Things to Do during Office Hours
- Things to Do during Office Hours
First, you must get there.Walk back from classwith the student whojust wants to knowwhat you want her to write.
the walk between buildings in winter
Listen to stories abouther background,her suburban hometown,the commute with her dad tothe next town for school andhow he taught her to loveand also be afraid.
the snow swiftly falling
Try to explainthat the space betweenthe prompt and the paperis the work. [End Page 336]
on a stack of papers
Next, email the quiet student.Tell him his contribution in classwas invaluable—did he notice the way theconversation lit up?
falling swiftly
Email the struggling studentwho doesn't come to classto encourage him to cometo office hours.
the feeling of quiet coming in through the window
Rethink the wayyou come out to your class.Announcing you're queerin a conversationabout whether or notthe term is a slurmay not be the best method.
Rethink the lecture for next class.Revise your slides.Rethink your career.
not far away
Click on an infographicstating that 71%of full professorsare still white men. [End Page 337]
some students still new to snow
Read through fifteen emailsabout the agendafor the upcomingdepartment meeting.
post photos on Instagram
Read through five emailsasking for collaborationon institutional fulfillmentand fundraising.
of small snowmen with winter hats
Marvel on the trickle-downlogic of executive thinkingin the university and how itengendered a cubicle farm.
in a cold environment
Try to grade paperswithout your headphones.
why do we call this cold a blanket?
Turn to the open-facing sideof your cubicle andpoint a student toanother faculty member's cubicle. [End Page 338]
upperclassmen
Turn again to tell a differentstudent you don't havea stapler he can borrow
trail down a knoll
Remember the office suppliesyou've stolen from home.
outside the dining hall
Put the pens in the drawerPut the paper clips in the cupon the desk.
on cafeteria trays
Steal time.that's what you've got
Write a poem.Draw up your dream syllabus. [End Page 339]
Laura Wetherington's first book, A Map Predetermined and Chance, was selected byC. S. Giscombe for the National Poetry Series. Her work appears or will appear in the journals Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Eleven Eleven, The Normal School, Drunken Boat, among others, and in two anthologies, The Sonnets: Translating and Rewriting Shakespeare, and Sixty Morning Talks. Grants include a 2017 and 2015 Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts from the Nevada Arts Council and a 2014 Artist Grant in Literature from the Sierra Arts Foundation. She teaches in Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe's low-residency MFA program. She can be reached at laura.wetherington@ gmail.com.
