Math Talk

I was doing some course prep in my office (I usually have my door open unless I'm really concentrating on something) and a small group of students popped their heads in to ask if I knew where the Basic Skills Test (BST) for mathematics was being written. They'd inquired at Student Services, where someone sent them to the Math Building. I'd been chatting with various people about the whys, wherefores, and mechanics of this, but I discovered I had no actual idea where the test was being written, though I did know it was to start in about 15 minutes. I tried to find the information on the web - no luck! (We need to do better with this kind of thing, as a department) I phoned people but didn't reach anyone, then roamed about the department looking for someone working late at their office... the only person still there was one of our Sys Admins, Joseph (a SysAdmin's work is never done). He took several minutes to hunt through department databases (from the command line, of course) and came up with a location. I went running after the students, located them a few hundred meters from the math building, and escorted them across campus to Woodward theatre, where the exam was to take place. It was nice to chat with them for a few minutes and get the perspective of the brand new first year student, new to campus/new to Vancouver. They seemed pretty confident about the exam. We made it there just in the nick of time.