More Hating Meetings

So, wanna-be administrator read-aloud guy didn't read aloud today, thank dog.

But, as he's talking along, he says something along the lines of "The fort has to approve it."

I looked at the colleague on my left, a super smart person from over in businessland and asked super quietly, "fort?" She shrugged.

I looked at the colleague on my right, librarian to the core, and asked again "fort?" He shrugged.

I looked across at the social sci type who knows the history of NWU better than almost anyone I've ever met, and mouthed "fort?" She shrugged.

Maybe "fort" is what the porch club boys call the main administrative building? It's sort of a fortlike structure, and certainly sometimes the administration seems to be more ready for a seige than for open communication.

A moment for questions opened up, so I asked, "what's fort?"

And administrator wannabe says, "Foundation for Opportunities for Responsive Technology."* And then in the most condescending voice possible, just dripping, told me not to worry because "that's how we learn."

I wonder if the creator(s) of the acronym have thought for even a moment that the name they've given this tiny group might just be pretty darned off-putting and unfriendly. (Guess who created the tiny organization name?)

But if you need educational clicker technology, now you know where to go, eh?


*The name has been changed to protect the stupid, namely, me, from someone on campus accidentally finding this because he does a google for the acronym. But the spirit of the name is very close.