"The third face of Clark University is simple, old-school politics. Who likes who, who's crossed who, who pissed off someone, and who's gotten pissed off. The politics of people and how they get along. It's all about personality and the human side of working in a closed environment.

 "In its most callous form, it's called networking. But more realistically, it's a matter of getting to know the people who make this university tick. You're going to see these people constantly anyway, especially if you're committed to changing the school.

 "Kissing up doesn't work. One of the hardest, but most important, things that students have to learn at Clark is the ability to cultivate professional relationships. Fundamentally, it's the capacity to find common ground with people whom you have nothing to say to, in order to work successfully together. All it takes is minimal social skills and the ability to deliver what you promise. Uh, and the ability to convince people you're harmless.

 "In order to change this school, you're going to have to learn who's buddies with whom, and who's sleeping with whom. For instance, if you're trying to reform Physical Plant, which is arguably the department that fucks students over on the most regular basis, you probably shouldn't go to Jim Collins. If you want to make major changes to the way Physical Plant works, you've either got to finesse ol' JC, find some work-around, or try to get Bottis to make the changes of his own free will.

 "If you take that last option, you're going to have to use political pressure, which is simply a higher form of peer pressure. Actually, it's the peer pressure of professionals. And all you need to do is get their colleagues aware of the problems with their department, and to agree that they're serious.

 "Each problem has its own unique solution, unfortunately. There's no one trick. And since this is the most important level of the school in terms of accomplishing anything, it's worth spending the time necessary-- years-- to learn each administrator and what makes them tick.

 "There are many pitfalls and traps when you operate on this level of Clark, so only fools rush in. As long as you can get along with people, and work well with them, you can get a lot of things accomplished. It's no different than any small community where people work in close proximity."

For face 1, turn to Page 32.

 

For face 2, turn to Page 55.

 

To try to make sense of them, turn to Page 72.