Who's Who and What's What

If you are new to the Glen here are the basics that you need to know:

The writer is the Department Chair of a medium sized department at a very large College in the United States. She was appointed Chair in 2015 and subsequently elected. It was a job she said she never wanted for one very good reason---she's an organizational disaster area. Turns out, she's more organized than almost everyone else (which is scary). She finds strength in the seemingly frantic chipmunk who races about with no known plan but in the end survives the coldest of winters while the awe inspiring bear or frightening snake only survive by sleeping through the whole damn thing. Chipmunks survive through ingenuity and serious amounts of group warmth. Also, a chipmunk is a cheerful little thing, is never deterred, doesn't take itself too seriously and never worries about gaining weight in its face.

Butterflies-students, old young, some gorgeous, some plain but all are fragile in their own right and need to be protected. The HC takes this job seriously though some butterflies do remind her a bit of annoying moths but she tries to forgive them.

The Golden Eagle-The Dean who's promotion led to the writer being appointed to HC in the first place. The Dean is a powerful woman of small stature who is a strong supporter of the HC and will dive into fire. However, she also has very sharp talons and is a tad capricious for the HC's liking. When hearing a bit about this writing experiment, she demanded to be called "'Golden Eagle' because  I am Chinese.....and be sure you write that part but be sure this is all anonymous".  The HC has no idea what that means. But Golden Eagle makes the HC laugh a lot.

Silver Eagle-The HC's mentor. A long term faculty member who has been the HC's go-to person since day one. She, along with Golden Eagle, keep the HC in check, take her for gluten free pizza when needed and regularly ask important questions like "did your mother drop you on your head or did you acquire this level of dumb all on your own?". 

Skunk/weasel/snakes-the evil doers in the department. They treat students like crap, don't do their work, are entitled, lie, scam and are every form of stinkiness one can imagine. In best cases they cross lines of civility, in worse cases they skirt the law. It's really hard to get rid of them.

Pigeons-less noxious then the above crew but none less irritating. The pigeon was inspired by a friend who posted the quote "Arguing with stupid people is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are at chess, the pigeon will just knock the pieces over, shit on the board, and strut around like it's victorious." Yeah, some people the HC works with are pigeons.