Victor D. Lopez

The novel involves the bittersweet journey of a young, idealistic attorney who takes on the role of academic dean at a for-profit business school in New York City in 1987 knowing nothing about the industry. Unable to accept the way things are, he immediately launches into a personal mission to change lives for the better in an environment where only the bottom-line matters. Hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit quickly propel him to professional success, but at a deep personal cost in the process as he learns critical life lessons about himself, about his chosen profession, and about love.

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Hire Lernin’

by Victor D. López

No portion of this copyrighted work may be reproduced, transmitted or posted in any form for any purpose without the express written consent of the author

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Author’s Note

This novel is a work of fiction. Although it was born out of my slightly more than one-year experience as the dean of a proprietary, for-profit business school in my first academic posting early in my career in a manner and circumstances similar to the protagonist, the characters, locations, and situations are not based on nor intended to represent any actual persons or places. Alas the issues raised directly and indirectly about the failings of both for-profit education and traditional higher education are far from fictional. Indeed, for-profit education has grown exponentially since the 1980s and is no longer limited to small, closely-held corporate entities. And some segments of traditional higher education today—both public and private—have come to mirror the same bottom-line-driven ethos of the proprietary, for-profit market with its primary emphasis on maximizing tuition revenue, minimizing cost, and imposing ever-increasing burdens on faculty with a constant call to “do more with less” until they are expected to do practically everything with nothing and forced to work in an environment where academic standards take a back seat to student retention providing students with of questionable worth. But that is a matter for another novel—one I also hope to write.

I should make it clear that all proprietary, for-profit education is not necessarily bad. There are and have always been good and bad players in this arena just as in any other. The one I served in my first posting was not as good as some and much better than others. I will always be grateful for lessons learned there—and for some of the wonderful people I got to work with. It was there, not in any classroom, that I learned to lead by example, to effectively manage professionals through honest, open communication and consensus building, and to use entrepreneurial leadership to successfully attain goals others said were unreachable. These skills served me well throughout my life as both an administrator and twice-tenured full professor in the colleges and universities I have been privileged to serve. They serve me well still, for which I am grateful beyond words.

Victor D. López, J.D., Esq.

New York - February 12, 2021

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Chapter One

Dan peered out of his Jackson Heights second story apartment window hoping to spy the letter carrier’s cart on the sidewalk below bearing good news. He had risen as usual at 8:00 a.m., showered, dressed and was at his desk by 9:00 a.m. ready to face the world, which these days largely meant waiting for the mail to arrive or the phone to ring with an interview offer while working on a book about public domain software that he had begun writing. A classic overachiever, Dan was undaunted by the fact that he had settled into this routine two months ago and was still waiting for a reasonable job offer that he could actually accept. No matter, he would persevere and everything would be fine.

Success had always come easily to Dan. He completed middle school in two years in a special progress class, graduated from one of the best High Schools in the country, Brooklyn Technical High School, with honors, and excelled not only in the traditional college-level math, science and technical courses that formed the foundation of his pre-engineering curriculum, but also in the humanities and social sciences. College had been more of the same. He looked forward to every class, never managed his GPA by dodging hard courses or dropping courses in which he was not maintaining an A average, never cut classes, and graduated with high honors. Both his I.Q. and LSAT scores qualified him for membership in Mensa, an organization he had absolutely no interest in joining. He coasted through law school, though his grades were only average as he was frustrated and bored by the emphasis on memorization and regurgitation of facts, issues, holdings and rationales for cases in the traditional case method employed by the law school he attended (and most others for that matter both then and now).

