Rae Mellichamp
Emeritus Professor of Management Science, U of Alabama
Faculty Representative, CLM
As a Christian I have said that I believe Romans 8:28 is true, that God uses all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. Does it apply beyond church and Sunday School stuff, in the dog-eat-dog world of university life?
At the end of my second year as an assistant professor, I felt good – I had no publications, but I had finished teaching four graduate classes and received an outstanding teaching award. I had no big plans for research — I had made a huge mistake during my grad student days, selecting a dissertation topic I had no interest in because it brought funding from a government agency.
You Will NEVER Get Promoted
A new dean arrived that spring. He invited me to his office. As I walked in, even before settling into a seat, he asked me, “Well, I expect you think that you will be getting promoted to associate professor soon, is that right?”
I was startled, but collected my wits and replied in the affirmative. I will never forget his response.
He said, “You won’t be getting promoted then, and you will never get promoted as long as I am dean of this college until you start doing research and getting it published in respectable academic journals!”
After this, as best I can remember, we got into a shouting match and, after a few exchanges, he invited me to leave his office.
How does one respond to such a turn of events? I returned to my office and called my wife Peggy and told her that we might as well start planning to relocate because I was finished at the U of A. As far as I was concerned, nothing worse could have happened to what I perceived as a promising academic career.
He Was Right
Interestingly, during this time frame we were beginning to really grow in our Christian faith and were getting involved in the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. After I had had a chance to reflect on the dean’s hard words, I could see that the dean was right.
As Michael Behe so eloquently puts it in Darwin’s Black Box, “If you do not publish your work for the rest of the community to evaluate, then you have no business in academia (and if you don’t already have tenure, you will be banished).” Faced with banishment, I determined to develop a research reputation that would honor the Lord even as I had already done in my teaching and service activities.
Several years later, I was named “Board of Visitors Research Professor of Management Science,” a Research Fellow by the university, and I received 120% of my normal compensation to recognize my research contributions to the school. We received national and international recognition from our research and brought an enormous amount of publicity and funding to the University of Alabama that continues today even after my having been retired for 12 years.
I made it a point to go back to the former dean who had given me the tough advice years earlier. I said, “What you told me — just before throwing me out of your office in 1971 — was the best professional advice I have ever been given. It wasn’t easy, but it was right. Thank you for leveling with me.”
I learned in that process that Romans 8:28 is indeed true and it works —even in the halls of academe.
Why do we even doubt Him? I’m beginning to learn when bad things happen to me, rather than to question or criticize or complain, to just watch and wait and enjoy how God, who is sovereign, will use even bleak circumstances for what is best. If I live another 50 years, I may get it down pat.
© 2006 Joseph McRae Mellichamp