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<DIV>Carole,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I mentioned your complaint to the Dean (Steve Cullenberg), and he agreed
wholeheartedly. He asked me to forward your email, but I thought maybe
you'd like to write to him directly. He really wants more social spaces
and remembers the old Pub as well as the old bran. He's in favor of more
spaces for grads too, and he's trying to do something outside our building with
tables and so on. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Anyway, I know he'd like to hear from you and he may even be able to help,
which would be a great boon.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cheers,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>George</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 1/19/2008 7:21:56 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
cfabs@mindspring.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Hi
folks,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Please bear with me; I’ll be as
concise as possible (though we all realize that brevity is not my
forte).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Returning to campus after the
holiday break (oh joy!), I arranged to meet a friend near the new student
Commons so that we could sit for a bit and catch up on things over a
cappuccino. We were appalled to discover that the coffee/espresso bar
that had always been part of the indoor cafeteria in the old Commons was no
longer there – it had apparently been unceremoniously booted out, presumably
to make room to squeeze in a few more of the 28 different varieties of the
same fast-food crap that are now on offer there. No one could tell us
where it had disappeared to. Finally a student pointed vaguely in the
direction of the Bookstore and told us the coffee bar had been moved into a
truck (!!) that was located somewhere out yonder. By this time my friend
had to leave but I (intrepid explorer that I am) decided to head out and
search for it myself, urged on by a strong feeling that at a campus of – what
is it now, 16,000 students? – one should be able to purchase a cappuccino and
have a pleasant place to sit down and drink it. After ‘beating the bush’
for about a half-hour and asking many people about its location (no one knew,
not even inside the Bookstore) I finally stumbled onto it. It was indeed
housed in a truck – literally; parked out in the boonies past the
Bookstore.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Needless to say, it’s now a solely
cash-and-carry operation. There’s no place nearby to sit and savor the
coffee while conversing with friends or reading a book. I might add
there’s no place to sit and rest for the makers of the cappuccino
either. They’re on their feet all day long, standing in a drafty truck
without heating or any amenities whatever. I spoke at length with one of
them (whom I knew from the old indoor espresso bar) and she complained
bitterly about the working conditions and the arbitrary decision to banish the
bar from the Commons proper (fellow union members, take note). I bought
a cappuccino and scurried back to my office – after all, there’s nowhere in
the Commons area that’s conducive to hanging out for any length of time more
than 3 seconds.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">As an aside, I might add that
there’s no such place anywhere else on campus either. A few years back
the Barn was a pleasant, comfy, kick-back kind of place where you could hang
out and talk to friends over a couple of beers. The last time I went in
there it had metamorphosed into some grotesque version of a tacky provincial
airport terminal cafeteria – which, to add insult to injury, no longer even
served beer (or much else that one would want, as far as I could tell).
I promptly left the premises and haven’t returned
since.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Perhaps some of you may think this
matter is trivial, but I myself find this situation not only infuriating and
appalling, but also an only too apt reflection of other larger (and
unquestionably serious) problems with the campus. In the supposedly
‘bad’ old days, when UCR was struggling for survival with 4500 students, the
Commons area had a comfortable, funky coffee-house where people could get
together, enjoy their daily dose of java, talk, plan lessons or mayhem, or
whatever. Now that we’re “thriving” (ahem), with an ever-growing student
body, we have a Commons that’s about as homey and comfortable as a food court
in a cheesy down-scale shopping mall – one that doesn’t even off the kind of
basic amenities one would take for granted even on a campus like Podunk State
(which I daresay UCR is beginning to resemble more and
more).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The corporate bureaucrats who made
the decision about what the Commons should look like and what should and
shouldn’t be housed in it are clearly ‘kissing cousins’ to the ones who are
making educational and institutional decisions that affect every one of us on
a daily basis. Their decision to throw out the espresso bar no doubt
reflects their desire for a rapid turnover of customers in the Commons – ones
willing to pay a chunk to stuff their faces with overpriced fast food
(disguised as different ‘ethnic’ [!] ‘cuisines’ [!!]) and then leave the
premises to make room for other customers who will do the same.