Dan had decided to go to law school to help people, to make a difference, and to promote justice—actually believing these clichés with the fervor and innocence possible only for recent arrivals from faraway galaxies and people whose only exposure to the law and lawyers is derived from romanticized Hollywood movies, novels, and television shows. His delusions did not survive the first week of law school. He knew almost immediately that he would not practice law as a career, at least not as his primary occupation, but stubbornly decided to stick it out for no better reason than he had always completed anything he started and law school would not be the exception. So, instead of leaving law school after a week, a month or even a semester as any rational person faced with the clear evidence that he had made a terrible mistake would have done, he plodded onward. He could have pursued a Ph.D. in political science, English, philosophy or any of the half dozen other fields that were of real interest to him in the humanities and social sciences where he could have found a fulfilling career as an academic. Instead, he chose to stay in law school and use his law degree to obtain a non-legal corporate position in human resource management, government compliance or one of the many other areas in business in which knowledge of the law and the ability to give legal advice are essential.

After graduating from law school, he took and comfortably passed the grueling New York State bar exam, though he would not receive the results until December and would not be admitted to practice until the following spring, just like everyone else who passed the bar exam. In the meantime, he had worked on Wall Street for a year hating the experience. Once admitted to practice, he prepared his resume and sent out application letters, neatly typed and appropriately listing his educational experience and competencies seeking to find more satisfying work. With no relevant work experience, however, responses were not what he had hoped for that summer. He received perhaps one interview for every ten or fifteen application letters sent out. This was actually much better than average, especially since he was not applying for work as an attorney. He should have expected three to five interviews for every 100 letters sent out, but he did not know that. Accustomed to success and with an unrealistic notion of his marketability and value, he was disappointed at getting at best a couple of interviews a month and was even less enthusiastic about the salaries offered for the entry level administrative and consulting positions for which he interviewed and which he was offered.

But this week would be different. In researching positions for which he would qualify as someone with a law degree, he had learned an interesting fact: more college deans hold a Juris Doctor degree than degrees from any other discipline. This appealed to him and he had instantly decided that rather than accept any of the unsatisfying offers like the ones he had recently received, he would concentrate on obtaining a dean’s position at an academic institution. The fact that most college deans are highly experienced academics or accomplished professionals before their ascension to administration is something that completely escaped Dan’s less than comprehensive research into the subject. Thus, his mind made up about a career choice that would after all vindicate his decision to obtain a law degree, he readjusted his resume, developed a new cover letter, and began to apply for deans’ positions from The Chronicle of Higher Education. And, not knowing any better, he also kept reading The New York Times classifieds hoping to find those types of positions listed there as well.

Within a few days of making this new life-altering decision, he had sent out a half dozen new application letters to community colleges in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state area from the Chronicle and one to Practical Entrepreneurial Management Training Institute (PEMTI), a local business school Dan had never heard of. The cryptic ad in the classified section of The New York Times read: Academic Dean. Leading business school with branches throughout the tri-state area is searching for an Academic Dean for its Queens campus. Competitive salary and benefits. Master’s Degree required; Doctorate preferred. The only other information was an address for PEMTI at Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens, an area not too far from Dan’s apartment. He then waited for a call he was sure would come, oblivious to the fact that the lag time between the submission of an application for a dean’s position and the search committee selection of candidates for preliminary phone interviews and, eventually, on-campus interviews takes months at traditional academic institutions, even at lower-level community colleges and baccalaureate institutions. But ignorance is bliss, and Dan eagerly expected a call or letter inviting him to an on-campus interview within a week of having sent the application.

It is said that even broken clocks are right twice a day—well, at least that’s true for the old-fashioned analog ones. And this morning, just three days after mailing his application, his phone rang.

“This is PEMTI calling. May I speak to Daniel Amor?” The woman’s husky, southern accented voice gave Dan a sudden adrenaline surge as he quickly responded, “This is he.”

“Good morning, Mr. Amor. I’m calling with regard to your application for the dean’s position. Will you please hold for the director, Mr. Lantz?”

“Yes, thank you.” Dan tried to keep his voice calm as his heart rate sped up further. A click on the line was followed almost immediately by the mellow voice of a man exuding cheerfulness.

“Dr. Amor?” The voice queried.

“Yes sir, good morning” Dan answered.

“Good morning. I’m Marvin Lantz, the school director. We received your application for the dean’s position and would like to bring you in for an interview. Are you available this week?”

