Like candy

Professors sneaking into student facilities, --sounds a little questionable, but, no, we are talking about rooms filled with high tech equipment. I am sitting here comfortably in a computer lab, 20 pretty Macs available in air conditioned solitude. Not a soul to be found in this newly renovated room on a Friday afternoon. So instead of sweating in my 1930s office, I can sneak down a flight of stairs and work in cool, quiet air conditioned comfort, where the students are not but the equipment waits for them patiently.

How often do we professors piggy-back on undergraduate facilities? How often do I feel that the library is just there for me and a handful of foreign graduate students, because on a weekend I can walk through the chilly, dark stacks researching to my heart's content. And, trust me, I can check books out from the library like no one else. They have to cut me off at 200, then I finagle and maneuver to cross the limit with interlibrary loan books--they are on a separate list.

These student facilities are superb, and as a humanities professor I appreciate having the opportunity to use fancy machines whenever the undergrads are out at play.