Graduation was last Saturday and with the exception of a very small summer term group all the students have packed up and gone.  I think there might be one dormitory open and that's only because the baseball team is playing in their regional tournament.  Both the campus deli and the dining hall have closed.  One could find more food in Mogadishu than on this campus. 

The student workers in the administrative offices have left the buildings.  I'm guessing those functions have dramatically slowed.  Coaches, who are always out and about, have taken that term to a new level this week.  Strangely there was a crime reported very near the campus over the weekend.  Someone must have decided to beat themselves up.

I love it.  At least I do right now.  It's because I'm getting a lot more work done in a day than when everyone was here.  After fifteen weeks of dealing with mostly with recruiting (a drag) I'm finally able to start writing policies and procedures and plan my lessons for rules education.  In other words I'm starting to get at the primary work I was hired to do. 

It can be intimidating because there is a lot to do and for the most part I have to find my own way.  But that's also sort of pleasant because I'm blazing my own trail.  No doubt I will step into some manure along the way but it has to beat the turmoil that my buds in my former company are going through.  Today I had exactly one phone call and I missed it so it turned out to be a phone mail.  I think I received  three emails in eight hours.  Hell I used to get three emails a minute at my old employer.

Best of all I'm finally starting to feel better.  I'm not totally over my cold but I'm close.  I'm thinking about  working out in the school's weight room tonight.  It's been ten days so I'll take it easy.  A brisk two mile walk and maybe some time on the elliptical.  I've learned that my age doesn't take kindly to hard exercise after a cold as bad as this one has been.  I'm pretty sure there won't be anyone around because there hasn't been all week. 

Maybe I'll strip off the shirt and admire my bod in the mirror.  Probably not.  I could if I wanted to though.  School's out for summer.

One of the odd things for me to deal with in my new job is the culture change. 

For example the last three days I've read back and forth emails regarding a peace vigil being held on campus because of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.  As you might expect there's a lot of discussion between the hawks and doves on campus on that issue.  Nothing unusual about that except that the discussion is going on with every student and every staff member that's on campus.  That's because both sides are copying everyone on their emails.  I find it a bit unusual to be working away and Outlook pops up in the lower right of my screen with the latest argument on Iraq.  That type of thing never happened at my previous employer--ever.  If it had there would have been even more people gone from there than there is now.

Another thing I've noticed is that when there's conflict between administrative departments it's not necessarily viewed as a bad thing or something that needs to be fixed.  It's like it's OK.  I think maybe because it's a college campus and people are expected to have different views.  I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that.

Finally I'm shocked that I wasn't drug-tested when I was hired.  That's standard operating procedure at most businesses.  In fact my former employer had at least one plant in which their current employees were subject to random drug testing.  I just expected it to happen at my new employer.  Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.  And don't call me Shirley.

The den of iniquity. 

Otherwise known as my new workplace.  I thought about going with the law enforcement look but didn't have a box of stale donuts, coffee stains on the carpet or a computer from the eighties for the desk. 

Then I thought about giving it the business look with dual monitors, a cell phone and spreadsheets covering the desk and falling on the floor.  But then I realized I didn't have a monitor much less two.   

So finally I went with the minimalist look.  Laptop on the desk.  No awards, diplomas, posters or pictures on the wall.  No lamps of any kind.  All files put away except the ones I'm working on.  No techie stuff.

Well, I don't like it.  It's just too plain.  It needs to look like someone is actually working here.  I think I'll get out my relief map of East Tennessee and put it up.  Maybe a picture of the lake where I caught that big bass.  And a golf course picture.  An unintelligible spreadsheet or two lying on the desk.  An old sports section of USA Today.  And a marked up calendar.  Papers on the desk that should have been tossed two weeks ago.  That should do it. 

A man's got to know his limitations.

My new job has some difficult requirements.  I'm expected to go to the college's athletic events.  Basketball, track and wrestling is in season and tennis and baseball is about to start.   It's hard to make it to the wrestling and track but so far I've been to four basketball games and I'm telling you that is some tough duty. 

The women begin at 5:30 local time so I stay over a little while from normal quitting time.  I use that time to get a little extra paper work done.  Then I have to get out of my chair and walk about fifty paces to the gym.   There I sit in a cushioned gym chair and watch the women play.  They're interesting to watch too because this is not your elegant ladies game.  If the refs are letting them play they post up, shove, bang and pretty much beat the crap out of each other until one outlasts the other.  It's definitely not a finesse game.  When it's all over you can tell they're pretty well gassed.  And these are 18-22 year old kids. 

