Saturday, February 2, 2013

In which I test the waters

It was now or never. I had been warned by Colin Morrison, in-house lawyer for the University, that I would be charged with trespassing if I came back on campus, and he had suggested I pursue my grievance through more conventional channels. I did not find his suggestions helpful, and I told him so in the following words:

Dear Mr. Morrison:
Thank you for your helpful suggestions; however, I feel I will have little chance of success in pursuing my grievance unless I know exactly what Professor Bush told the security officer when he called to report on me. If you can provide me with this information I will agree to abide by the present trespassing order.
Marty Green

 I clicked "SEND" and later that afternoon headed off to the university. I entered by the rear doors on Ellice Avenue and walked up to the fourth floor "buffeteria", as they used to call it. After passing through it, I did a short tour of the campus, going here and there, and then decided maybe I'd done enough for one day. I was just heading for the rear doors when I saw a security guard coming my way. As calmly as I could, I just kept walking til we were almost abreast. Then, I don't know why, something got into me...without turning my head, I winked at him. I swear he almost jumped out of his boots. As he spun around and saw the "MATH WITH MARTY" logo emblazoned in fluorescent yellow on the back of my jacket, I heard him calling on his radio: "Code 210! Code 210!". By then I was out the door, and I just walked on down the street without looking back.

When I came back on Tuesday, they had beefed up the security detail. Again I entered and made my rounds. Fourth floor, third floor, second floor...I was greeted by one of my former classmates, and I told him I was about to get arrested. But so far I was still in the clear. I headed for the back door and made it out into the cold winter air. That's when I saw my other classmate having a smoke break on the back steps. I stopped to chat, and that's when security caught up with me.

2 comments:

  1. So, how exactly does going on - campus get you that information you desire? Do you plan on breaking into Prof. Bush's office or something?

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  2. It's now eight months later. It's a little hard to explain how it all worked out, but the fact is, as a result of going on campus and everything that followed, I now have exactly the information I was looking for. I couldn't have predicted how it would have ended up this way, but oddly enough that's where we are now. (And I didn't have to break into anyone's office either.)

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