Hands of Change: the General Affairs Department

While Mr. Carroll and the Student Affairs department are known across the school, not many people are familiar with their logistical counterpart, the General Affairs (GA) department.

Mrs. Jade Tang is the head of GA, and changes to the school are brought to life by the hard work of Mrs. Tang and her staff. In fact, the GA have always handled everything logistical, from the extravagant transformations of our two auditoriums and bathrooms, to the day-to-day maintenance of sanitation and electricity.

Now, the department has been given the daunting task of the separation between SMIC-I and the Chinese Track, a task Mrs. Tang says is her hardest yet in over a decade at our school.

“We are responsible for maintenance of school equipment, sanitation, security, the cafeteria, purchases of anything necessary, and maintenance of school infrastructure,” said Mrs. Tang. “We in General Affairs have to see to guards and buses in the morning, guard patrols in the evening, whether all the doors are shut and air conditions are turned off.”

The department, which is responsible for the Elementary school and kindergarten as well as the MHS, also handles lunch delivery, school electricity, and more every day. It’s apparent that the GA is the grease keeping our gears running; the many, many things we students take for granted are upheld daily by Mrs. Tang and her department.

In addition to the metaphorical greasing of the machine, the GA is responsible for large-scale projects and renovations. Every October, she says, a meeting is held to determine what changes should be made to the school.

The project this year — a campus divide between the Chinese and international divisions of the school — has been, and will be, difficult.

“The two sides of our school campus were originally designed for a split between the Elementary and Middle High School,” said Mrs. Tang. “If we really are going to separate ourselves [between Chinese and International], there are many aspects of the campuses that don’t fit out purposes.”

One example of such a complication is the bathrooms. Mrs. Tang shared, “The sinks are too tall in the Middle High School. If children try to wash their hands at tall sinks, the water will run down their hands onto their clothes … [and] the sinks and toilets at the elementary school are too small for high school students.”

Mrs. Tang had much to say about the division of SMIC-I, from how broadcasts will work to redesigning classrooms in the Elementary school for Middle High school classes. “Our school has never had so big a change,” she said.

Mrs. Tang and her department are hard at work every day, busy with tasks ranging from daily housekeeping to the construction of an entire building. While there’s nothing we can do but leave her to it, let’s appreciate the hands behind every change that has happened in SMIC.

Featured Image – The General Affairs department members pose for a group photo Courtesy of Ms. Laura Liu