Susan finished her iced tea, made a quick stop in the rest room, and went back over to the placement office in T-Hall. “So might anything come of this new concept position?” she asked Beverly.

“It looks promising,” the middle-aged woman replied. “Go up and talk to Dr. Thompson about it. His office hasn’t moved, and you can find it if anyone can.”

“Oh, yes,” Susan smiled. “I wouldn’t have forgotten where it is this soon. Thank you, Beverly.”

“Good luck,” Beverly grinned. “At least I figure you know what to expect from him.”

“No, I don’t,” Susan shook her head. “I’ve never been able to figure him out. He’s like mercury. He shines and jiggles all over the place. Just when anyone thinks they have him pinned down he comes up with something from a completely different direction – or at least that’s the way it’s been for me.”

“True, and for me also,” the older woman nodded. “But it’s usually an interesting outcome.”

The college president’s office was up another floor – stairs, no elevator, but elevators had been pretty rare around the campus at Sichuan University, so it wasn’t as if Susan was unused to climbing steps. She walked down the familiar hallway to Dr. Thompson’s office and noticed that his secretary wasn’t around. At other places Susan might have felt it best to wait for her return, but not here. She went to the open door of his office and knocked lightly on the doorframe. “Dr. Thompson?” she said in a moderate voice.

“Oh, hi, Susan,” the graying sixtyish man said, looking up from whatever he was working on at his computer. “How’s my favorite thorn in the side today?”

“A little surprised at being glad to be back in the States,” she admitted. “Are you busy?”

“Not so busy that we can’t kick this idea around,” he replied with a grin. “Come on in, take a load off.”

Susan went into the office – it was not all neat and plush, but a working office, with some clutter evident. It looked a bit tattered, as if it needed a coat of paint, and perhaps a few other things. However, since T-Hall was not long for this world, she could understand why the maintenance hadn’t been done. She noted that as usual Dr. Thompson had an open bottle of Diet RC Cola on his desk; some things hadn’t changed much. She found a chair at the end of his desk and sat down, deciding she’d better make a little small talk. “So how have things been around Southern?” she asked.

“Oh, busy as always. Lots of new things happening. Bev tells me you were in China for the last couple of years.”

“Teaching English as a Second Language at Sichuan University in Chengdu,” she said.

He shook his head. “I guess that gives away my age,” he sighed. “When I was your age a lot of people thought of Red China as the Evil Empire, and Mao Tse-Tung as Darth Vader. Does everybody still carry around a copy of the Little Red Book?”

“I saw it, but not very often,” she smiled. “Once in a while, but that’s all. If you didn’t know better you’d never believe the country is supposed to be at least officially Communist.”

“I guess things have changed there, too. Look, you know me. Let’s get this whole deal up front. What did Bev tell you about what I had in mind?”

“That you want to set up a position for an international student coordinator or an international studies coordinator,” she replied. “She didn’t go into more detail than that.”

“Well, good,” he smiled. “She couldn’t go into much more detail than that because there is none to go into. I can see the need for both positions out there in the not too distant future. In fact, the need has been there in the recent past, too. But like a lot of things around this place, we can only do so much at one time. Susan, I know you well enough that I don’t need to lecture you about the value of a semester or two overseas studying real issues, not just the different culture. In fact, you’re almost certainly more qualified to talk about that than I am. We have done a little of it here in the past, but it’s mostly been student-initiated, and there hasn’t been much we could do to grease the skids. But again, you know about that.”

“When I took a break here in what would have been my regular senior year, it wasn’t really to study, except the language and cultural side of Japan,” she replied. “But I learned a lot anyway.”

In fact, the whole deal had come down because Mizuki was running low on funds and needed to take a year off to work. Mizuki’s mother, who was estranged from her American husband and living at her family home in Japan, had been the one to set up both girls working in a local high school teaching ESL. Susan really hadn’t needed the money; she just wanted the opportunity to spend some more time overseas. The money didn’t exactly break her heart, though, and neither did the chance to get really comfortable speaking Japanese. It had been a fun and interesting year of living in a tiny apartment with her friend.

“One of the advantages of that is to let people know that not all wisdom is American.” Dr. Thompson grinned. “But I suspect you learned that long ago. Anyway, we need to work on making programs of that nature more available to our students. I’m not sure how to do that, and someone needs to look into it. Now we also need to look at the other side of the coin, working on bringing international students here and making them comfortable with some of the unusual aspects of this place.”

