Oddity, reprised

[stoutfellow]

I must admit to making a tactical error in my last post - specifically, in the title I gave to the cut. I did not want to give an obvious pointer to the thing that had puzzled me, so I referred to the classroom instead - and that set a number of readers haring off on that scent. Mea culpa; I did not intend that.

Nonetheless, the questions raised in comments are good ones. I've been trying to reconcile the data I have, and I can make partial reconstructions, all of which founder on one or another inconvenient fact. Critically:

• Why was the transfer of the math class to Room B delayed? This was the second week of classes; Scheduling should have been notified Tuesday or Wednesday of week one, and should have had things cleared up by now. (The unoccupied Room C could have been simply seized upon, that first night, as a matter of convenience; but this should not have lasted an additional week.)


• Where did the student learn of the transfer to Room B? Most likely, there was a note, placed by Scheduling, announcing the transfer; but that merely reinforces the first point. In any event, she had to have gotten word from them, directly or indirectly. Why, then, was she not informed of the temporary lodging in Room C?


• Where did the student go after talking to me? The path from my office to Room B (which is in the same building) and thence to Rooms A and C (in another building) is more or less a straight line, so she might have gone to B and then, in desperation, back to A, where she heard the class in progress in C. The timing is pretty tight; for me, it's about a five-minute walk between the two buildings, but I walk pretty fast.


• Why did the student not notice the class in Room C the first time? The econ class actually began at 6:00 and the math class at 6:30, so she might have arrived a little early and seen the econ class in full swing, while the math class had not yet begun. The math class is freshman-level; if she was, indeed, a freshman, she might not have known the ropes well enough to check neighboring classrooms. This one doesn't bother me a whole lot; other people's datasets really aren't predictable.

I'm seriously tempted to talk to the other instructor again.

(Oh, if you weren't following comments, the oddity that had struck me was the fact that I had to stop and think to remember that the student was black. I am certainly not color-blind, but apparently her race didn't stick as a primary fact in my mind, on this particular occasion.)

Comments

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

the oddity that had struck me was the fact that I had to stop and think to remember that the student was black.

Wasn't quite sure that was why you stopped. :<)

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Again, a piece of more-or-less deliberate concealment.