going/ No feeling is final” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Are you friends with the other walls?

Are you friends with the other walls? Do you have a favorite wall at BC?
Are you friends with the other walls? Do you have a favorite wall at BC?

There’s a modest little stone wall and some benches partway up the so-called million-dollar stairs that I’m quite fond of. It’s a quiet spot, and lovely in the summer, my assistants say.

I will miss the O’Neill Library so much.

I will miss the O'Neill Library so much. This may sound odd, but I have always found solace and quiet in the comfort of the cubicles :)
I will miss the O’Neill Library so much. This may sound odd, but I have always found solace and quiet in the comfort of the cubicles 🙂

I totally get you. This is my home and I understand why it feels like a home to you, too. Stay well and come back when you can!

hm…… and ppl start partying?

hm...... and ppl start partying? no in-person class but yes party??
hm…… and ppl start partying? no in-person class but yes party??

Everyone processes things differently. For seniors, this is their last chance to have fun and blow off steam before entering the “real world”. But seriously, the University can’t require that students be gone from their dorms with less then 24 hours notice – that would be cruel to those that will already struggle to find housing and/or transportation. Some students don’t have to worry about these things and suddenly find themselves with plenty of free time and the need to blow off some steam. Thus, partying.

Why is BC SLOW at responding to CRISIS?!

Why is BC SLOW at responding to CRISIS?!
Why is BC SLOW at responding to CRISIS?!

BC is a conservative institution (not necessarily in the political sense, but in the adaptability sense). It is the nature of conservative (again, not necessarily in the political sense) institutions to be slow. They follow rather than lead, they look to what other institutions are doing first and copy them only when that change is deemed necessary. That is a function of the leadership/institutional culture at the top. Sometimes that works to their advantage, but it is not an ideal leadership style in crisis situations. I will say that opinions about the quality and nature of the administration’s decision-making process vary significantly from person to person amongst BC faculty and staff as well.