Promotions

Zeke, who was at the meeting, fills in Ricardo, who was absent, on who got promoted.

...

Zeke: Three were up for full professor. Two got through.

Ricardo: Who?

Zeke: Well unsurprisingly, the Higgins application went through without a whisper. No one understood any of his research so no one dared admit to ignorance. Surprisingly, in a male-dominated faculty, Miss Gaunt got through despite her research into feminism. But they could hardly dispute it since she’s in ten academic societies and all her articles were refereed.

Ricardo: So Schlumberger was rejected?

Zeke: Voting was close. 25 for, 12 against, and 14 blank sheets.

Ricardo: What sank him?

Zeke: One of his articles was still in press. They don’t accept galleys. But mostly, he is not a formidable data-digger, his articles sport no fancy formulae, dramatic graphs or serpentine footnotes. All he could offer was a whole bunch of arty photographs stitched into the text of his articles.

Ricardo: Well, perhaps his data is qualititative rather than quantitative.

Zeke: It's the economy stupid. Gotta realize, it's a numbers place we work in.

...