New leadership adjustments Part II

It looks like I'm not the only one having to adjust to the new way our unit is being managed.

One of the duties that used to be delegated to me by our former director was the approval/disapproval of requests of student organizations to use our lecture halls for their activities. The main reason for this is since I'm in charge of scheduling the classes offered by our unit, I would know when a room would be available or not during a given time and day.

Now that we have a new director, as expected, he has taken the responsibility of approving and disapproving these requests instead of passing them along to me. He however still consults with our property custodian whom I have supplied a copy of our class schedules and at whose office our teaching staff make room reservations.

That was the situation when two students came to see me this morning. Their organization had been given permission to use one of our lecture halls today but they found that the lecture hall didn't have enough seats for all the people who were participating in their activity (some kind of inter-high school quiz). So would it be all right if they used so-and-so lecture hall instead in the afternoon for the rest of the activity?

I was pondering the technicalities involved in that request (that on paper they were allowed to use that lecture hall so was it okay to let them use the other by internal arrangement, etc.) when I realized something.

I asked them, "One question. Who signed your letter? Who approved your request to use the lecture hall?"

Both students promptly answered, "Si Dr. __ ," (our new director).

I expected this and told them, "So if he was the one who approved your request, it is him whom you have to ask permission to use the other lecture hall."

To my amusement, the eyes of both students widened and both students gasped simultaneously before saying fearfully, "Dr. ___???"

I just shrugged my shoulders when I saw their reaction and repeated, "Yes, you have to go ask Dr. ___ and not me. He was the one who approved your request, right? So I have no authority to change that."

Still looking terrified at the prospect of approaching our director, they silently nodded in agreement, mumbled their thanks and left.

I had a good laugh when the door closed behind them.

Although it was funny to see their reaction to my suggestion to see our director, I wondered at the same time why students fear him so. He's no terror at all but as he's the oldest among us teaching staff and well known for his accomplishments in research I suppose they're simply in awe of him. He also probably looks formidable because he's such a serious fellow compared to our jolly former director. He however does crack jokes once in a while which I've seen him do during our faculty meetings. I'm not sure if he cracks jokes at his classes though. I've been his student a couple of times already and I don't recall seeing him smile or joke during our classes. So I don't think the undergraduate students have had any glimpse of that funny side of our director.

Ah, well. They'll just have to pluck up the courage to deal with him as director for the next three years!