“I can tell you that Southern is very different from Sichuan University,” she replied, “and in a good many ways. I can see how a student from there could come here and be overwhelmed by culture shock, not that there isn’t culture shock with many American students coming here, either.”

Dr. Thompson shook his head. “No fooling,” he smiled. “That’s part of the reason we haven’t gone out of our way to recruit international students, at least not yet, though we hope to in the future, especially at the graduate level. Another reason is the housing situation here. You’re probably aware that we planned on starting the east tower this year.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember it,” she admitted. “But it’s not happening yet. Did something happen?”

“We ran into some zoning issues that wound up in the hands of the lawyers,” he said with a shake of his head. “There are some local residents who aren’t totally happy with the idea of being in the shadow of a sixteen-floor residential tower, and it’s been a little acrimonious at times. We think we’re close to having most of the issues worked out, but it’s set back the schedule. It at least allows us to use Charlie Hall as a dormitory for another year, but we’re planning on breaking ground for the east tower and the new cafeteria next year. The west tower is still probably two to three years after that, depending on institutional growth and the economy.”

Susan knew a good deal about that. The housing situation on campus was extremely tight; the last she knew the campus had more than twice the student population than it had in Hawthorne College days, and two fewer dormitories – both of which had to be torn down since they were hopelessly beyond repair; even Hawthorne College had abandoned them. The campus footprint was limited, and there was no room to grow but up. The big residential buildings would allow the removal of the remaining dorms and allow the space to be used more purposefully.

“I can see how that could put a crimp in things,” she nodded. “And probably the economy the last couple of years didn’t help.”

“We could have done the east tower as planned, though the financing would have been riskier,” Dr. Thompson replied. “So I’m glad to have the breathing space in that respect, even though it adds to the student housing crunch. If we continue to grow at our current pace, even the west tower isn’t going to be enough or in time. But the point is that until we get a handle on housing I don’t think we should get heavily involved in international student recruitment. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t research it now since we’ll need to know how to handle it when the time comes.”

This wasn’t looking quite as promising as Susan had hoped. “So you’re saying that these positions are not really something needed in the near future,” she said, trying not to sound disappointed.

“Well, yes and no,” he smiled. “Some portions of those jobs are needed right now, and others we don’t have to be in a rush about. I’ll admit that my thinking about those positions was on the back burner until Bev mentioned you were available. You would probably be good in either of those positions, but they don’t exist yet and haven’t even been defined. But she and I also discussed another issue that is even more important. As you said, there’s a certain amount of culture shock that happens to American students coming here. As you well know, this place isn’t much like other American universities. There are points of commonality, but there are many of divergence, too. What we really need right now is someone to work on that issue.”

“Actually, I think the university did pretty well with that, at least from my experience,” she pointed out. “I agree that a few years have passed and things must have changed.”

“I think you’re right on both counts,” he said. “But you and I know that there have been times where a student and a staff member haven’t been on the same page. In fact, I remember a certain multilingual blonde student walking into this office from time to time dragging another unhappy student with her and saying, ‘Dr. Thompson, what the fuck is this shit?’”

“I never used that kind of language around you,” Susan smiled, knowing just exactly what Dr. Thompson was talking about.

“Well, no,” he laughed. “You never used those words, but I understood quite well what you meant. Susan, do you know why I almost always heard you out?”

“Not really. I guess I just figured you wanted to smooth things over.”

“Susan, I was an undergrad back in the late sixties and early seventies, when things were quite political, and I was one of the more political ones,” he smiled. “There were a lot of students unhappy about the way the university was treating them, and a lot of administrators who tried to dig in their heels since they weren’t going to let one or even a bunch of loudmouthed radical kids change the way things had always been done. It’s no secret that I was one of those radicals. The point is that I was often the one who walked into an administrator’s office and said, ‘What the fuck is this shit?’ And I did use those words once in a while.”

Susan grinned at the vision of Dr. Thompson as a long-haired hippie invading a college president’s office with some grievance. It was still pretty much the kind of person he was, and she could imagine him definitely having been a lot more profane about it back then than she had ever been. “So you saw a little of yourself in me?”

“Well, yes, a little. This isn’t the late sixties and early seventies, Susan. Times have changed and students are a lot less likely to make a noisy protest about something when they think they’ve been wronged. Students today, especially around here, aren’t the types who run to political rallies, sit-ins, and bull horns. But when you marched in here breathing fire, I always knew you had a case, whether you were right or not. What’s more, I knew that if you felt strongly enough about something to beard the lion in his den, well, I had to respect that courage. Over time I learned that you were usually right, and it was a good thing that you’d taken up some student’s issue for them. That’s what makes me think you’d be ideal for the position I have in mind for you.”

