Faculty Doors and Text Summary

         Due to limited time, I examined the faculty doors in the Education building just after our Friday class. A surprising number of the doors I looked at were devoid of any personal items whatsoever, and most of those that remained only held a schedule or whiteboard. Only about one in four of the offices I examined displayed personal decoration of any kind. I wonder if this is unique to the Education building, or if many people tend to decorate the interior of their offices more extensively than the outside.
         In the end, there were only about ten offices with doors (or windows in some cases) decorated as described in the assignment pdf. Two of these had very little in the way of pamphlets, pictures, or newspaper clippings but instead were decorated more artistically. The first had nothing but a large wool wreath with an autumn color scheme, and it looked as though it may have been hand made. It was certainly a warm, friendly decoration and due to its autumn colors seemed to imply that a different wreath or other decoration for a different season may replace it as the year goes on. The other artistic door was much more subdued, It's color scheme was black and white with a diamond checkerboard design and a metal rose on top. The design was certainly nice to look at, but felt less friendly and open than the other "artsy" door.
        Many of the remaining offices sported a LGB Safe Zone sticker, or some variation of it. One door in particular had multiple LGB pride stickers, as well as posters with messages such as "Erase Hate" and inspirational quotes. At a glance it was clear that this person cared deeply about issues of acceptance and equality; It would seem likely that their job pertained to those issues in some way. In fact, as far as I could tell, most of the doors with LGB stickers belonged to counselors which would certainly make sense.
       One of these counselor doors revealed a bit more about its occupant, with a comic about writer's block and a poster saying "Keep Calm & Talk to your Counselor." By using a phrase common on the internet and the millennial generation the office occupant likely hoped to create an inviting and non-serious  atmosphere around his door, and by extension himself. I think I can safely assume that the writer's block comic implies that the counselor enjoys writing in his spare time.
       As a whole, those in the Education building that took an interest in decorating the outside of their offices seemed to do so with the goal of creating a friendly and slightly humorous atmosphere in their building.


Nathan Brown "Open Letter" summary:

       In this text, a faculty member at UC Davis named Nathan Brown expressed his outrage and demand for the resignation of a UC Chancellor named Linda P.B. Katehi. He explains that this demand is due to a confrontation between a group of non-violent student protesters and riot police that Mrs. Katehi had ordered on the scene. He argues that this confrontation was entirely unwarranted  and unprovoked, and describes in detail the injuries sustained by the protesters at the hands of the police. He then ends his letter by pointing out the hypocrisy he believes Mrs. Katehi displays in her words and actions, and restates his demand for her resignation due to her responsibility for the confrontation that took place.