It's raining on Thursday morning as Nick tries to find the closest spot to the building, thankfully not hard to do in the off season. He fishes a hand-me-down umbrella from beneath the Cordoba's bench seat and heads in, donned in a clean pair of jeans and presumably clean tan and blue checkered button-up short-sleeved shirt. Goody had advised him to just wear what he'd normally wear to work, the apex of professional and comfortable.
He checks in with the receptionist just as Goody walks up, they shake hands and proceed into the Dean's office where he's greeted with another handshake. Sue Richards is one of those gals who seems a lot taller than her actual stature.
"Have a seat, gentlemen, would you like some coffee?"
They both decline, Nick was already a bit wired anyway.
"Very good, well Nick, we are very glad to have you join the faculty. Will you be up to teaching five or six classes this fall while Alfred and George are on sabbatical?"
Nick just raises an eyebrow, and after a couple seconds she winks and lets him off the hook, he can see Goody chuckle towards the other wall.
"Just having some fun with you Nick, we're very glad you are interested in watching over the electronics lab."
"Good one, Dean."
"Please, call me Sue. And this meeting is really just a formality, I believe you are aware of what it entails, the responsibilities?"
"I think so, we covered that a few weeks ago and it's seemed like the right thing to do."
"Well we do as well, Nick, it's an honor to have one of our top students on board."
"Thank you, Sue, that's very kind."
"Not at all. So...just to coordinate, I believe you could start, what is it, the...third...week in July, Alfred?"
Nick grins and can't resist, mumbles, "Alfred."
Goody chimes in, "yes that's when Brian is finishing up," then turns and fires, "Nicholas."
"I can see this is gong to be a good time with you two. Nick will you be wanting to start at that time? That's fine with us, or you could start a bit later into August if that works best."
"I'll go ahead and get started at the earliest date, been looking forward to it."
"Excellent," as Sue makes some notes.
Goody chimes in, "will you be moonlighting for Emmett?"
"No...no, I'm done."
"His loss is our gain."
Sue rejoins, "Nick I believe you worked previously as a tour guide?"
"Correct."
"Very good, so the office should have some of your info on file, but could you see them on your way out and take a letter? They may ask you to re-apply, and all that. If you can stick around a bit we can get that ready for you."
"That sounds great, and I really do appreciate this opportunity."
"Well again, we appreciate you and what you've accomplished here. It seems you'll have access to the lab, and other perks like being able to audit courses for free, just work it out with Alfred. Just keep the lab and students enabled and we'll be all set."
"That fits my understanding."
"Good, and I wanted to mention, just remember that you are not here to assist students but to assist the faculty. Of course you are free to assist students if you wish but don't hesitate to explain your role, and I believe instructors mention this in class as well-"
Goody affirms.
"Perfect, so Nick if you have any questions or concerns I'm sure you know to get with Alfred, but I have an open door policy with my staff Nick, just check with the desk out there and we'll talk as soon as possible."
"Sounds great, Sue, I appreciate that."
She smiles, stands up and reaches for a handshake, "Welcome aboard, Nick."
*****
He wanders around the lab a bit, still familiar but yet so much yet to explore. The VAX and PC labs are not open today. It would be nice to have a key to those but they are maintained by the business department.
Not sure what else to do, he bugs Goody about the VAX and asks if he would still have an account.
"Yeah you'd have staff access to whatever you need or can use, just talk to Jim Gordon. I believe it has a modem too but there's only a single line and they like it to just be used for quick things, you know, to check messages or whatever."
"Cool, just kinda curious."
"If you were wanting to do some programming I believe it has C and several other languages. You can always telnet into it from anywhere on the building network too."
"Yeah we did C on there, hadn't thought of the network, never got to use it before."
"Welcome to the machine, son. By the way, are you still talking to that young lady?"
Nick turns out the door, "You know I think the office has that letter ready, better go-"
"Get outta here, see you in a few weeks and call if you need to talk about anything."
"Will do, coach, thanks."