“What? To march in here breathing fire over some student problem, as you put it?”

“Essentially, yes. Actually, there are several angles to it, but the most important one I see is to be an ombudsman, someone with the access among the faculty and administration to be able to sort out student problems that they can’t deal with directly themselves. That’s essentially what you were informally doing for much of your time on campus, so once again, I suspect you already know more about the job than I do.”

“I only got involved in those kinds of issues a few times.”

“Right, and when you did, you went out of your way to do it because you could see that someone needed to march into someone’s office breathing fire and straighten out a problem now that could ease things down the road for others. We would not have had the student fitness center, for example, if you hadn’t locked horns with me and made me see things in a different way. Oh, you were always polite about it, which is something I probably wouldn’t have been back in the old days. But my point is that we have had some issues in the past two years that got out of hand with no one around willing to nip them in the bud. There have been several times in the last couple of years that I wished you’d been around to get the upper-level administration involved sooner than it happened. It would have saved a lot of stress all the way around.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she nodded, beginning to understand. “But then those kinds of issues aren’t always around.”

“Very true. But along with that, we need to improve students’ understanding of this place even before they come here, and especially in their first year here. We have lost students in their first year because they can’t hack the atmosphere of this place, Susan. Not because they couldn’t handle the work, but because they couldn’t handle Southern Michigan University when it was likely they would have done fine in other universities. That seems to me to fall in pretty much the same job description, though we don’t have a job description for it yet. In fact, one of the first things you’d have to do would be to write one, and it would include describing the international positions we were talking about, perhaps doing the early part of the work needed to develop them. My guess is that in a couple years all of this together is going to require several people, possibly in different departments, but we’ll see about that when we get that far.”

“It sounds interesting,” Susan smiled. “What’s more, I think I can handle it. However, there are a few issues that come immediately to mind, and there will probably be others in the future.”

“Such as?”

“On the ombudsman part of the problem, I’ll need access to the staff members who have the ability to solve the problem,” she replied. “Several times I had to bring things to you because some administrator was stonewalling me or the student I was trying to help. The problem could have been solved without coming to you if they’d been willing to listen.”

“That sounds reasonable. If someone tries to stonewall you on this, bring it to me and I’ll do some attitude adjustment about stone walls.” There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it and went on, “I would hope that it won’t take too long for the word to get around. What else?”

“Do I get a staff?”

“For the moment, no. When you need that type of help, I’ll consider it. I see no reasons why you couldn’t have one or more student assistants in the interim to help out. We can work out the details on that but they’re workable.”

“That sounds doable,” she smiled. “Especially since neither of us understands the scope of this job, or perhaps I should say these jobs, or what they’re going to grow into. Now I have to ask about pay. I’m not a student, anymore.”

“I’m afraid that this year I can’t go over sixty thousand per annum on a twelve-month position,” he said. It was a number that knocked Susan back in her seat; she’d been expecting half that or less. “I have a budget line item called, ‘Experimental Staffing.’ It’s actually a slush fund to be used for unusual positions that come up unexpectedly. If this shows signs of being successful, I can make it a regular line item for next fiscal year.”

“That may be workable,” she replied, trying to sound neutral, or even maybe a little disappointed. “I guess I could accept that. It is for the betterment of the university, after all.”

“I would hope you’d see it that way, because knowing the kind of person you are, you’re probably going to wind up earning every penny of your paycheck, which goes with the usual benefits, of course, and a month’s paid leave annually, the usual holidays, and so forth. Also, it allows you to use facilities such as the student fitness center, and to attend classes here gratis.”

“Including graduate-level courses?”

“Of course, though if it’s something on exchange with another institution, the details would have to be worked out. You’re familiar with that process; it’s the same thing as you did as an undergraduate.”

“How about office space?”

“Good question,” he sighed. “There’s an office available across the hall, and I’d like to have you there to make the point to others that you will have easy access to me. On the other hand, it would be better and I hope possible to shuffle things around and get you space on the ground floor so students would have easier access to you.”

“I think I like that idea,” she said after an instant’s thought. “If this goes the way we hope, it won’t take long for the word to get around that I have ready access to you, anyway.”

“That’s not bad thinking. Are you interested in the position?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “How soon do I start?”

“As soon as you can. I presume you’ll have to make some living arrangements, and that will take a few days.”

