Author: Berit Anderson
Come December 31, Susan Prager will walk out of her office, past her secretary’s desk and through those big glass doors for the last time. No longer will she be able to park in the president’s special parking spot, nor lounge amidst the sunbeams in the president’s yard. In her email to students the day before Thanksgiving break, Prager cited a lack of compatibility with board members and faculty as her reason for giving all this up, but I think the real reason for her resignation might have more to do with the timing of her announcement—a mere four days before Black Friday.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Its looming presence near the end of November forces shoppers to get all of their ducks in a row so they won’t miss out on any of the day’s legendary sales. My own family has given up listing things we’re thankful for at dinner so that we all have time to recite our full shopping lists for the next day before the pumpkin pie is served. It’s my theory that, in the midst of compiling her own list, Prager panicked.
I can’t say I blame her. Just for a moment, imagine the length of Prager’s holiday shopping list. Not only must she buy the requisite gifts for family and friends, but she also has a full college staff to account for. The board of trustees alone numbers 51 members. The full-time faculty: 150. The prospect of buying upwards of 200 presents for individuals with whom one does not have “complementary leadership styles” or “a strong working relationship,” as she phrased it in her email, is enough to make anyone lose her appetite for turkey and stuffing.
Critics might argue that Prager isn’t technically missing the holiday gift giving season at Oxy. She’ll still be around for the duration of Hanukkah, Christmas and the majority of Kwanzaa. She could even celebrate the winter solstice, although bonfires haven’t been that popular on campus lately.
This is insignificant. By announcing her resignation, Prager has effectively removed herself from the gift-giving hook. An everyday resignation is one thing. Your rubber band collection, those nice dividers you bought, your Han Solo action figure and the framed picture of Pavarotti you kept on your desk for inspiration, are all thrown into a cardboard box and toted out to your car with you at the end of the day. Our fair president, on the other hand, must not only move out of her office, but her house, which is an entirely different can of beans.
If personal experience is any indication, Prager will be spending the majority of the next month tripping over half-packed boxes with labels like “bookends, red lawn gnome, shoe polish” and pawing desperately through bags of clothing in order to find a clean pair of pantyhose to wear down to Coons. Not to mention the administrative loose ends she’ll be busy tying up, what with leaving a college president-less mid-year. Prager will have less time to go staff gift shopping than she will to stage one last all-school corn shucking endeavor in the quad before exams. That is, unless she decides to give out ears of corn as gifts this year.
Berit Anderson is a junior DWA major. She can be reached at banderson@oxy.edu.
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