Bond With Death Read Free

anyone Sally had ever dealt with. He was wasted at the community college, she often thought. He should have been in the state legislature. Congress, even. Or maybe working as the president’s press secretary.
    â€œHis student evaluations are terrible,” Sally said. “He’s ranked
lower than anyone else here, and the students’ written comments about him are scathing.”
    Naylor clasped his hands over his stomach and leaned back in his chair.
    â€œWell,” he said, “as you’re certainly aware, students often don’t know how to do an evaluation properly. Instructors spend years in college learning their discipline, and then they hone the craft for more years in the classroom. When they present a lesson, they’re doing something that they’ve trained for and practiced for a long, long time. On the other hand, students don’t take evaluations very seriously. They rush through them, and they hardly ever even think about the questions they’re answering and how those answers might affect an instructor’s career.”
    He paused for a breath, and Sally managed to get a word in before he started again. She knew he could go on like that all day if she let him get away with it.
    â€œThe students took this evaluation seriously,” she said. “I think we can be certain of that. I’d like to see Mr. Curtin’s evaluations from previous years, and I’d like for you to have a look at some of these comments.”
    She handed the green sheets of paper across the desk to Naylor. He took them and shuffled them around, but he put them down with only a casual glance.
    â€œAs you know if you’ve read your policy manual,” he said, “all evaluations come to this office for filing after the department chairs have looked them over. A printed copy of the evaluation results for each department is sent to the department chair, who then forwards copies to individual instructors.”
    â€œI know the process, but I wasn’t here last year when evaluations were done.”
    â€œYour predecessor, Dr. Barton, followed the procedure, I’m sure.”
    Sally didn’t see what the process had to do with what she was talking about. She was about to say so, but Naylor didn’t give her a chance to break in.
    â€œI’m sure Mr. Curtin has seen his evaluations and knows how
they stack up against others in his department. He’s probably working hard to correct any deficiencies in his performance, and we’ll no doubt see some improvement soon.”
    â€œHe’s had a whole semester to improve,” Sally said. “If his evaluations were any worse last year, he should have been fired. And these are so bad that they couldn’t have been worse last year. I’d like to see them.”
    â€œAs you may know, they’re stored in the vault.”
    What Sally knew was that there wasn’t really a vault, though the storeroom was often called by that name for some reason.
    â€œSo I’ve heard. They should be easy enough to find.”
    â€œI could have one of the secretaries look for them, but I’m afraid they won’t be easy to locate. The evaluations are stored in cardboard boxes, but there’s really no filing system. I’m afraid they’re simply put into the boxes when they arrive in my office and then transferred to the vault after instructors have had a chance to look over them.”
    â€œI’d still like to see them.”
    Naylor looked at her as if wondering why she’d ever been hired in the first place.
    â€œVery well. I’ll have Wynona look for them as soon as she has a chance.”
    Wynona Reed was in the outer office, and if Sally was any judge of character, she’d heard every word of the conversation between Sally and Naylor. Sally hadn’t bothered to close the door, but she didn’t think it would have made any difference had she done so. She knew Wynona would