Even With Empty Hallways, There's Enough Noise Via Email to Say "Nope, Nada, Never, You Can't, Impossible, Who Told You That" - Ah, The Joys of What I Do

The parking lot is empty. The rooms are empty. My hallway is empty. But I was in and I unpacked hundreds of new books for summer programs, assembled writer's notebooks, and set things in place for next week. Then at 8 p.m. last night I receive an email from someone I've never heard of with a position I've never heard of, declaring all these rules and regulations that never existed in the time since I've been here, including the fact that if youth are on campus in the summer, they must eat in the dining hall. 

Since when? Huh? 

It became too costly to eat in the dining hall, because they charge $14 a meal and the kids won't eat it. They served tater tots and chicken nuggets every day, and to deal with complaining parents, we went to a bring-your-own lunch initiative that made everyone happy. There haven't been complaints since. Now, 8 years later, there's a policy. And there's also a policy for having people clean up after us each day. Um...we've always done that ourselves. I hired teachers. We're used to the work that it takes to keep a classroom moving. Sometimes I can't believe my eyes and ears. Huh?

The writers' notebooks look good, though, and the kids and families are excited about the programs. Now, I know that there are people hired to bring revenue to campus during the summer, but CWP-Fairfield is not the right program. We scholarship a kid for every paying customer so we can break even. Any profit goes to pay for teachers to present at national conferences and to put books in the hands of kids. We are a low-maintenance, self-sustaining program dedicated to the literate lives of young people and their teachers. We serve the public and, well, it's been award-winning work. 

We shall see what comes of all this. I mean, it might make sense if I also received support for the programs in return: administrative assistants, graduate students, summer stipends for the work I do for CWP. And I had dinner with faculty from the College of Arts & Sciences tonight to learn they get summer stipends for 3 times the amount I get paid, only to do 'curricular' work, but not have to work with a single student. I'm like, 'Hmmmm. I have 100s of kids and teachers I work with each summer and, on lucky years, only get an adjunct stipend."

Ah, the world we live in.