Dan discussed his observation with Ms. Hunter, noting the huge improvement across the board, then typed up his evaluation which did not note any significant need for improvement and featured praise for her preparation, rapport with students, class control, fielding of questions, and active effort to involve her students. He then printed out two copies, had Ms. Hunter review and sign them and asked her to add any comments she wished. She signed her copy and the file copy, and, in the comments, she simply wrote: “Thank you for believing in me and for your support. It means more than you can know.”
She left happy, and left Dan buoyed by her improvement, but pained by Katie’s having forced him to look deep within himself in the dark places he did not wish to shed light on. After filing the evaluation, he turned his attention to his next most pressing task: staffing for the new program. He was adding a new program without removing an existing one, so he would have to either hire some part-time faculty members, ask for a new faculty line, which he knew would be a non-starter, or get his existing faculty to fill in. He would need basically coverage for three new classes every day, and six new classes when he expanded the program to two sections. Tomorrow he would need to speak to Marvin and sort this out. Meantime, he would work on a new help wanted ad in case a part time position was approved and would schedule a faculty meeting for the end of the week again. He needed to inform his faculty about the new program officially, though by now he was certain the news had spread to everyone via the grapevine, and he would use the opportunity to get a feel for the feasibility of faculty teaching additional classes. That would present a challenge as far as scheduling, but he would run it for the first time in the evening anyway as it would be an ideal time to attract individuals who might need job retraining but have day jobs already. It would be yet another busy week for him—but a challenge he welcomed.
By the time he was done, it was past 9:00 p.m. yet again. He called Linda from the office to apologize for having to work late yet again and promising that he would leave earlier tomorrow and take her to dinner. She was disappointed but did her best to hide it. Five weeks in, there was no real letup in his workload, and she was beginning to ask both herself and him openly when this was going to end. As with even more important things than this, Dan did not know, but said “soon,” hoping it to be true.
