Someone reaches out to me!

 In 2016, a good friend at a different college private messaged me through Facebook to tell me his school was going to start a sports journalism curriculum and wanted me to be the lead professor. He told me he was going to get a committee together and have a job posted. 

SWEET!

The ad was posted. I applied. 

I was called in for an interview. I met the search committee for dinner the night before and everything went extremely well. I loved the committee. 

The next day, I met the committee, sat down with the department chair, had lunch with the committee, got a tour of campus and especially of the athletic facilities. I met with someone who was the assistant provost as the regular provost was unavailable. I had a phone call with the president. 

I felt great! I felt like I had this locked up. 

The department chair told me privately at the end that the "only thing holding this back is if the provost doesn't think we had a diverse pool of candidates BUT we did bring in a guy with only a master's degree who is working on doctorate. But he does not have your experience."

The position stated a preferred minimum of Ph.D. 

"It (your hiring) should not be a problem." He said. 

The department chair called me about a week later and said the committee decided I was their guy. He asked if it was ok for them to go forward with my name. 

Hell, yeah! 

So, the committee did go forward with my name. 

And then....

Quiet. 

Silence.

For one week. 

Two weeks. 

Department chair told me there's an issue but didn't elaborate. 

Three weeks. 

One month. 

Department chair said he couldn't talk about it. 

And then on a Tuesday night, the department chair posted on his Facebook a welcome to the new faculty member who was.......the person of color with a master's degree and hardly any experience broadcasting sports. 

This made me absolutely sick. Pissed off. I was excited to build up a sports journalism class and curriculum, only to be denied. 

I'm politically a liberal and am for people who have been traditionally marginalized to get the nod in situations like this IF the two are equal applicants. In this case, we were not equal. This was discrimination. 

As things turned out, this was for the better. My Mom suffered a stroke not even two months later and I had to move home to be her primary caregiver until she eventually passed later in December. 

A few short years later however, the young man who was hired instead me was leaving the college to go south. I learned about this when I ran into the department chair again. He said, "I thought I would mention it to you but I would understand if you're not interested given how things ended the last time."

I said, "Nope."