Downtime Discipline: A Working Winter Break

Today was a fantastic “advance planning” day at City College of The New York (CCNY). After the flurry of the end of the semester and exams, students and professors have a bit of a reprieve before the semester starts in a little over two weeks.

It’s amazing what you can achieve when you have a few moments to plan and think outside the box.

First, I had the opportunity to network with CCNY’s Wendy Thornton and Daniel Tome in the Office of Student Life and Leadership Development. Last semester, I had the pleasure of working with their colleague O’Lanso Gabbindon, who monitored approval of the first campus chapter of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Harlem’s leading environmental organization (visit www.weact.org to learn about first annual WE ACT Climate Conference, Jan. 29-30).

We spoke about ways we all could be of more service to MCA students and those throughout the college. Exciting plans are in the works; more on that later. Because we used a portion of our downtime discipline to think outside the box, we even came up with a creative interdisciplinary idea that just might work to bring folks together and build visibility. We’ll see. All of us just appreciated the opportunity to get to know each other as colleagues and see how best we might be able to work together in the months ahead.

Midday I met student leaders as they strategized for the upcoming Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Bateman competition. They are using their winter break wisely, coordinating programs and approvals as they roll out an innovative program for 8th Graders at the Frederick Douglass Academy.

In the afternoon, I got a jump on computer, telephone and other operational issues before the spring semester begins. Ann Rossetti, our dedicated college laboratory technician who manages Media & Communication Arts computer networks, is using the quiet, uninterrupted downtime to upgrade the departments smart classrooms, synching applications and installing new hardware—no small feat. Each semester, when students return to campus they are treated to system upgrades, thanks to Ann, who has the patience of Job.

Later, I learned Blackbox, college subcontractors for the huge job of replacing phones throughout CCNY, currently has 50 people on campus to deal with what must be a monumental task. My spanking new phone looks great, but alas, has no dial tone. Wayne Grofik, our MCA Technical Director, suggests that I walk through the service order rather than calling to what must be a black hole of requests. Good idea.

By just walking through my request, the gentlemen in the CCNY telecommunications office seemed relieved someone was not bombarding them with tirades of “my phone doesn’t work—come fix it now!” I was then directed to the hotline to log in my request.

“Thanks for understanding,” they replied.

Treat folks with respect and kindness and you’ll get it back 10-fold.