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[systeme_d_]

A columnist for the CHE thinks we should have big old common spaces instead of private offices.

Predictably, perhaps, I think he's off his nut.

How about you? Want to give up your office in favor of a "very exclusive commons area"?

(I love that oxymoron.)

[the_walrus]

Wretched idea.  I believe that this has been tried at various places in the UK with disastrous consequences, but don't have time to find the details at the moment.  I'm pretty sure THE has reported on such setups and the problems they've led to.

[cranefly]

I could do this, if you wanted to take away all my productivity.

[chaosbydesign]

My U is doing this. It goes without saying that the majority of faculty think it is a horrendous idea.

[zoelouise]

Sory, cannot be bothered to read the article- what happens when a student wishes to speak with me in confidence?

When I have a young person cryin my office, I want the door closed. So does the student, I presume.

[systeme_d_]

Sory, cannot be bothered to read the article- what happens when a student wishes to speak with me in confidence?

When I have a young person cryin my office, I want the door closed. So does the student, I presume.

The author proposes that some small conference rooms would be located off of the "exclusive commons."  (I have to keep calling it that.  It makes me giggle.)

[voxprincipalis]

My characterization is "ludicrous and insulting." Does the architect have a private office, I wonder?

In addition to all the other problems, it would shoot FERPA to hell.

One of the few things that works to one's benefit as a musician in academe is being able to say, "Sorry, I need my own office; I make noise for a living." I would love to have, say, a tuba professor, a percussion professor, a voice professor, a Spanish professor, and a History professor all in the same "shared space." In fact, I would pay to see that. I would also take bets on how long it was before someone murdered someone else.

VP

[testingthewaters]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

And that's all I have to say about that.

[schoolmarm]

VP....come see MY office!

Although we HAVE walls, we do not have sound proofing, so in actuality we have:

A voice teacher with opera students who learn to get loud before they 'sing pretty'
Saxophone/jazz professor
Bassoon professor
French Horn professor with a big studio
Oboe professor
Whoever is playing on stage--most of the time this is enjoyable
Guitarist
Ethnomusicologist who researches/plays the blues
Class piano studio.

I try to work from home.  It's a zoo.  I'm thankful that I can't hear THROUGH the recital hall to the rest of the building.

[testingthewaters]

OK, I lied. That's not all I have to say. This:

Each faculty member would have a big lockable storage space, or perhaps a rolling cart for books and papers, and could plug in a laptop anywhere in the commons on any given day. (Some companies have taken similar approaches.)

is very true. Everyone I know who works for one of these companies hates it. I was in one of these companies, and one of the lucky few to have an office, albeit shared with 2 colleagues and the size of a broom closet, it was still preferable to a rollable cart in an open plan office.

I know, plural anticdote ≠ data, but still. Picture having to fight your colleagues for the desk in the common area where both the power outlet and the ethernet cable work. Picture having search for your rolling cart and pull it out from behind all the other parked carts every morning. Now picture trying to write a manuscript in an open plan office with a colleague who has a busy mentoring schedule. I dare you.

shudder

On preview: schoolmarm, you have my sympathies.

[southerntransplant]

No freaking way. I don't know what useful purpose this would serve other than freeing up a bunch of office space for...what? Administrators?

I meet students in my office. I don't think either my grad students or my students in class would appreciate having meetings and office hours in an open space. Sure, I guess I could reserve a conference room for this, but imagine how tough those spaces would be to get if they were our only expectation of privacy? And I guess I could put my two massive desktop computers in the rolling cart I shuffle from open space to open space, like a berzerk hot dog vendor ("Computational Model Results! Get your Computational Model Results! What'll ya have, Timmy?")

[chaosbydesign]

The office hours issue is a major problem for my U and the new common office space. There are private rooms that can be booked, but not enough of them for all faculty to have regular office hours, and they can't talk with students in shared offices due to confidentiality issues. I'm not convinced it'll work out well at all.

[systeme_d_]

And I guess I could put my two massive desktop computers in the rolling cart I shuffle from open space to open space, like a berzerk hot dog vendor ("Computational Model Results! Get your Computational Model Results! What'll ya have, Timmy?")

This is hilarious!  Can we call you "Professor Hot Doc," ST?

[concordancia]

The office hours issue is a major problem for my U and the new common office space. There are private rooms that can be booked, but not enough of them for all faculty to have regular office hours, and they can't talk with students in shared offices due to confidentiality issues. I'm not convinced it'll work out well at all.

Yes, my PhD U had this kind of arrangement for TA's, but it was pretty impossible to actually get space. I held my office hours at a coffee shop. And you know, none of my students ever cried - perhaps I should go back to that model.

[lolar2]

The office hours issue is a major problem for my U and the new common office space. There are private rooms that can be booked, but not enough of them for all faculty to have regular office hours, and they can't talk with students in shared offices due to confidentiality issues. I'm not convinced it'll work out well at all.

Yes, my PhD U had this kind of arrangement for TA's, but it was pretty impossible to actually get space. I held my office hours at a coffee shop. And you know, none of my students ever cried - perhaps I should go back to that model.

My PhD U has this arrangement and we met students in the library, and once one of them DID cry during a meeting with me (she'd had a death in the family), right there in the library. No one stopped and stared or anything but it was certainly an inconvenient setup.