Last week, our lovely Randolph College campus experienced a power outage during the first week of classes, and the students and faculty grappled with an unexpected adventure. Heres my playful notes recording the experience: THINGS OVERHEARD ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT FOR 48 HOURS DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES - vita abundantior - “It’s like the zombie apocalypse, except the freshmen aren’t yet sucking on each other’s necks.” History Student: “People can’t live like this.” “If you plug two phones together with a USB cord, will each one charge the other?” “Do you think if the backup generator goes out, they’ll lose record of how much tuition we owe?” “There’s a video about making an air conditioner with a five gallon bucket, some ice, and a fan, but the fans don’t work, the ice has melted, and I can’t access the internet to know how to put things together.” “How am I supposed to teach without a computer and a projector?” Theater Student: “We should walk around pretending like everything is normal.” “I heard this is a big test, and we’re being filmed for how we respond. I keep smiling at the security cameras, just in case.” “Who cares if the power is out; is the internet working?” “The syllabus didn’t say anything about what to do if there’s no power.” “I know you remember when this school didn’t have air conditioning, but we are 21st century students who need air conditioning and electricity to comfortably avoid reading for your class.” “This is awful. I haven’t been able to level up in three days.” “Oh, relax. You’re not in trenches on the western front.” “So I know the college canceled all classes this afternoon, but is our afternoon class canceled?” “Let’s all shave our heads in protest.” “If I had my cosplay stuff, my paladin and I could survive in this, even if there were warlocks in every dorm. Jerry is a warlock, but we’ll let him live.” Psychology Student: “This is real trauma like PTSD stuff. We should make a survey on survey monkey and survey the students on if they feel trapped—I’ll see if there’s a measure for captivity trauma.” English Student (reading book): “When did the power go out?” Philosophy Student: “It’s like a cave, man.” Electrician: “The replacement part is in Chicago. They said it’ll be here tomorrow, but Chicago is a union town, so...” “We should sneak a generator into our room, oh, but the plugs don’t work. Wait, how does a generator work?” “Do the printers work when there’s no power?” Gender Studies Student: “The power imbalance started a long time before the power went out.” “We should get an over-sized hamster wheel, hook it up to the power grid, and watch the administrators run the school.” :) IT WAS A MEMORABLE AND FUN WEEK -- Gary
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:42:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015