For many years my office was a desk-and-chair island surrounded by a sea of students and books. I was walled in by mere glass, able to watch the autumn colors rise and fall on a particularly maple-rich hill beyond campus or watch a redbud tree sprout and seed in the courtyard outside the front door. As our mission grew, however, my view was obstructed here, then five years later, there, by a succession of new buildings to house our success. I finally advanced to an office al