Professional Life Part 7

For the 4.5 of you who read this blog, you will recall that I started the year 2022 writing a series of posts about my time as department chair of Economics at the University of Oklahoma. I figured that I would end 2022 with another story of just how horrid that place was.

By the Fall of 2015, I had been the department chair for about 8 months. However, one of the faculty members in the department had been on a leave of absence at a government agency during that time so I hadn't really interacted much with her. She returned to the department that fall. By then, I was fully aware that I had made a mistake coming to this department. Just go back and read my post Professional Life Part 1.

About 2 weeks into the semester, I was walking across campus when the dean of the Graduate School sees me and says hello. He then proceeds to tell me how sorry he was that he wasn't able to pick this faculty member for an administrative post in the Graduate School. This was news to me because she hadn't mentioned that she had even applied. It wasn't a big deal because people have the right to seek whatever path is best for their career and family. When I talked to her about it, I simply asked that she give me a heads up. I had already scheduled her for teaching and had she gotten the job, I would have been in a world of hurt trying to scramble to find replacements that quickly. It would have been a major headache.

She promised that she would let me know. However, I had my doubts. The department had always operated where the faculty only looked out for themselves and had no problems lying or undercutting each other. Of course, that wasn't how I planned to run the place but it had been (and still is) the culture.

About 5 months later, I get a call from this same faculty member. Why? She was informing me that she had been selected for an administrative job in the College of Arts and Sciences. I was like "this can't be possible because you promised me that you'd let me know about these things beforehand." She was like "whatever, I'm out." She was hired by that same dean from the first post in this series who wanted to punish me for not being a black man who knew his place. It was a lot of work, but I was able to adjust the teaching schedule for her secret departure along with a ton of other work to distribute her service duties.

After that, any time you saw the dean on campus, this woman was sure to be no more than 5 feet behind him. She was the ultimate "ass kisser." I really mean it.

Fast forward about 7 months. She and I both independently knew this guy from a major university who was the dean of the graduate school there. One day, I decide to invite him to OU to give a research seminar. Since we're friends, I tell him to forget about staying at a hotel and he could simply stay at my house. I'd fire up the grill and we'd have dinner at home.

As is standard, the department puts out a notice of research seminar speakers and invites people from campus to attend. About a week later I get an email from this faculty member. She says that she's set the agenda for this guys visit which includes high-level meetings for him, her and the dean. However, there will be lunch which I'm invited to attend. I email her and copy the dean to say that I had already made a schedule. That the guy was my friend and that he was staying at my house and that I'm not sure what she thought she was doing. He did not have high-level meetings with the dean.

I don't think that she and I spoke more than 12 words to each other in the 4 years that I remained there. Yet, I'd hear story after story about department chairs and faculty members who had been undercut by interacting with this woman. She was standard for OU, a horrible colleague and a horrible person.