Motivations.

So it's no big secret that I'm an employee of a large Pacific Northwest public university. Hell: most of my 3 devoted readers also work there. I don't write this and try and cloak my anonymity. Too much work! It's hard enough avoiding offending my mother (czeszcz matka!). But what I never talk about is office politics. But tonight I feel a need to talk about university politics.

So the U is selling off a big chunk of off-campus housing. Now whether or not that's a good decision is another issue that maybe I'll get to later. What's germane tonight kiddies is how that decision was made.

As part of my many collateral duties, I get to eat cookies, drink free coffee, and listen to people complain (I'll admit, I jump in too) that our administrators make decisions without enough input from faculty. This happens time and time again, and if I had a dollar for every time I hear someone quote the charter that says the faculty and president share in the governance of the university I wouldn't complain so much about my meager cost of living increase. When the whining gets particularly intense, the cookies and coffee are really the only reasons to be there.

I've noticed that as part of the fallout of the property sale, the tenants of the housing have repeatedly asked for help, but no one has stepped up and actually done much about it. I fully expected to go to the coffee klatch, er, senate meeting today to encounter at least symbolic motions of support. But I got no hint that such a move was in the works.

One specific thing the tenants have asked for is to be exempt from fees associated with an Open Records Law request. They made a pretty broad request for all the documentation leading to the decision to make the sale, but they had help writing it and I showed it to an expert and he said it was pretty well formed. He also reminded me that someone sued another one of our fine institutions of higher learning last year over excessively large records request fees and won. So sure, the request is broad, but it seems reasonable. What my good friend specifically didn't say was that it would be an easy or cheap request to fill. I would have told anyone that if they had asked.

The most recent message that was sent out by the tenants was a boilerplate note saying that the request had been received and that there was no way to tell how many records would be uncovered, if any, but that they'd be happy to provide an estimate. Oh, and the tenants would have to pay in advance.

So to make a long story a bit shorter, the coffee klatch voted to exempt this records request from any fees. I'm not entirely sure what exactly what my motivation was. I'd like to say that it's the least we can do for these students that are fighting what most likely is a losing battle. Maybe I was just tired of the whining: 'Whaaa, no one asks our opinion before decisions are made.'

One thing I thought of as I rode home: The constant bickering about process (or lack thereof) makes me doubt the decisionmakers. And I'm really far too busy to be second guessing the decisions of the people who, for all intents and purposes, are in charge. I've got my own job that they pretend to pay me for to do. So if it turns out that this really is a good decision, will I have more faith in the administration and put a little less stock in the faculty? They do have a lot of valid points: the main one being that we're a public university and should therefore be at least somewhat transparent.

Or perhaps I'm secretly hoping that there is something there that's being covered up? (If that's the case, I really doubt they'd actually release incriminating evidence.)

Or maybe I just really like Robert's Rules.

Whatever the motivations for my actions today, the decision-making process deserves to see the light of day in this case. It should have been made in the open to start with. Hopefully we'll all see that this is really for the best and the university will be better off in the long run.

Google everywhere.

An extremely nice article about Google map mashups. I like that they've called these mashups rather than hacks. One I haven't seen before is the combination of Google Maps and Hot-or-not.

So who's writing a Google maps thesis?

The China question

I've started doing a little background reading (and viewing!) on geographic inquiry into China. I have no idea where this will lead me, but it's so dang different from everything else I know about. It's not that I'm casting around for obscure topics, but rather that there isn't another place I can think of that we hear so much about, but know so little about. The rising superpower, yet I have no idea what it looks like on the ground.

So little time, so much to do.

Inappropriate cell phone use.

A few weeks ago, I stopped into one of my local public toilets on my way to visit an office. And there it was once again: a guy on a cell phone. I mentioned this to the person I was visiting and was told that this must be a guy thing, as she (a female) had never noticed this in a ladies' room.

This is not the first time I've experienced this, and this isn't the reason for the post. Today, while walking across the quad I noticed a young heteropod couple in deep embrace. There was a longing kiss. And then I noticed the phone. The guy was actually making out and talking on his cell phone at the same time! First pooping, now this!

Come on guy, you can at least act like you care. And come on ladies: if I guy can't devote his attention to you long enough for a little snogging between classes, I think you should dump him.

Two nice stories.

Here's a good detailed depiction of an area that I know little about, but is of increasing interest to my people.

Also, here is a GIS librarian to watch. This guy is way cooler than I am.

Book talkin.

I keep meaning to say: Read these books. Now. Do not pass go.

The Librarian.

Time Traveler's Wife.

The skinny

Nope, I don't see myself typing up those notes anytime soon. I'm just not that kind of blogger anymore.

But I do have some catching up to do dear diary and readers. You see, I have started graduate school once again. Yes, once wasn't enough. And besides: the first time around I didn't know about the blog thing, so it didn't really count. I couldn't really be introspective about it.

The inspiration for this sudden revelation about being in school after two months? A dissertation defense. Apparently, in some programs these things aren't really open to the whole department. Fortunately, we are all encouraged to attend ours. It's great, because otherwise it would be this mysterious black box, like a confessional booth, that people go into as graduate students and come out of as doctors.

In fact, there were two defenses this week. What a crazy, interesting process. And highly ritualistic. I'm sure the comparisons between Catholicism and academia have been made plenty of times before. Today's dissertation was about futbol, Barcelona, and place. I must write KP about this immediately.

As for my own program: it's very busy being a worker bee and a student. Next week is GIS Day, which I am helping to organize. After that, it will be a bit more relaxed. I will be able to concentrate on work and homework, and in general getting things done. Until then, it's rush rush rush.

The T is still silent

That's funny, for the first time I had a really dependable network connection at a conference, but I didn't post a single time.

It was a good conference. I had a couple of lightbulbs go off in sessions, I thought a lot about my own upcoming thesis proposal, visited with old and new friends, and didn't completely screw up my own presentations.

It started off a bit slow for me, as I came with a cold, but it finished strong. In the last session yesterday, someone finally showed me a real example of facetted classification. So my LIS education is now complete.

Charlotte is a weird town. The downtown is almost completely corporate space. Lots and lots of Wagonhut security guards around. Very clean and very few visible bums. They've got to be around somewhere, but they're obviously not allowed 'uptown'. Almost no buildings older than 20 years old. I've been told there's an explanation at a museum nearby and that's on my agenda for before I go to the airport.

I don't know if I'll get around to summarizing all the session from the conference. I'm scheduled to get in at 10:30 and I have an 8am meeting in the morning. I really hope the plane is on time.