Last summer, after 22 years as a tenured Associate Professor, I decided to come up for promotion to Full Professor. I did so partly at the urging of three colleagues in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, where I’m “lodged,” and partly at the urging of two full professors in a different part of the campus.

Normally, the Naval Postgraduate School announces the results for tenure and promotion on April 1. Given the significance of that day, my wife suggested that I should hope the school announced that I didn’t get promoted.

Fortunately, the letter telling me that I am promoted (which I received yesterday) was dated today, March 31. I’m happy. I don’t feel the relief that I felt in April 1992, when I learned that I had been granted tenure. I had thought I wasn’t nervous about it, but when I found out, I immediately went home early, told my wife, and then yawned the stress out of my body for about half an hour. This time, I simply called her and then went in and taught my first class. I haven’t yawned a lot of tension out; I simply feel a quiet satisfaction.