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I had lunch with senior vice president and provost Nancy Mergler Tuesday afternoon. We were set to meet up at the university club at 1 p.m.

My first question was, does that place even exist?

I asked all my friends, all of who seemed to be as puzzled as I was. Finally, out of desperation and embarrassment, I asked Dr. Mergler’s assistant Rachel where it was on the phone. She told me it was some direction (East or West, I honestly can’t remember) from the computer lab.

For those of you who don’t know me at all, I’m very directionally challenged. I gave myself enough time to wander around to look for it. After asking three people where it was (I made sure to ask different sources to not appear as the stupid blonde girl in a pencil skirt) I finally found it.

The university club is a place where all your professors go to hide from twenty year olds with too many questions. I was glad I dressed up because while waiting for Dr. Mergler to arrive, all I saw were suits and ties walking by and smiling at me.

I was very nervous while waiting for Dr. Mergler. I kept trying to think back on a picture that I had seen on the Web site. My mind drew a complete blank. When she finally got there, she immediately spotted me and introduced herself.

It was quite incredible to me how down to earth and matronly Dr. Mergler was. At the same time, she was intimidating by the way she carried herself.

During lunch she asked me about myself, which was completely different from the way I’m used to doing things as a journalist. The conversation flowed from classes to professors and then on to more heavy things such as the state of the economy and what that means for us as a university.

She told me that President Boren sometimes gets disheartened because he’s such an idea man and loves to implement new things for students, but with the economy in the state that it’s in, we just simply can’t afford new things.

She talked about how uncertain freshman enrollment is for next year. Whether or not parents are going to be able to spend thousands of dollars on a child’s education. The amount of money for scholarships is also down about 8 percent, she said.

It’s easy for me (and others) to kind of peg these administrators at the university as unreachable or too busy to talk to. I was very impressed with how promptly Nancy Mergler, as well as others that I’ve contacted, got in touch with me.

Not to get all cliché on you or anything, but these people really do care about students. I’ve always hated those stupid commercials about smaller colleges that say that public universities are impersonal and that you’re just a number.

I have never felt that way, even in a class of 500 people. It’s just nice to know that, even after a day of being snubbed because you’re in the media, some people are genuinely interested in talking to you. Getting information without prying is really nice.

— Jamie Birdwell, Adminstration Beat Reporter

Read all of Jamie Birdwell's stories here.