Janet Cosbey sits at her desk and hears a response to a question coming from behind her office wall.

Her office, which now consists of movable partitions, a desk and a few bookshelves, is within a whisper’s distance of her sociology colleagues in their temporary residence in Pemberton Hall.

The members of the sociology department have grown closer after having their offices and belongings destroyed in Blair Hall by the fire a year ago today – so close its members can stand up in their offices and talk over the barely five-foot walls they call an office.

“We do answer each other’s questions all the time,” said Cosbey, an associate professor in the sociology and anthropology department. “We always know more about what’s going on (in the office).”

Cosbey is able to hang a few personal items in her new office after being moved to Pemberton from the old Health Service building in March, but it doesn’t have the same appeal as having an office with more space and a door.

“I feel like I have the privacy of Grand Central Station during rush hour,” said Craig Eckert, a sociology professor. “We had one day where everyone was talking across cubicles and one of our colleagues got mad and went home. There is no possibility of getting work done.”

When reaching for something that used to be on their desk or a book that used to be on their shelf, they find it is kind of difficult not to recall the fire.

“We all think about the fire, and we certainly can’t escape it,” said Gary Foster, chair of the sociology department. “It’s something that is on your mind every day.”

Those thoughts and experiences have unified the department more than ever.

Foster said the loss of privacy and possessions has been made up with collectivity and good senses of humor.

Though these teachers have become closer to each other, they are more distant from their students.

“We only see the students in our classes,” Cosbey said. “I think it has been hard for the students to find us and know where we are.”

Students miss not having their professors in the same location.

“It’s just been an adjustment because I was used to seeing even the teachers I didn’t have in class (at Blair),” said Christine Henderson, a senior sociology major who had four classes in Blair when it burned down. “The communication has been difficult to keep up.”

Communication out of the class was not the only difficulty. Many of the teachers lost lecture material and videos to help in the classroom.

“I lost all of the above; lecture notes, videos and so forth,” said sociology professor Darren Hendrickson. “I somewhat had to start over again.”

It took until last month before anyone received compensation for anything lost in the fire, which allowed professors to purchase new videos and books, Foster said.

While today may be a sad anniversary, the department is happy to look to the future. Foster said he has double scheduled classes for next spring in both Blair and alternative locations. He is hoping they won’t have to use the latter.

“(Scheduling classes in Blair) feels pretty good,” Foster said. “That’s one of the first real signs for the faculty of the reality of being in Blair.”