“Any time this week is fine with me, Dr. Lantz,” Dan retorted without the usual response he knew he should give about having to consult his schedule in order to not appear overeager and unattractively unoccupied.

“Call me Marvin, please. I’m an MBA, not a Ph.D. or Ed.D. Can you come in tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.? We’re on Queens Boulevard about two blocks from the courthouse on the fourth floor of the Wang Office Building. Our school is actually on the fourth and fifth floors.”

“I know the area and have your address. I’ll be there at 10:00 a.m. Thank you. I look forward to meeting you, Mr. Lantz.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting you as well. See you then,” Marvin replied and hung up the phone.

Dan smiled widely. Finally he had an interview he could really look forward to. He called his girlfriend, Linda, as soon as he got off the phone, eager to give her the good news.

“Morning babe,” he said as soon as she picked on the phone. “I have some great news!”

“Hi Dan. What is it?”

“I just got called in for an interview at a local business school for a dean’s position.”

“Yeah, and I just got crowned Miss Universe,” she scoffed.

“I’m serious!”

“You told me you sent out applications for deans’ positions a few days ago. How can they possibly be interviewing already?”

“I guess they know quality when they see it,” he quipped.

“Joke all you want, but be careful. I see a huge red flag popping up here.”

“Gosh, Linda. You’re such a damned pessimist. Why are you perpetually raining on my parade?”

“Because I love you and someone has to protect you from yourself. You always see the glass as half full, and even if someone takes the time to make you see it’s actually completely empty, you’ll point to rain clouds in the horizon and argue it will soon be full again.”

“So shoot me for always looking at the bright side, Ms. Perpetual Party Pooper! For me the glass is always half full, true; for you it is always completely empty, dusty, cracked and lying in the middle of the Sahara Desert under six feet of sand,” Dan said with a tone of exasperation, yet knowing full well that she was right.

“Just be careful, Dan. Congratulations on getting the interview, but be wary.”

“I will, Linda. Have some faith in me, won’t you?”

“I have always had complete faith in you—it’s your judgment that worries me.”

“I’ve gotta go,” Dan said. “I’m off to the library to do some research. We can talk tonight,” Dan said, giving the receiver a kiss and hanging up the phone.

He knew Linda was right—she almost always was. He could be impulsive and allow his enthusiasm to cloud his judgment. Nevertheless he felt some annoyance at Linda’s harping on the negative rather than exploring the positive. She was a realist who looked at the positive and the negative in every situation and parked herself somewhere in the middle. Dan was an idealist who had a hard time accepting any reality he found unpleasant or unfair and would look for a rainbow in the middle of a hurricane, even if it killed him.

After getting off the phone, he did what he did best: turn to the task at hand and devote his full attention to it. He needed to get as much information as possible about PEMTI in preparation for the interview with little time to do so. In the days before the Internet, a library’s holdings were the only effective way to research a prospective employer, so he headed for his car to take a quick trip to the St. John’s University library to find out anything he could about PEMTI. Unfortunately, it was a trip that would prove fruitless. The same was true of his trip to his public library. Returning home that evening, he avoided going to see Linda as he knew she would harp on his need for caution and make him miserable. Instead, he called her and they chatted on the phone briefly. He also called his parents who were much more enthusiastic about his good news knowing nothing about the usual process involved in a dean’s search and, therefore, offered Dan only the encouragement he craved.

Victor D. Lopez

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Links to free podcast readings of full chapters from my new novel, Hire Lernin': An Idealist's Quest Through the Realm of for-Profit Education

Love and the Fool (free verse poem)

Hire Lernin' Sample Reading of Chapters 1-2

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Free preview of my forthcoming novel, Hire Lernin' (coming this summer) -- Chapter One (additional chapters to follow)

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Libro de Sueños: Cuentos de Ciencia Ficción y Ficción Especulativa (Span...

Poetry Reading My Sonnets 1978 - 2020

Monday, June 15, 2020

Hear me read the first two pages from each of the ten short stories in my Mindscapes collection