ABSTRACT
I was the first to emerge from the conference room. I walked with more than usual haste down the hall toward the nearest exit. What had promised to be a brief meeting had extended well into the afternoon, and the room had become close and oppressive. A few deep breaths of the crisp autumn air began to restore me. I had been on the job barely three months, and I felt as though I were slowly drowning, not just from the lack of oxygen in all those meetings, but from the overwhelming flood of problems. The president had been as candid as anyone could have been during the interviews last spring, but when I accepted the appointment as Dean of the Arts and Sciences College, I never dreamed there would be so many problems—problems that just didn't seem to have any solutions.
