We found Vance Morton, a junior majoring in management information systems and operations management, working at the information desk at the Park Student Union.

Wildcat: So what kind of information do you deal with at the information desk?

Morton: It’s just general campus information. Whatever people need. We get a lot of things specific to buildings, if there are meeting rooms or any special events going on here. We usually just direct people.

W: What if you forgot where your class was? I know that happens to me sometimes, you forget the room number because you go once a week.

M: Right. Yeah, in that particular instance we’d just help you log onto Student Link and you could look at your course schedule.

W: What if you didn’t know where your friends were, or you lost something in your classroom?

M: We do have a lost and found here and in our other location in the main Student Union. As for, if you’re looking for your friend, you could use our phone if you wanted to.

W: What if they don’t have a phone? Is there a GPS thing that you have?

M: No.

W: OK. What are in those shelves? Information?

M: Lost and found, random storage. A lot of them are empty, to be honest.

W: Do you get a lot of drunken people that don’t know their own name?

M: Yeah, I don’t think I’ve had any drunk people other than my own friends come in.

W: What time do you close? Before the bar time, right?

M: 8 o’clock.

W: So only the alcoholics who don’t know their own names would come.

M: Exactly.

W: What are those visitors’ guides?

M: Mainly for people on campus tours and whatnot.

W: Do you do the Segway tours?

M: I’m not sure exactly what that is. The ambassador tours?

W: Those weird … It’s like a scooter and you can move it with your body and you can stop against a wall. And they go around East University Boulevard. They’re from “”Minority Report.””

M: I’ve never seen those. I think the only tours that the university is associated with are the ambassador tours.

W: What country are they ambassadors for?

Woman: They’re ambassadors for the U of A; representatives for prospective students.

W: Oh, so say you’re from Alaska and you want to see the UA. See where the buildings are, see the lost and found or whatever.

M: Right.

W: Do you ever get the wrong facts?

M: Occasionally. Rarely.

– interview by Andi Berlin