She left. The corridor smelled like rubber and cleaner and old effort. She walked back out into the gray morning and went to class.
The afternoon meeting with Nadine Fuller was in Fuller's office on the second floor of the student affairs building. A room that smelled like printer toner and had a bowl of hard candy on the desk that Ren suspected had been there since the previous academic year.
Fuller was 64 years old, with reading glasses pushed up on her head and the expression of someone who had been doing a difficult job for a long time and had recently started questioning whether the difficulty was inherent to the job or specific to this institution. She had short silver hair and a cardigan the color of a stormy sky, and hands that moved when she talked, which they did as soon as Ren sat down.
"I want to be straightforward with you," Fuller said. "And I want you to know that what I say in this room is said with genuine concern for your well-being and not as a representative of any institutional position."
"I appreciate that," Ren said.
"I received your formal report this morning. I also received a phone call this morning from the office of the Associate Provost for Student Athletics."
She let that sentence sit between them for a moment.
"The call expressed concern that the timing of your report, coming the day after an alleged incident, might reflect an escalating conflict between two students rather than a straightforward conduct violation."
Ren listened without changing her expression.
"They used the word 'alleged,'" Fuller continued, "in reference to something that happened in front of approximately 70 people."
"I noticed that," Ren said.
Fuller looked at her. "You're very calm."
"I have been told that."
"Are you actually calm, or are you very well trained to appear calm?"
Ren considered the question. "Both," she said. "Depending on the moment."
Fuller sat back slightly. She studied Ren for a moment, with the particular attention of someone who has spent decades evaluating people and has gotten reasonably good at it.
"I want to help you," she said. "I need you to understand that wanting to help you and being able to help you are two different things inside this institution. I have seen what happens to complaints against this specific student. I have watched three of them get managed into silence. And I am telling you this not to discourage you, but because I think you deserve to know what you are walking into."
"I know what I am walking into," Ren said. "What I need to know is what you need from me to make this proceed correctly."
Fuller looked at her for a long moment.