A peek into
some unique
faculty offices

Want to get to know a favorite professor? Forget the telephone or even e-mail. A quick step inside a campus office will truly reveal the person behind the lecture.

Cast aside notions of a modular cubicle with an efficient-looking “In-Out” box sitting on an empty desk. Real offices are expressions of personality, repositories of collected references, even last stops for cast-off furniture. At the U, some have 12-foot ceilings with skylights, some are windowless cubbyholes, and some were never intended as offices. They reflect the campus’ mix of old and new buildings, many of which have changed occupants and purposes several times.

Fred Montague, Biology “I guess I’m a pack rat. My wife refused to keep an old orange chair in our house any longer, but I couldn’t part with it. So it’s here, too.”

Of course, this is only a sampling of faculty offices. The curious should sneak a peek at the two grand pianos in Susan Duehlmeier’s Gardner Hall office, the piles of papers and files in Ron Ragsdale’s chemistry department digs, and the insects, bones, and stuffed animals sharing carved-out nooks and crannies with staff members in the basement of the Utah Museum of Natural History. Just be sure to leave a trail of bread crumbs.