Paula typed something before pressing backspace several times. “Girl, yes. Who’s being messy today?”

“Did you get a chance to go to that all-campus meeting last Thursday?”

“Adjuncts don’t have to go,” her friend said with a smile.

Victoria nodded. “Right. So the new president corralled us in an auditorium like Stalin would and told us that the university is basically broke.”

Paula looked up from her work. “What?”

“The last president had been playing the stocks with university money and they lost big,” Victoria said in a low voice.

“Did they tell you this?” Paula asked. She folded her arms over her ample bosom, obscuring the Free Angela graphic on her T-shirt with her brown arms.

“They didn’t have to,” Victoria said with a sigh. “We all knew they had a ton of investments. But that’s not quite the problem. President Kowalski wants faculty and staff to make up the enrollment numbers. I mean, they’re already increasing tuition for next year, but we need to put our heads down and push for higher numbers.”

Paula frowned. “How?”

“Well, I’ll say this about the president, she’s business savvy—”

“Is she?”

“—she’s starting a new open door policy that might work,” Victoria finished.

Her friend remained unimpressed. “Open-door policies are bullshit.”

“Be that as it may, the Three-Week Initiative might work. Kowalski is giving us three weeks to come up with innovative programs to attract incoming freshmen. They have to be low-cost of course, but also something that generates excitement.”

Paula fixed her mouth and sighed. “What have you come up with, Vicki?”

Victoria grew excited. “Okay, so I’m thinking of a library internship for the English department students. We’ll partner with the Farmingdale Public Library to give students a real-world learning experience that can carry over to graduate school or outside of academia. What do you think?”

There was a pregnant pause that made her tense. Victoria needed to know that someone liked her idea before she busted down President Kowalski’s door. When Paula finally spoke, she gave a pitying smile. “Girl, I think that’s a great idea. A library internship is going to help students get a leg up in any discipline they choose.”

Eyeing her smile, Victoria leaned forward. “But?”

Paula’s shoulders slumped. “But I worry that you think you always have to save someone. It’s like graduate school all over again. Reggi and I had to talk you off a ledge every time you piled too much on your plate. The president’s problems aren’t your problems and you don’t have to work yourself into a lather over mismanaged funds.”

Victoria frowned. “I’m not working myself into a lather.”

“You don’t see it until your elaborate plans are near the end. Afterward, you tell us that you’ll never work that hard on bullshit projects. This is not your problem.”

She shook her head. “That’s where you’re wrong, Paula. Pembroke’s problems are my problems. I chose this path because I wanted to teach and research. If my school goes under, how am I supposed to do either?”