TITLE: And This Gray Spirit Yearning
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 17, 2013  1:41 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
On my first day as a faculty member at the university, twenty years
ago, the department secretary sent me to Public Safety to pick up
my office and building keys.  "Hi, I'm Eugene Wallingford," I told
the person behind the window, "I'm here to pick up my keys."  She
smiled, welcomed me, and handed them to me -- no questions asked.

Back at the department, I commented to one of my new colleagues
that this seemed odd.  No one asked to see an ID or any form of
authorization.  They just handed me keys giving me access to a lot
of cool stuff.  My colleague shrugged.  There has never been a
problem here with unauthorized people masquerading as new faculty
members and picking up keys.  Until there is a problem, isn't it
nice living in a place where trust works?

Things have changed.  These days, we don't order keys for faculty;
we "request building access".  This phrase is more accurate than a
reference to keys, because it includes activating the faculty ID
to open electronically-controlled doors.  And we don't simply plug
a new computer into an ethernet jack and let faculty start working;
to get on the wireless network, we have to wait for the Active
Directory server to sync with the HR system, which updates only
after electronic approval of a Personnel Authorization Form that
set up of the employee's payroll record.  I leave that as a run-on
phrase, because that's what living it feels like.

The paperwork needed to get a new faculty member up and running
these days reminds me just how simple life was when in 1992.  Of
course, it's not really "paperwork" any more.
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