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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The situation

The same day I reported here "Why I decided to retire," I mailed the President of the University of North Carolina a formal, signed version of the email I'd sent him the preceding Monday (and mentioned in my "decision" report). Today I received a cordial reply in which the President thanked me for sharing my concerns and said he regretted that I'd had to go through that. He said he'd "keep a close eye on the situation."
    I was encouraged by that, and also cheered by the President's taking the opportunity to thank me for my "many years of service to our great University." He acknowledged that I had "contributed immensely to [its] operations" and said he sincerely appreciated my work.
    And I appreciated hearing it from him.
    From him, whose words I can believe.

Because I didn't wish to hear similar words spoken insincerely from one of the supervisors involved "in the situation" (which I described in the cited post), I had emailed the President on April 16, under the pretext of apologizing for not being at his staff meeting that morning, to let him know that:
The reason I'm not there (I'm writing this during the meeting) is that I could not bear the thought of having to suffer the possible utterance of my name by [either] supervisor when they reported their division's activities*. It's the same reason that I declined their offer on Friday to host a retirement party for me on my last day.
    I had told them:
Some friends will be taking me to lunch on April 23. I don't need or want a party hosted by you. Thanks.
    Thanks, but no thanks. Not in your situation.
_______________
* A friend who attended the staff meeting told me that my name and retirement had indeed been uttered by the chief supervisor, so my absence had spared me the hearing thereof.

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