Doctor Maura Isles had been a lecturer at BCU for almost three years and was in charge of one of the units for the Criminology course where she taught students about forensic pathology, she was also in charge of running various other units at the university in her specialised field. She enjoyed her work but found herself wanting to make more of a difference in the world. The thirty eight year old honey blonde woman was stood in front of the class with the large projection screen behind her and the computer beside her on a large metal desk. The woman wore a pair of designer heels with a navy blue Alexander McQueen dress whilst her hair cascaded loosely down the sides of her face in slight waves.
It was the first week of University and the first lecture that they had for the unit. The students who had opted to take the unit were talking amongst themselves and discussing their summer vacations after having not seen much of each other over the past few months. They were starting their second year of their three year course which meant that the excitement of freshers was long gone and the real work had to begin.
Maura stood awkwardly at the front of the room, fiddling with her platinum wedding ring on her finger and waiting for the clock to strike five minutes past the hour because that was the official starting time for the lectures. This enabled the students to move between lectures and seminars as well as for lecturers to do the same. It was also the time that she would stop students entering her lecture theatre because she believed that punctuality was one of the most important things there were but also because she knew that students coming in late often distracted others from their work and it would be rather frustrating.
Doctor Isles observed her students for a while; a blonde man was waving his arms around to emphasise his point although Maura couldn't understand what he was trying to say, a number of people were on their phones and to the left of the room, one third of the way back was a dark haired woman whose back was turned to the lecturer. Her dark curls fell down her back in thick waves and she wore dark jeans, knee high black leather boots and a wine coloured shirt. She was talking to the man beside her and the two men who were behind them.
"If you'd like to take your seats and then we'll begin", the lecturer said softly to the students that were in her lecture hall as some were on desks, some on chairs and a couple of them were still standing. As the students began to settle into their seats and pull out their notebooks along with writing instruments to use, she continued to speak, "My name is Doctor Maura Isles and I will be teaching you for this unit", she said politely whilst standing at the front, her eyes glancing over at various students and attempting to make contact with each and every one at least once to try and remember their faces, "I don't believe I have met any of you before as I don't teach first year students, only second and third". Most of the students seemed to be listening although a couple still hadn't pulled out their notebooks in preparation for the lecture and a few weren't taking notice of their lecturer and instead were on their phones.
The dark haired woman with knee high boots was sat on her chair, leaning back with her legs up on the table however she was listening, didn't have her phone out and also she had a notebook and pen on the desk beside her boots. "There will be a few rules to my lectures", Maura began cautiously, "I will not have lateness in my lectures which means that you will be here by five minutes past the hour or I will not permit you entrance to my lecture hall". A few of the students looked at each other whilst wondering if their teacher was actually serious, "Every lecture ends at five minutes to the hour so that you can get to your next one by five minutes past the hour, so there is no excuse to be late", she said firmly, "If you miss a lecture then the slideshow will be online and you will be able to access them in your own time however not everything will be on the website so please don't use that as an excuse not to come to lectures". The dark haired woman smiled in slight amusement at that last part which in turn made the lecturer smile. "I don't like phones in my lectures although I do acknowledge that you may need to have them on for things such as childcare and in that case I would appreciate that they remain on silent and that you not use them during the lectures unless it is an emergency", she said with a slight smile, "If you have a question then feel free to put your hand up and I will get to you as soon as possible. However if we run out of time then you may email me your questions and I will get back to you as soon as I am able to". She glanced around the lecture theatre at the students before continuing, "If you wish to eat or drink in my lecture please feel free to as I know that some of you have rather full days…", she said as she explained the importance of eating breakfast which was why she allowed eating in her nine am lecture slot.
After explaining the few rules she stepped back to the metal desk for a moment and picked up her coffee cup to take a sip before placing it back down on the metal surface. It was now almost twenty minutes into the lecture time and she was explaining the syllabus for the unit when four students decided to wander in late, she looked up at the students with a rather unimpressed expression upon her face and the other students were watching to see what she would do. "You're late", she stated in a short but sharp tone whilst remaining polite.
The students that had entered late mumbled things such as 'I'm sorry', and 'We'll be earlier next time' but Doctor Isles simply sighed, "This will be the only time you will ever be permitted into my lecture hall late", she stated, "You will be here by five minutes past the hour or you will not be allowed into the lecture". Despite appearing a little shocked at the strict concept that the woman has proposing, the students sat down after finding seats for themselves.