This weekend, I am going to a meeting at The Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion to help choose recipients of a book-writing fellowship. The Louisville Institute has been very supportive of my work in the past, giving me both a dissertation fellowship and a large grant to conduct research on conversion. They are my friends. And they will want to know, as do so many people, “Why did you leave OLU?”
As I was reading the fellowship applications tonight, I was thinking about how I was going to respond to that question. For some reason, the answer came to me particularly clearly tonight. No fancy lingo, no dressed up and drawn out explanations.
Quite simply, I left Our Lady’s University because:
(1) I was not rewarded for my teaching and other involvement with undergraduates.
(2) The particular type of research and publication I was doing was not appreciated.
That’s it! Pretty straightforward — although no less upsetting — when I cut to the chase.
DAVID YAMANE 