First day of semester

Today begins the first day of the semester and I have that same feeling of incompleteness and concern that I always do on the first day. Academia has become excessively complicated the last few years and managers experience severe stress in making sure everything is ready for the first day. Are the classrooms ready including enough desks, proper lighting, heating or cooling, technology working? Are the teachers ready for each class? Have I assigned every class correctly or did something slip through unnoticed in the scheduling? Will there be a class with students and no teacher? Or will there be a teacher but no students?

Have the part-time teachers completed all the paperwork in order to teach? Have I turned in their compensation correctly? Do we have accompanists assigned for all voice lessons? Instrumental lessons? Will the full-time teachers have a full teaching load? Too much? Not enough? Are concerts and events correctly scheduled for the semester? Have we accidentally built in any conflicts or problems? Are the pianos tuned? Anything not working in any classrooms or offices?

Are the students registered for the correct classes? Are they receiving the expected financial aid? Are there any class conflicts? Do I have systems in place for solving problems? How much budget money is left? Do I have enough to take care of office needs? Faculty issues? Upcoming travel needs? Student worker funds? Are all bills paid from last semester? Anything outstanding?

Then there are the other ongoing problems. What do we do about the torn up seats in the library? How do move forward with technology? When can I get a student leader group together? Are there enough textbooks in the bookstore? Will all the students arrive? Will the new students know where to go for class?

Have I prepared the curriculum change forms correctly? Are we handling the graduate classes in the best way? Are we ready for upcoming concerts and events?

One way or another, the first day is here and we'll see how it goes!