Monday, April 27, 2009

Come major in hoboism!

In our new building the architects incorporated a number of seating areas for students. Some of the furniture is large pleather chairs, but a good number of hideously orange couches are sprinkled around the building. Despite the fact that they are aesthetically appalling, there is another unfortunate consequence to them. Anytime I have to walk around the building and pass by a few of these couches, without fail, about 1/3 of them are occupied by sleeping students. Now I understand being a bit tired during the day and maybe seeking out a quiet spot to catch a quick nap, but these couches are located in main corridors and gathering areas outside lecture halls. Like every university in North America, we currently have prospective students visiting en masse, following the backward-walking students around the campus and our building (being new) is hit by every one of these tours. I wouldn't be surprised if the perspective students (and parents) walk out of here wondering if we do a lot of research on narcolepsy, based on the hordes of students passed out in awkward positions all over the place. I walked by a guy yesterday who had turned into the couch, revealing about 5 inches of ass crack to greet anyone coming in the front door of the building. Welcome to Employment U! Come join our team of crack students!

10 comments:

  1. I gave a quiz last week. Guy near the front of the lecture hall finished early and stood up to moon everyone behind him and flash everyone in front of him. The fold up chair ate his pants I swear. The entire class burst out laughing. My eyes still hurt. I'm glad it wasn't the random day for my teaching eval. And I'm so glad it's finals week.

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  2. I have to say I long ago gave up trying to furtively nap on out-of-the-way couches (which are inevitably 1000 years old and uncomfortable) and conk out on the shiny new couches that are inevitably out and the open and apparently never to be used as the beautiful trundle beds they are. I have no self-respect when I've been up for 48 hours.

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  3. Those students sound a lot like my lab co-workers, except exchange couches for heads dumped on desk for 1/4 of the day.

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  4. (Anonymous #1, that is hilarious!)

    Prof-like, you just reminded me of this bizarre thing from grad school...in our copy room, there was often a gentleman sitting or dozing on the couch in the copy room. He never spoke, even if he was awake. We all loathed making copies because of the creepiness factor of him either snoring or staring. Then one day, I asked the office person who it was. She said she didn't know who it was. I asked some professors. No clue. Turns out nobody knew who he was, and nobody was willing to ask him, so he just continued to lurk! (Some months later, he disappeared. We found out later that he was a custodial engineer who didn't like to, um, engineer.)

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  5. Please excuse my "in our copy room...in the copy room" construction there. Clearly need coffee!

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  6. Anon@5:49 - And that guy is now looking at schools to transfer to.

    Hermitage - I can understand the desire for a nap, but this place looks like the morning after a frat party at some points during the day... without the sticky floors and "that" smell.

    Anon@10:44 - This I also don't get. Who sleeps at a desk? If I did that I would wake up and be numb from my waist down from cutting off the circulation to my lower body. Maybe it's because I'm tall, but if I woke up to a fire alarm after sleeping at my desk they would only find my charred remains.

    Ink - I love the fact that you had a leering creep sitting in your copy room and no one said anything for several months and just hoped the problem would go away. Welcome to academia. Don't disturb the guy, he could be a prof!

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  7. Well, for all you know the parents of prospective students think the sleeping students must study really hard to be this exhausted during the day, and the prospective students think, "Cool! Party all night, sleep all day!" Could be a major recruiting tool!

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