About a half-hour after the women's game is over the men play.  They're quite a bit more athletic than the women but they do a lot of beating on each other too.  It's an up tempo game--not one for the out-of-shape.  These kids are serious too.  They're not out there to just have a good time--they're out there to win.  I don't usually stay the entire men's game because it gets me home too late but most of the time they've got the game in hand by the time I leave.  It's a damn good basketball team.  They're in first place in their conference and ranked nationally.

Here's the tough part.  It might have been nice if they had made the chairs rockers or recliners like in the new movie theaters.  And it might also have been nice if they had sweet young things handing out food and drinks like they do in luxury boxes so I didn't have to get out of my chair.  And maybe individual television screens for each seat so I could check replays.  My own private bathroom would have been extremely nice but I guess I can understand the impracticality of that.  None of that looks like it's going to happen so I'll just absorb the indignities in silence and go do my job. 

Life is tough.

Sixty-three degrees.

That’s how cold it is in my office when I arrive in the morning.  It’s currently only thirty degrees warmer in my office than it is outside. You can’t imagine how cold that is until you’ve tried it a few times.  I’ve learned to wear a sweater every day.  I’m sure my cup of coffee that I bring in with me would have steam coming off of it if I took the cover off.

The AD told me the first week that I was here that the heat wasn’t working in the building.  That was three weeks ago.  I broke down and bought an electric space heater last week and it has helped but the temperature has yet to reach sixty-eight degrees in my office.  Yowza! 

Even though my office is located steps away I’ve not utilized the workout equipment or weight room since I’ve been here.  Hell, if I wanted to jog and workout at an outdoor temperature I’d go outside.  It’s just too cold to do a workout in this building.

I know what my father would say if he walked into this building.  He'd say you could kill hogs in here (it’s a Southern thing, just go with me on this).  And he would be right.

Even after working thirty years for the same employer I’m finding out that many, if not all, of the management tools—planning, organizing, executing, controlling, problem solving,  project management--I used during that time lend themselves quite nicely to my new job as well. The truth of that surprises me somewhat. I believe it’s because that I when I moved from the business arena to the academic arena I thought some things would be different in the way they are managed. But they’re really not. 

The new job is unique in two respects though. One is that I’m designing the compliance system essentially by myself. If if were doing this in business I’d have everybody from the janitor to the CEO giving me advice on what it should look like and how it should operate. Here I’m deciding all that and I’m actually having to solicit some information from the principals. I have to admit that I’m finding it rather pleasurable to be in this position--though I still have enough of the business world left in me to think someone will come along and blow some or all of it up. No sign of that person yet though. 

The other thing is that I may be the most independent administrator on this campus. When push comes to shove I’ve really just got one master and that organization not only doesn’t exist on campus it actually exists in another state. So it’s a little bit like being a judge. I’ve got the law to fall back on when things get dicey and my interpretation of that law is what counts. I’m not stupid though. I know where my paycheck comes from. But in this position I really have a higher master. At least that’s the way I see it.

There’s a trap in all of this however. With independence can come isolation . It’s possible for me to alienate all sides and at the same time--even if I’m right in my decisions and what I’m doing. That means discretion, concession, compromise, negotiation, cooperation, consensus and plain old common sense is required.  That's good news though.  Because that’s right up my alley.

I don't remember when I have ever worked in as much isolation as I am now.   Which is a bit strange because my office is located in a suite of coaches offices.  There's probably ten offices in the suite counting mine and another ten upstairs--something like twenty one coaches and another couple of ADs.  Plus I'm in the student center complex to boot so there's lots of students coming and going.

I think I feel that isolation because the coaches in the office are always coming and going and really don't have a set schedule.  They're out recruiting, conducting practices, going to games and even teaching.  I think the majority of them teach at least one class.  Most of the coaches I've worked with so far are young, probably late twenties to early thirties.  Our "marquee" sport is basketball and the men's coach of that one is probably older than me.  At least I'm not the only old fart.

Anyway I think I like the isolation.  I know that it's doing wonders for my productivity.  That and the lack of phone calls.  I'm probably averaging one or two calls a day.  At my former employer I probably averaged one or two phone calls every twenty minutes.  You would be surprised at the difference these things make for getting work done.  I've also been very impressed with the non-athletic administrators I've worked with so far.  They're very sharp, organized and thorough. 

I came to realize all of this today because I was gone two days last week but was caught back up by this morning.  That happened simply because yesterday was an extremely productive day.   

This is all new to me but it's starting to appear that the academic world might actually be more efficient and have better managers than the business world.  The jury is still out but wouldn't that be a hoot?  In the meantime I'm going to enjoy this magnificent isolation.  Things could change when I start holding coaches' feet to the fire.