Two degrees of separation Ronnie, M.F.A. Langsdale U. poster girl for diversity Veronica Williams just lost out on a coveted summer teaching position. Instead, this West Coast transplant finds herself spending her nights at a factory job and her days in search of her writer's voice—until she meets a brother not of the fraternal kind, which is hard to do in this white-bread, ivory tower town. Doris, Ph.D. Brooklynite Doris Weatherall hadn't expected this kind of turbulence when she landed that sought-after summer teaching spot—but then she met her class of surly high school seniors prepping for freshman year. Her love life isn't exactly a smooth ride, either—somehow her East Coast sophistication has gotten her involved with an ambiguously gay professor, and a tie-dye-wearing, free-loving computer techie. Were it not for fellow misfit and best friend Ronnie, navigating campus life in the Midwest would be more fiasco than fun.