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Show -303- to expect. Most of the faculty with xrhom he had worked were s t i l l there, and many of them had been close friends; but that had been ten years ago. Under formal circumstances, his v i s i t could have represented a pleasant reunion. What it would be now, he had no way of knowing. When he had left the Midwest, he had told his friends that he was going to California because he felt more a t hotae in the Far West. Most of them, he knew, thought he xas leaving because of the trouble he had had xrith the Director of the Writing Program. Perhaps they were r i g h t . Even today the Professor was not sure. He told himself, as he had told his friends, that even if there had been no trouble he would have accepted the position in California. The trouble had been over a young instructor, one of the Professor's colleagues, who had come to him asking for advice. He had wanted to take a leave without pay to complete a novel, but he was afraid that if he did the Director would not rehire him the following year. "How long have you been here?" he asked; "This is the seventh year," the young man told him. "I think you have earned tenure," the Professor said. Tenure meant that the young man could not be fired unless some serious charge were made against him. "Don't take my word for i t , though," he said. "Go to the Head of the Department and to the Chairman of the Advisory committee. They're better campus lawyers than I am. They can t e l l you." |
