"Things were better in the past"

Things were better in the past!

Christmas is approaching, and with it some time off. Christmas, full of traditions we remember from our childhood. The herring salad that no one has eaten in the last 15 years but which is so important on the Christmas table because it was Mum's herring salad. And the pickled herring. New dishes such as kale salad with walnuts are struggling to gain acceptance, even though everyone knows that they are probably healthier.

Sure, the past glitters in a beautiful light like angel chimes in gold.

When I first started working at KTH, things were much better. We had just got a snazzy Mac that we could take turns using. We sat in the attic of a building that housed a café and classrooms. Our days were filled with meetings with students and teachers who passed by our rooms. Often it was a small errand, such as picking up a schedule, that prompted the visit, but the meeting meant that many other things could be discussed at the time and small and sometimes big questions could be answered. Or just chat for a while.

In the past, KTH was organised into small departments and we only had civil engineering programmes, but then the departments were merged and we became a sub-faculty. Engineering programmes and master's programmes were introduced. Then, after the past but before the present, we became schools, and then we became larger schools. But research and education have always been conducted, and we in the administration have always had the goal of participating in the activities and providing good support. We are not the ones who invent new treatments for cancer or save the world from global warming. But I have always felt proud to work so closely with research and teaching. And the hope is that the operations know what we in the administration do and why. That we work together.

It was better in the past, but before that, it was sometimes worse before it got better. In 2018, I had the opportunity to help create the new CBH school. It was clear that we saw added value in creating a joint administration, as the three previous small schools had struggled to cope with and staff all the tasks required. This improved quality in many areas and also created a number of coordination gains. Not like before, but perhaps a little better.

The organisation of operational support has changed over the years, but always with the same aim and desire to provide good support to all activities and to our students. Different organisations have meant that I have had different bosses over the years: deans, the university director, heads of school and now the university director. The organisation has never changed the way I view my mission and the importance of working closely with our teachers, researchers and students. And even though we no longer need to share a Mac and visits to the room are a little less frequent, I often have the same feeling I had back then when I sat in the attic.

When we return for a new term after a little rest, I hope that together we will find ways of working and forms that create the very best conditions here at CBH for all of us. But now I'm going home to look for my mother's old recipe for herring salad.

/Marie