unofficial

I'll just add to Spencer's photosummary of our campus's proud tradition of Unofficial St. Patrick's Day by noting that my down-the-hall colleague L discovered a barely conscious student on the floor of the women's room, her hair splaying out from under a stall door. I was happening by on my way to see about our guest speaker John Murphy and so stopped to help tend to her with L and a couple of associate deans. We offered her the fresh bottle of water that I'd intended to give to Murphy (sorry Murphy!). We listened to her whimper a little about her lost cell phone. One of the associate deans asked what she'd been drinking (I wasn't entirely sure what that had to do with anything but it did seem good to keep her talking). Then--apparently the only one in the ladies room to have ever had any experience with such scenarios--I offered her a paper towel soaked with cold water. She reached under the door, her face still pressed to the tile floor and said (slowly) "thank you SOO Much" in that charming little Chicago accent where the Os get forced back into the throat before being set free. And it occurred to me that some of our students, even when utterly wracked, can still be polite.