Pigeons

Samuel Smith: The bars are gone, the windows are clean. However, the pigeons may still be seen. Samuel Smith: Scruffy and ugly and dispossessed, looking for somewhere to come to rest, they dither and flutter, they twitter and search, since physical plant removed their perch. Samuel Smith: They scratch at the windows, they squat on the ledge, they deposit their detritus over the edge. Samuel Smith: Their nests are gone, but they remain, fluttering outside your window pane. I suggest, as I notice their evil grin, you not open your windows lest they fly in.

Samuel Smith: This memorandum was sent on April 18th, 1984 by Annette Chappell, Dean of Liberal Arts to all faculty and staff at Linthicum 201 and Linthicum 301 carbon copying Provost Plante and Vice President McCullough. Samuel Smith: But why would she send such a poem? Samuel Smith: Just over one month prior, on March 6th, Annette Chappell received a letter. This letter was signed by three professors, Elaine Hedges, Judy Markowitz, and Sarah Coulter, all professors who taught women's studies and adjacent courses. This letter detailed that there was a long standing issue with pigeon droppings building up. Samuel Smith: Outside of two offices in the Linthicum Building where women's studies was housed at the time.

Samuel Smith: The letter went on to note that Hedges, Markowitz and Coulter were recently made aware of histoplasmosis, a disease that causes blood. Samuel Smith: This disease is transmitted through inhaling air that was contaminated with pigeon excrements. The three professors request, quote, that the proper measures are undertaken as soon as possible to remove this hazard from our workplace. Samuel Smith: In her poetic memo, Annette Chappelle went on to write, Samuel Smith: PS: Actually on Wednesday as I write this, the windows are not clean, but we've been promised that they'll be clean before Monday. If they aren't, please regard the latter half of the first line as poetic license.

Samuel Smith: Why would the College of Liberal Arts need to write a poem to grab the attention of those above them that could remove the prison droppings outside of the women's studies offices? Why wouldn't a normal memo work? Samuel Smith: Would another program, particularly one that was not studying women or marginalization, need to even send a letter or an attention grabbing poem? What about a program that studies a more stereotypically masculine field? Or would the pigeon droppings be dealt with prior to it becoming an issue? This attitude carries on even in modern times. Samuel Smith: Women's studies and adjacent programs still have to fight to be taken seriously to get enough funding, and, yes, Samuel Smith: to have clean and safe working conditions free from something as basic as pigeon excrement.