As classes have resumed and students are swarming back to campus, English instructors are swarming out of Bulfinch, trying to find a new home.
This change came as a shock to many of the teachers, some of whom haven’t seen sunlight in several years. These instructors are unable to teach in Bulfinch because of the renovations taking place, so in the meantime, they have resorted to scrabbling over every available space, especially in Sam Phil.
Tension between the History and Languages departments and the English department finally broke when the language department threatened to call an infestation control unit on an encroaching English class.
Now Sam Phil is a full on war zone; a place where Spanglish has become a reality and history is history. But it isn’t just Sam Phil they’re after. No one is safe. Students and teachers alike have in some way, shape or form been disrupted by the English Department’s antics.
Student Drew Peacock ’16 had a particularly unfortunate encounter. “I was going back to my dorm during my free period to get some of my books, when I heard some ‘To be or not to be’ shenanigans coming from my room. When I got there I found an entire English class crammed into my room and they refused to leave,” he said.
Peacock was not the first, nor do we expect him to be the last of such cases. And these cases don’t even begin to encapsulate the full scope of the English Department’s desperation. There have been sightings of English classes on the Bell Tower and whispers of literature in the Sanctuary. The rest of campus is struggling to cope as best as possible, waiting anxiously for the renovation of Bulfinch to lead to the restoration of Sam Phil.
Godspeed be with the construction team.