The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
my lab. If we kick him out right now, we’ll be missing the whole point of
what we’re here for. We’re here to teach, to nurture. I know Dennis is
going somewhere special. We can’t just dump him.”
The dean was not happy with me. In his view, I was a young
professor getting pushy.
Then I got even pushier. I went tactical. The new semester had
already begun. The university had cashed Dennis’s tuition check. By
doing so, as I saw it, we were telling him he was welcome to remain as a
student. Had we expelled him before the semester, he could have tried to
enroll in another school. Now it was too late for that.
I asked the dean: “What if he hires a lawyer to argue this? I might
just testify on his behalf. Do you want one of your faculty members
testifying against the university?”
The dean was taken aback. “You’re a junior faculty member,” he
said. “You’re not even tenured yet. Why are you sticking your neck
out and making this the battle you want to undertake?”
“I’ll tell you the reason,” I said. “I want to vouch for Dennis
because I believe in him.”
The dean took a long look at me. “I’m going to remember this
when your tenure case comes up,” he said. In other words, if Dennis
screwed up again, my judgment would be seriously questioned.
“That’s a deal,” I told the dean. And Dennis was able to stay in
school.
He passed Calculus III, did us all proud, and after graduating, went
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