Clippings

There is a persistent story at Warwick University that I ended my first ever undergraduate lecture by walking into the broom cupboard. It is time to set the record straight. Yes, I admit that it was a broom cupboard, but it was also the emergency exit from the lecture hall. I had assumed, without finding out ahead of time, that when the students left the hall by the main doors, I would be able to leave by what looked like a side door. But when I tried it, I found myself surrounded by buckets and mops. Worse, I discovered that the only way to leave the building by that route was to push open an emergency exit, which would set off an alarm. I had noticed the EXIT sign over the door but had failed to spot the word “emergency” above it. So I was forced, rather sheepishly, to emerge from the so-called broom cupboard and join the students as they walked up the stairs to the back of the hall and out the main doors.