Chapter 12: First Full Day at Work

The next day, Dan rose early after a night of maybe two hours of restless sleep as he could barely contain his excitement about his first full day of work. He could not get the idea of the short course out of his head, nor think of a way to overcome the hurdle of needing new IBM-compatible computers for one of the labs to run the new software. He would not compromise and offer obsolete software on obsolete apple IIe’s. He’d just have to find a way. He showered, made coffee and put on his best suit. By 8:00 a.m. he left his apartment, intending to be at work before the start of the school day. He stopped at a newsstand on the way to the 65th Street subway station to pick up a copy of The New York Times and his favorite Computer Shopper magazine, a thick, oversized magazine chock full of ads for closeout computer equipment alongside personal computer reviews. It is where he had bought his first MS-DOS computer with WordStar, MS-DOS 1.0, dBase and no manual for just over $600 including a printer at more than 80 percent off its original retail price. It is also where he had scavenged for the cheapest components with which to build his own IBM PC-Compatible system by purchasing a generic case here, a power supply there, a motherboard at yet another place, and other peripherals in a similar fashion piecemeal over a couple of months. The complete price had been about the same as his near-PC-compatible Canon AS-100 which had only dual floppy disk drives that required special high-density disks from Canon. The PC-compatible system he’d built had twice the speed of the Canon and weighed less than half as much, and he’d included a relatively speaking “huge” first-generation 10 megabyte hard disk which itself had originally sported a price tag of more than $3,000 and which he’d gotten used for little more than $100. He now intended to pore over his favorite magazine for a way to re-equip one of the computer labs, hoping to find a way to sell or swap the aging Apples for newer low-end PC-clones that would make it possible to run the state-of-the-art MS-DOS-based new business software.

He arrived at work about a half hour later. His commute would take him largely against the rush hour mass of humanity going towards Manhattan as PEMTI was to the East, away from the heart of the city, though still well within the city limits. The subways were still full, as they always are in any part of New York City in the heart of the rush hour, but much less so than the compressed bodies on the ride West towards Manhattan. He remembered that lovely woman with her exquisite perfume on the way to the Manhattan school yesterday morning during his current ride to work, his cheeks coloring slightly at the memory. After getting off the elevator on the fourth floor, he noticed the receptionist already at her desk and on the phone despite the fact that it was still about twenty minutes to 9:00 a.m.

“Good morning, Taisha”, he said after she hung up the phone and scribbled a quick message on a pink message pad.

“Good Morning, Dean Amor” she responded with a broad smile. “I did not expect to see you here so early,” she added.

“It’s Dan, please. I thought I’d get an early start on my first day,” he responded. “Is Mr. Lantz here yet? It just occurred to me that I don’t have a key to my office.”

“He won’t be in until 9:00 a.m., but he left me a key for you,” she said, opening a desk drawer and pulling out a small yellow envelope slightly bigger than a key and handing it to him. The words “Dean’s Office” were written on the envelope. “You can go in if you like.”

“Thanks very much,” Dan replied, taking the envelope, removing the key and adding it to his key-ring containing his house, garage and car keys. “Could you please let Mr. Lantz know I’m here when he gets in and that I’d like to see him when he has some time for me today?”

“Sure, Dean...” Dan gave her a mock frown and cocked his head. She immediately responded with a chuckle “... I mean, Dan. I’ll ring you when he’s available and am sure he’ll want to see you as soon as he can. Meantime, I have a manual for your office phone. Please let me know if you have any questions. Just dial 0 to reach me at any time. Your extension is on the phone itself, 2527. To dial out, you’ll need to dial 9 first, then the number. Your phone is unrestricted, so you can call anywhere you like.”

“Good to know. Thank you, Taisha.”

“My pleasure,” she replied with another broad smile.

Dan made his way to his office, opened it, and placed the phone manual in his desk’s top drawer. He then began to take inventory of the office supplies and various manuals in his desk drawer and on the bookshelves. He also noticed that the promised Compaq transportable has been placed on the second smaller desk in his office across from his own, with a dot matrix printer next to it, taking up all of the desk’s limited real estate. To his right as he sat at his own desk, he noticed with a frown the large picture window to the common corridor that had no Venetian blinds or any other means of providing privacy. That would have to be addressed as he had no intention of being on display all day for passersby.

Within a few minutes he heard a knock on his door and rose to answer it. Whoever it was had come from the opposite side of the corridor and had not walked by his picture window. Opening the door he noticed Mr. Chang, the maintenance person.

“Good morning Mr. Chang,” he said to the Asian man of perhaps 65 years of age standing there.

“Good morning, Dean Amor.”

“Just Dan, please.”

“Yes, sir. I wanted to know if there was anything you needed, and to let you know that the books for the class starting Monday have already arrived.”

