In March or April 2004, I was employed as an Assistant Professor in the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma (OU). I was approaching the end of my fifth year at OU and needed to decide whether I would submit a request for promotion and tenure.
I had one "A" publication in a top journal of my field and a handful of other publications. I also had a second article under review at the same top journal. While this paper was later accepted for publication, at the time, it was not certain the paper would be accepted.
I determined that it was likely better if I did not submit a tenure packet and looked for a position at a different university. I met with the division director and Dean to let them know that I would not submit a tenure packet.
In August 2004, I attended the Americas Conference on Information Systems in New York City, NY. In the two weeks leading up to the conference, I submitted applications to and was selected for first-round job interviews with Brigham Young University (BYU), University of Nebraska, University of Deleware, University of Alabama, and University of Utah.
A few days before the conference, I received an email message from Scott Poole at Texas A&M University inviting me to interview for a non-tenure track position in the Mays Business School. As soon as I read the email message, I had a strong impression that this was the job for me. Even though I was not considering non-tenure-track positions at the time, I accepted the invitation to meet Scott at the conference for the interview.
Several significant things happened at the conference in relation to my job search.
The person I was supposed to meet for my interview with the University of Nebraska mixed up her schedule and had someone else scheduled at the same time as me. As the other person arrived for the interview slightly before me, she met with that person and said she would catch up with me later in the conference. When I was on the job market in 1997 after my Ph.D., I was interviewed by this same person, who was then at the University of Colorado. So, I know her reasonably well from previous interactions. While we did chat at a social event later in the conference, I never had my formal interview with her for their open position at the University of Nebraska.
For my interview with BYU, I was to meet a group of BYU faculty in a hotel suite for a "panel" interview. When I arrived at the door for my interview, the person who opened the door to greet me said hello and then stated, "I saw in the Church News that you were recently called to serve in the stake presidency." I knew immediately that I was not considered a serious prospect as a candidate for the open position at BYU.
My interview with Scott Poole was a great experience. Scott was super nice. He explained how the non-tenure-track or "clinical" faculty role worked at Texas A&M. He made the university sound like a great place to work. My first impressions about Texas A&M were reinforced as a result of my interview.
In November 2004, Texas A&M invited me to make a campus visit. Coincidentally, the weekend I visited College Station was the same weekend that OU was in town playing the Aggies in Football. My flight landed in College Station during halftime of the football game. The Aggies were winning 28-21. The Sooners came back to win the game 42-35.
I had a great visit. I specifically requested that I travel to College Station over a weekend so that I could attend church. The Department Head (Dean Wichern) scheduled time on my interview schedule with two members of the church, Malcolm Richards (Finance) and Clair Nixon (Accounting). In addition, I connected with Lynn Rees via email and he picked me up from the hotel to bring me to the church in the College Station 2nd Ward.
A couple of weeks after my visit, I received an official job offer from Dean Wichern to join the faculty in the Department of Information and Operations Management, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University. The offer was a 9-month contract for $90,000 per year. This was more money than I was making at OU. Annette and I prayed about the opportunity and decided to accept the offer,
We did not tell the kids until Christmas day. During Christmas dinner, I told the kids that I had taken a new job at Texas A&M University. Tanner (10 years old at the time) responded with "Oh Man! You mean we now have to root for the Longhorns!" I assured him that we would not have to root for the Longhorns.
Between Christmas and New Year's Day, we drove to College Station to show the kids what our new place to live would look like.
Annette and I took Tanner and Ashton (8 months old) with us to College Station during Spring Break that year to look for a house in College Station. We contacted Suzi Bush through our real estate agent in Norman. We sent Suzi a list of about 35 houses we wanted to look at when we came. The houses we toured were in Edelweiss, Pebble Creek, and Castlegate. We did not see anything that seemed to fit our family situation and were leaning toward buying a lot in Castlegate and building a new house. We even selected a lot we liked.
Then, we found the listing for the house at 9213 Riverstone Court. We called Suzi that morning and asked her if we could see the house. It seemed perfect. Suzi helped us prepare our offer and it was accepted.
We closed on house sale in Norman on June 14, 2005. We had the closing meeting early in the morning. Then we drove to College Station. We closed on the house in College Station on June 15. The moving truck arrived at the house in College Station on June 16.
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