“Probably so,” she smiled. There were several things she felt very good about, but now was not the time to consider the ramifications. “I take it apartments in town are as tight as ever.”

“Possibly tighter, though not as bad as it would have been if we’d had to close Charlie Hall this winter,” he said. “That’s something I’m hoping to improve in the next few years but it’s going to be worse before it gets better. You might want to consider living out of town, say in Amherst or Bradford, but if you can find something here in town it likely would be better. Some of the problems you’ll be dealing with won’t come up during business hours.”

“I’ll have a look around,” she shook her head. “I no longer have the apartment house I owned not far off campus. That was really convenient.”

“Just as a thought, you might want to look just to the north of campus,” he grinned. “There are several places over there for sale, and I understand at reasonable prices.”

“People who aren’t happy being in the shade of a sixteen-story residential tower?” she grinned.

“It wouldn’t be any surprise to me,” he laughed, and changed the subject. “Susan, it will be good to have you back with us, since I feel that you have a better understanding of the special atmosphere of this place than most of our administrators. You will be the first of our former students we’ve had in a responsible position at this level. That experience will bring an understanding of the university’s culture that is woefully short in several of our present administrators. We have something unique here, Susan, and it will be the responsibility of those who have seen the light to keep it that way.”

“I agree with you, Dr. Thompson.”

“Please, Susan. Now that you’re on the staff here, call me Mark while we’re in private. I realize there is some shit about propriety that has to be maintained at times, but we have to work at not letting the place become too formal, too. Now, are you planning on being around town for a while?”

“I had no particular plans until I walked into your office just now.”

“Give me a little time to get things set up with Human Resources and Financial and see if I can get the best angle on the office issue. If you stop by HR in the morning, there should be some paperwork for you to sign. If not, come see me.”

“I can do that,” she agreed. “I know we haven’t worked out a job description yet, but what is my title going to be?”

“Good question,” he said. “And it’s one that I’ll have to answer this afternoon. What would you think of ‘Student Relations Coordinator and University Ombudsman?’ That seems to cover the bases pretty well without pinning things down too tightly.”

“If we can work the international aspects into the job description, it will be even more enticing to me,” she replied. “It’s good to be back. I think, especially in this capacity, I’ll be able to do some good for Southern.”

“I think you will as well. When I heard you were back, I could see a way to solve a lot of problems that have been kicking around since you left. You showed up at just the right time, Susan.”

Although Susan had worked to keep her cool and her composure in Dr. Thompson’s office, it was hard to do once she got outside. Sixty thousand a year was twice what she’d expected, four times what she’d effectively made in Chengdu, though she’d been able to save money even there, since the cost of living on the economy had been very cheap, and her housing had been provided.

This was a big job, and an important job. It was not exactly the kind of thing she’d dreamed of doing and she wasn’t sure she wanted to make a career out of it, but it would look pretty good on a résumé, that was for sure. True, it wasn’t an international job, or at least not much of one, not yet, but it could transition that way, and possibly even open the doors for something in Europe, which is where she really would rather have been the last two years instead of China. If she lived cheaply and saved her money, and also used her job to make some connections, in a year or two she might be able to slide into something worthwhile in Europe besides ESL, even if it took some financial investment to do it.

She got out to the car, set her briefcase in the passenger seat, and took off the vest she’d worn – it was hot outside, and it had even been warm in Dr. Thompson’s office. She settled into the driver’s seat, started the car to get the air conditioner going, and sat back to contemplate things. This was an opportunity that she really hadn’t expected!

As the air conditioner started to pump cool air into the car, an uneasy realization came over her: while she’d have an interesting job and some serious challenges, she just now realized that she’d been the victim of a Dr. Thompson snow job. It was something he was very good at, or else he’d never have been able to build Southern from a collection of rundown and abandoned empty buildings into a growing university over the course of about ten years. Yes, she had a job out of the deal, and a good-paying job at that. The problem was that she’d actually accepted four different jobs for the price of one. Oh, there was some overlap in both the student services and international services positions, but it was easy to see that they would pull in different directions to a great degree too. Dr. Thompson had agreed that they were likely to grow to be too much for one person sooner or later – and maybe they already had.

Well, hell, she thought now that she had that angle on it. I ought to be able to make it work for a year or two; if it gets to be too much, it’ll just be too much. While this ought to be interesting, it’s probably something I don’t want to lock myself into for the long term. By next spring I might be ready to take an ESL position in China again just for an excuse to get out of this place. In any case, in a year I ought to know a hell of a lot more than I know now.

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