The Twilight Zone, II

In my October 6 blog entry, I told a little about my sudden "retirement" from Taylor on September 29. I'm now nearing the one-month-anniversary of that event. It's been an interesting month and I guess I'd say it's been a good month in a lot of ways. Let me begin with the most dramatic turn of events.

Just after noon on Monday the 13th, exactly two weeks after Taylor let me go, I got a call from Angelo Mante, one of my admissions counselors, who was out on a recruiting trip. He asked, "Have you heard the news?"

No.

"We're done."

Huh?

"They're closing the campus!"

What? You've got to be kidding. You're kidding, right?

"No, it's true. Jeanne just called and told me to come home, they just announced they're closing our campus."

What a shock! Never in a million years did I anticipate such a decision at this point in time, when just a few months ago the Taylor board had given Fort Wayne the go-ahead to propose a new business model and even begin work on building its own board of governance. To me, especially as a newly minted outsider, it seemed like a total 180 degree turn on the part of the board.

So, Taylor Fort Wayne--the campus I had given much of my life to for the previous fifteen months, the place where I hoped to spend the rest of my career--will be no more after May 2009. Oh, Taylor will keep the online courses and the new programs that we developed aimed at working adults, but the heart and soul of TUFW will be gone. I feel terrible for the staff and students of TUFW. As I've spoken with colleagues at some other colleges, I've told them, "It might be easy to dismiss TUFW as a little, subpar school with nothing to offer, but the fact is that there are a lot of very good, very competent people there; people that any college would be fortunate to have as a part of its campus. Not only that, but TUFW people are low maintenance. They aren't into campus politics (well, except for one or two of them), they don't whine, they work hard and they put students first."

Since the announcement was made, I've had several well-meaning friends call or e-mail to say, "Well, your story just got a lot easier to tell." No need for explanations about a strange end to my time at Taylor. My response each time has been, I'd trade an easy story for me for 120 jobs for these good people any day, a number of whom just joined TUFW within the last five or six months.

At the same time, I do have to acknowledge that the board's decision to close the Fort Wayne campus has made things easier for me in some ways. I'm not on my own, in a sense. There's no need to explain what happened to me in most cases. It's helped me take some of the focus off of myself--to realize that it's not all just about me--and to avoid some bitter feelings.

I feel so blessed now that I was let go two weeks before the announcement. I've been able to get a start on searching for a job and, honestly, I'm not stuck in the middle of all the trauma that is happening on campus. I care about the people there and am trying to help them with job leads, letters of recommendation and so on, but I'm not there every day and it's not "my job" to deal with the steps leading to closing the campus. I ask myself frequently why God was so good to let me "get retired" when He did . . . and why He didn't do the same for others, more deserving than myself. I imagine I'll never know the answer to that.

Almost every day, I'm exchanging Facebook messages with students at TUFW who are not sure what they should do next. A group of them want to transfer to Indiana Wesleyan--"we'll show Taylor" by transferring to their rival--and I encouraged them to focus on where they would get the best education and get to their degrees most economically. Some students have to find other colleges because they can't afford to move to Taylor's main campus or their major is no longer offered and they want to know how to approach other colleges. It's sad, especially because it really seemed like this year at TUFW was off to a great start and we were making progress toward turning the corner as a campus.

So the closure of TUFW has certainly continued the Twilight Zone-like climate of my life recently. But things have been going very well generally. I thought I would have so much free time and looked forward to spending time reading. Instead, I've been quite surprised to see how quickly time fills up. I actually feel somewhat busy most days!

My concentration has largely been on the job hunt, and God's been good to give me encouragement on this front almost every day. My goal initially was to apply for a new job every day. That hasn't happened but I have been doing something to either find new openings, research opportunities, complete application files or submit resumes daily. Without going into details, I've been able to interview on two good college campuses, I've had a phone interview with another college (which probably won't lead to anything) and another one with a fourth school is scheduled for Monday. I've done a phone interview with a sales company and am hoping to be invited for a follow-up interview in person. I'm also working on some possibilities in the world of college counseling in private high schools. I'm just knocking on doors and waiting to see what might open up. And when doors do open, we're praying that we'll have wisdom and patience to make the right decision about which one to walk through.

Through all this, I've been amazed at the support I've received from friends and colleagues both here and around the country. Actually, around the world. Several colleagues have nominated me for vacancies. In one case, the friend of a friend--someone I don't even know--contacted me to suggest a lead. Yesterday, one of my colleagues wrote a recommendation letter for me that made me sound like the second coming of Christ, or at least the second coming of St. John. I don't know how all of this will turn out but, for now, we're feeling confident that something good will result from all the distress.

Well, thanks for letting me have my therapy session here! Please don't send me a bill for your services . . . we can't afford to pay it!