Letter about Greener Johns Hopkins

I sent this "Letter to the Editor" to the Johns Hopkins Magazine after their September 2008 Green Idea special. In case it doesn't see print there, it'll at least be here.

Dear Johns Hopkins Magazine,

I have to admit that I read the repeated claims about JHU becoming greener in your last issue with somewhat mixed feelings. Since July 12, 2008 I have been trying to get someone to switch off a useless air conditioning unit in the Stony Run parking lot, so far (September 5, 2008) without success. This is particularly sad because we have a security person sweating in the summer heat about 100 feet away from the useless unit. Someone needs to either move the unit to the occupied booth, move the security person to the empty booth, or switch off the unit and apologize to the poor guy for not keeping him cool.

Regards,
Dr. Peter Froehlich
Senior Lecturer
Department of Computer Science

So there you have it. I would venture a guess: This is simply a sad example of administrative gridlock. There are too many hands to coordinate, and even more hands trying to do the coordinating. If I could just identify the right person responsible for that booth (which I can't!) I am sure that thing would have been switched off in a matter of days.