Office Hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_9OGnmBTow So this week has been hectic and rough for I'd say a fair amount of students. I'm not going to talk about my midterms and my coffee (I don't drink Starbucks - my taste buds revolt) and my lack of sleep. We're halfway through the semester, so keep calm U of T. Before you know it, it will be three weeks of the holidays, Frank Sinatra music, fireplaces, and perhaps snow? 😀 This week, I'm going to be blogging about the office hour.  Chances are if you are an executive in a club, a union or student government, you have to do an office hour/multiple office hours in your designated office.  I recently, as you know was elected to ASSU (I promise this will be the last ASSU post for a while :P) and as part of my responsibilities I have to do four hours of office hours a week. Our office is in Sid Smith, Room 1068 by the way. Now generally the responsibilities of office hours vary from club to union to student government. But they all involve sitting in an office (I know! The name "office hour" doesn't lend any hints as to what an office hour is.) So, I'm just going to describe what I do in office hours. 1)  Sell tests.  Most of the time, I'm either selling tests packages to students or getting tests for smaller courses out for them from our test library.  This is how about 75% of the time in my office hours is spent getting tests. Whenever life science students walk in (and this is often), I'm like "oh hey I'm in life science too!", and their like "oh wow, no way, no way!" and the stress in their eyes completely dissipates (okay, so maybe that doesn't exactly happen). 2) Tell people where things are in the building, in the campus. Sell pop (ASSU offers non-brand soda for 50 cents) and answer the phone when it occasionally rings. 3) Checking my Facebook, Twitter and e-mail accounts and watching funny cat videos. 4) Telling people one of the bathrooms in Sidney Smith is actually the Chamber of Secrets. 5) Not studying. When I really need to study, I do it in a library without distractions.  Other than the occassional small reading, office hours generally aren't a good place to study. 6) Eating leftover timbits. 7) Eating my lunch. 8) Telling students who wish to know more about post secondary education policy, about the shortcomings of the Ontario government in properly funding U of T and other post secondary institutions. 9) Talking and greeting to students who walk in the office, sometimes offering to do my various impressions to which they always decline. Yes, there is no #10. So, that's what I do in office hours. Involved in a club or group? What do you do in office hours? I'd love to know, drop me a comment. This midterm season U of T, keep calm and carry on. 🙂 - Abdullah