On a not so bright but still warm morning in Gotham City, Shiller set down his coffee mug upon hearing the clicking footsteps of his colleague, Anna. A blonde American sweetheart walked in, tapped on the partition of Shiller's desk, and said, "The slackers from the New Student Reporting Place are taking a leave. You have to go…"
"I'm not going."
Shiller replied without lifting his head. If the same scenario had happened a year ago, he might have just been an ordinary university professor in Gotham. Now though, underneath some seemingly academic papers lay plans for the Green Lantern Corps and schemes for the mist crystal industry.
Anna rolled her eyes, stating, "You have the least classes this week, who else should go if not you?"
Suddenly, Shiller came out of his messy work. He glanced at the calendar on the side and said, "It's January now, the beginning of the spring semester. I don't think Gotham University has any majors that register in the spring, does it?"
"Who said?" Anna stood by Shiller, crossed her arms, and said, "Remember Sheldon, the previous headmaster, majored in arts. He established literature and philosophy departments at Gotham University. Just before he stepped down, these departments got approved and their term begins in the spring."
"Oh, he probably forgot to tell you, the psychology department, which you teach, has also been moved to the humanities faculty. So your course also starts in the spring."
Shiller squinted, recalling the differences between American and Chinese universities. Many American institutions have three semesters with registration periods in January, May, and August, and there are freshmen enrolling both in January, in spring, and August, in autumn.
Gotham University, on the other hand, more closely resembles Chinese institutions, which also have three terms, but only admit new students in August. Spring registration had always been empty.
The reason - Gotham University had always been understaffed and poorly managed. To make things easier for themselves, administrators put all registration in the fall.
However, headmaster Sheldon significantly reformed the administrative system when he stepped in, managing to establish three more faculties. Now all three roll-call in spring.
Gotham played out its deep winter while Shiller was engrossed with his work. Now it was a January when the temperature was just rebounding, and the spring admissions of Gotham University were about to start.
Setting his pen down and stretching his stiff shoulders, Shiller thought, spending half a day in the New Student Reporting Place would be a good change. His mind was already cluttered with numbers lately.
Just as Shiller was about to leave, the light in the room flickered and went out with a pop.
Days were still short and you'd need the lights on to read the words on paper in the early morning. Now that the light bulb was off, the room was plunged into darkness.
Anna looked up at the bulb and said without any surprise, "You probably didn't know since you didn't have any early morning classes lately. Wire ageing is causing daily power outages, around one to two hours each time, and frequent outages have burned out most old bulbs."
"So what should we do?" Shiller asked.
"What can we do? We make do," said Anna as she sat back down at her seat and skillfully took out a flashlight from the side. She then shone the light towards Shiller and said, "Currently, Gotham University is the only college on the East Coast without a headmaster. Who do you expect to take care of this?"
Shiller shook his head, looked around the room he had been spending the most time in since he came to Gotham, and it was indeed very old.
There was no such thing as a decorating style in there — most of the furniture had been replaced several times, there was evidence of damage on the white wall trims and ceilings, and the only decent piece of furniture—his desk—was already worn out.
Shiller wasn't fond of overly modern things, but it didn't mean he liked old ones either. Especially now, when the furniture had aged to a point of detracting from its utility.
Sighing, Shiller picked up his things, left the office, and headed for the New Student Reporting Place.
Upon arriving, it was clear that this place had also lost power. Worse, there were no floor-to-ceiling windows like in his office, so the room was pitch dark.
Good, thought Shiller, let the new students realize how poor a decision they've made as soon as they arrive.
In the following college years, there would be no pleasant parties or scandalous relationships because the university did not have student activity rooms or party rooms. The only rooms with individual generators were Victor's Cryogenic Lab and the library.
Sitting on a chair in the darkness, Shiller saw students filtering in one by one. Every time a student entered and found a person sitting in the dark room, they would instinctively hesitate before stepping out to check the room number and then carefully coming in again.
With his head lowered in some writing, Shiller suddenly heard the sound of dress shoes approaching. The person came over to the desk without any signs of panic, Shiller picked up his pen, and without raising his head, asked, "Name?"