Obviously people who only want to buy a cup of coffee and sit for a while
nursing it while doing other things are not the kind of consumers these
bureaucrats want – after all, they take up space and are paying relatively
little for the ‘privilege’ of doing so. The last thing these bureaucrats
want to do is to provide a place where students and faculty can gather,
leisurely sip their drug of choice, and talk – who knows, maybe even
(horrors!) conspire, agitate, and organize. Am I the only one who sees a
parallel with the recent uncontrolled growth of the campus, which has resulted
in a mindless processing of bodies through the system as quickly as possible,
regardless of whether or not anything even vaguely resembling a ‘real’
(meaningful) education is taking place? <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It’s bad enough this is the
ugliest campus in the continental <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, does it also have to
be the most inhospitable and uncivilized? No wonder most of the newer
faculty live as far from campus as possible – and why, after finishing one’s
classes, one wants to ‘get the hell out of Dodge’ as quickly as
possible. What is there to hang around for? I teach evening
classes, and walking across campus to and from them is like walking through a
cemetery – and an especially creepy one at that. Nothing is open,
there’s no place to sit down and have a quick coffee or snack, there’s
absolutely nothing to keep a body (or mind, or soul) alive. Is it any
wonder that the minute class ends my students scurry away like rats off a
sinking ship, anxious to escape the dark, forbidding campus with life and limb
intact? (Apparently the Powers That Be in this joint, for all their
chest-thumping promotion of new “cutting-edge” technologies, have never heard
of that good old-fashioned one called
electricity.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In my opinion, the saddest thing
about this situation is that many of our undergrads who are natives of the
‘Inland Empire’, having basically grown up in the middle of an endless
shopping mall, having nothing to compare this campus with and thus don’t know
any better – have no clue that there are actually (far more desirable and
attractive) alternatives out there. They think this is what a university
should look like and what it should be offering those who attend it. It
doesn’t occur to them that a campus can, and should, be held to account for
providing so pitifully little (in basic resources and amenities) in exchange
for so much (in tuition and other fees).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The entire corporate-bureaucratic
structure of the university is to blame for these lamentable circumstances;
but the person most immediately and directly responsible for overseeing the
Commons, and for banishing the coffee bar from it, is a man by the name of
Andy Plumley, who’s an Assistant Vice-Chancellor in the Housing Services
Administration. If any of the points I’ve made in this email strike a
sympathetic chord in you (regardless of whether or not you’re a coffee addict
like me, or even a coffee drinker at all), I would urge you to drop Mr.
Plumley a brief email (even one line would do, and would take all of 5 seconds
to send) expressing your displeasure that the espress bar was removed from the
Commons and requesting that it be returned as soon as possible. His
email address is: <A title=mailto:andy.plumley@ucr.edu
href="mailto:andy.plumley@ucr.edu">andy.plumley@ucr.edu</A>.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Yes, I know there’s a coffee kiosk
near us, outside the Administration Bldg. (or whatever the hell it’s now being
used for), and like many of you I do patronize it on a fairly regular basis,
buying a cappuccino and bringing it back to my office. But the kiosk
doesn’t address the need for something that at least approximates a ‘public
space’ (I realize that’s a dirty word these days in the last stages of
advanced capitalism, with its privatization of just about everything) where
one can escape the solitary confines of one’s designated ‘hole’ (i.e., office)
and briefly mingle and converse with others (whether students or colleagues)
over suitable restorative refreshment. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It’s true that sending an email to
Mr. Plumley will not help save the whales or slow global warming or stop the
takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court by right-wing ideologues. But it’s a
small and simple step each of us can take to try to rectify a small and simple
problem in our immediate work-place environs – and best of all, it’s a step
that (assuming a critical mass of people taking it) has a real chance of
achieving its desired ends. The return of the espresso bar to the
Commons is only the tip of the iceberg when we consider the problems with the
campus from the broadest perspective, but one has to begin somewhere – and
where better than with a bracing cup of java?!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thank you for reading and giving
serious consideration to this (admittedly overlong) email. Special
thanks to those of you who write to Mr. Plumley about this matter. And
an extra special thank you to those who “cc” me in your email, or who drop me
a separate note letting me know you sent one. Having a realistic
estimate of the number of people who requested the return of the espresso bar
will help me in any future correspondence I might have with Mr. P. (or his
handlers). I’d like to think that I’m not just pushing my own pet peeve
here but that I’m speaking for many of my colleagues in this
matter.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Cheers (and Happy
2008),<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Carole<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Start the year off right. <A title="http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489" href="http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489" target="_blank">Easy ways to stay in shape</A> in the new year. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>