Monday, June 30, began with Pilates as usual. Later that morning there was a reception to honor outgoing Chancellor John White and his wife, Libby (but I missed it while meeting with Teri Stafford and Dean Beard). Yikes!

At 11:30 a.m. one of my favorite folks came over (those of you who follow the blog have seen him repeatedly) Mike Johnson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities. Jay Huneycutt, Director of Planning and Capital Programming at Facilities Management, joined us as well. Once a year they come over to walk around the building and to discuss problems or issues of maintenance of the building and grounds. We walked around the building and I pointed out a number of concerns I have, particularly in light of the upcoming building dedication. Mike was very gracious in promising to work with me to get a number of these issues resolved, as well as to perhaps put in some new landscaping, particularly on the Maple Street side of the building. It is looking a little bit decrepit, particularly in contrast with the new building. After the walk around, we went to have lunch at Taste of Thai and I had the Pad See Eu and Thai iced tea and that was really good, as usual. After lunch, I walked around the building to visit with my colleagues and to find out what was new with them.

At 4:00 p.m. I met with one of our alums, Lisa Kelley. She had expressed an interest in the academic support position that we’re thinking about. I think I’ve mentioned it before. As it turned out, we decided to be a little bit more deliberate in our approach to the position. Although it would be helpful to the students to fill it sooner rather than later, we thought it important to have more input from the faculty in terms of the duties and structure the position, so we decided to wait a little bit. In the meantime I very much appreciate Lisa coming in to talk with me about it on a hot summer day. Hopefully, we’ll have a better sense of our needs this fall.