Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this excerpt. I was an English major at college and am still very well acquainted with my professors and, based on this knowledge, I have to say that the characters and the situation are not very believable. The protagonist seems to still have a high school mindset, although she is now an English professor. It seems highly unlikely that a professor at a college wouldn't know about a new president being hired and that her office would be allowed to be kept in such a state (it would be deemed a fire hazard). I just didn't really care for the protagonist and was unconcerned about her "plight." In a similar situation, most adults would just acknowledge the awkwardness and move on.