One week and two days after they received my application (and one day before Thanksgiving Day), I received their reply: "We are in receipt of your application for the position of Assistant Professor of English, #11-45ENG. However, I'm sorry to inform you that your application has been rated not qualified. Specifically, you do not meet the minumum education requirement of an earned Doctorate degree as outlined in the 'Qualifications' section of the vacancy requirement."
It's completely accurate, of course. But it's as if they did not take into account the fact that I'm more educated and better qualified now to teach there than I was back in 1978, when I was first hired.
So, the dream I had from even before the day I resigned on October 12, 1979, that I would one day be able to return, is now shattered completely. I am too old to return to the Air Force. Had I been able to do that, I could have applied to be one of the military instructors at USAFA where a Master's Degree is sufficient education, and all of the rest of my educational experience and background would have been even more reason to hire me.
When I once more applied back in 1992, while their notice for a civilian instructor stated that they preferred to hire a PhD, it was not absolutely required then as it is now. But then it was all too soon after my forced resignation. And then, of course, they still had that aversion to having anyone who was gay present and teaching there, whether in the service or not. This was a year before DADT came into effect.
They might have read about me, read between the lines. They might have made an exception this time around. They might have been willing and able to set an old wrong right after more than 32 years. But they chose not to.
It's completely accurate, of course. But it's as if they did not take into account the fact that I'm more educated and better qualified now to teach there than I was back in 1978, when I was first hired.
So, the dream I had from even before the day I resigned on October 12, 1979, that I would one day be able to return, is now shattered completely. I am too old to return to the Air Force. Had I been able to do that, I could have applied to be one of the military instructors at USAFA where a Master's Degree is sufficient education, and all of the rest of my educational experience and background would have been even more reason to hire me.
When I once more applied back in 1992, while their notice for a civilian instructor stated that they preferred to hire a PhD, it was not absolutely required then as it is now. But then it was all too soon after my forced resignation. And then, of course, they still had that aversion to having anyone who was gay present and teaching there, whether in the service or not. This was a year before DADT came into effect.
They might have read about me, read between the lines. They might have made an exception this time around. They might have been willing and able to set an old wrong right after more than 32 years. But they chose not to.
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