“Thank you, Mr. Chang. Do we have a book store?”

Mr. Chang gave a half smile and replied, “No bookstore. Just me. I give out the books on the first day of classes to students who show me their I.D. And I check off each student against my list so no one gets a book who is not a student and no student gets more than one book for each of their classes."

“Where do you give out the books?”

“My office. I barricade the door with a small table and give out the books from there.”

“I see,” Dan said. Office? It was little more than a supply closet with a tiny table and chair. He did not see how the man could manage cramming boxes of books there as well, but apparently he did. He hoped he was being well compensated for his many roles, though strongly suspected that would not be the case.

“If you need any supplies or anything else, please let me know. I will order them for you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Chang. Actually, I would like some Venetian blinds put on the inside of my office window. I need some privacy.”

“Ah, you don’t want to monitor the students?” Mr. Chang replied seemingly puzzled.

“I can open the blinds during class changes when I am not busy, working on student records, or in meetings with students or faculty, but not at other times.”

“I will need to get Mr. Lantz’s permission before I can order and install the blinds.”

“If it’s an issue of cost, I will buy and pay for them myself,” Dan offered.

“No, not cost, just policy. It has not been done in the twenty years I’m here because directors want their deans visible to students to keep order.”

“I’m not a security guard, Mr. Chang. But I’ll talk to Mr. Lantz myself later and have him tell you if it’s o.k.”

“As you say, Dean Amor.”

“Just Dan, please. I don’t need anything else for now, and thank you for all the supplies in my desk. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Mr. Lantz had Jaime, your lab tech, set up your computer and printer yesterday. I left two ribbons for the printer and an extra box of perforated plain write letter-sized computer paper in the lowest drawer of your filing cabinet which was empty and a box of 5.25” floppy disks on the top left drawer of your desk. The computer has a hard disk with DOS and WordPerfect on it but nothing else. Jaime told me to tell you.”

“Thanks again, Mr. Chang. I appreciate it. I’ll let you know if I need anything else,” Dan said, then added after looking at his watch, “It’s about ten to nine so I need to head over to the conference room.”

“To check the time cards?” Mr. Chang asked.

“No, to meet the faculty on my first day,” Dan said, walking out of the office and walking off to his right, towards the conference room. “I’ll see you later, and thanks again.”

As Dan walked in to the conference room, he noted a flurry of activity there with several faculty members waiting to punch in and others sitting around the conference table chatting or getting paperwork ready.

“Good morning, folks,” Dan intoned to no one in particular, looking around the room. I’m glad to see you all again and am looking forward to getting to know each of you in the coming weeks. This is my first day here and I just wanted to say hello and wish you all a good day. You know where to find me if you need anything or just want to chat. I’ll be scheduling a quick lunch meeting for this Friday at Noon and would appreciate it if you can all attend. I’ll provide a light lunch. Anyone with special dietary needs, please let me know. Otherwise I’ll have some ham and cheese and turkey and cheese sandwiches with a salad for us to break bread and chat for a bit. There are some things I’d like your feedback on. Meantime, I hope you each will have a great week. I don’t want to keep you,” Dan finished and turned to head out of the room. As he did so, he heard Jaime call out “Don’t worry, Dean. I’ll verify the time cards for you.”

He stopped and turned to Jaime who was standing close to the time clock having just punched in. “I appreciate the offer, but I’ll take care of that myself later.”

“I really don’t mind,” Jaime insisted. I’ve been doing it for some time.

“Thanks, Jaime, but I will to do that myself from now on.” With that, he walked out and started walking back to his office as all eyes followed him out of the room. He noticed what appeared to be surprise in the faces of his faculty, though whether good or bad he could not tell. It was not something he was going to worry about either way at the moment.

Back in his office, he turned his attention to the filing cabinet drawers, hoping to get a better read about the types of data that may be there. He found, with little surprise, files on each member of the faculty in the top drawer of his four-drawer filing cabinet. After a quick inspection, he had noticed that the other drawers were stuffed with sundry files with no apparent system. Many of the files were not even labeled, and none but the faculty files contained tabs on the hanging folders. He pulled out the first four faculty files and quickly rifled through them, looking at the type of information they contained. He found copies of letters of applications, resumes, college transcripts, and personal information as to their degrees and competencies to teach specific courses. He also found copies of current and past teaching schedules, but little else. The same was true of the remaining files. There was nothing about annual evaluations, students evaluations or related materials. He looked in the other drawers more closely, thinking perhaps that they were filed separately, but found nothing. He’d have to ask Marvin if those files were in his office as he’d like to see them in order to establish a schedule for future periodic evaluations. He made a mental note to do so just as his phone rang, startling him.