Chapter Two: Prep Day
Having failed to coax the projector into revealing its inner light, Vice-President for Academic Affairs Janice Pulham summoned Instructional Media Services Coordinator Whitby Crooms from his lair via text. Until his imminent arrival, the VPAA filled time by joking that she hoped the gathered assembly of professors was more prepared for the start of classes than she was for this meeting.
-Minutes, First Faculty Meeting, Fall Semester
You rush through the halls, arms full of copies of your syllabus. You thought you'd finalized it, but then this morning you noticed a typo that you absolutely had to fix. You left your breakfast bar on your desk as you scrambled to get your syllabus.
You'd have liked more time to prepare for the school year. However, Dr. Blankenship vanished in the middle of the previous spring semester. That left the department scrambling to hire someone. Normally the process to hire a tenure-track professor can take a year or more, with the new professor being hired in early spring. Dr. Ellison managed to make it happen in five months. That left you being hired in July, later than is usual.
Now your day's too full for you to dawdle. You've got a class to prepare, your research lab to set up, and your new student to meet. Not to mention the new faculty luncheon that Dr. Ellison insisted you go to. It's enough to make you panic.
Not that you're going to.
Probably