No ‘Moore’ Mess- Chapter Seven (Serial Version)
Chapter Seven- Helen (Moore) Kobayashi Versus Dr. Tanaka
Helen made it to her meeting the same morning at the university. Despite the turmoil in her personal life, her academic career was progressing. She was up for tenure. Her old adversary, Dr. Tanaka, was the chairman of her tenure committee.
“It appears this committee has recommended your application for tenure be approved. But I have some reservations.”
This criticism from Dr. Tanaka didn’t come as a shock. She was ready for her. Helen fired right back.
“Reservations? You have reservations about my tenure application!?”
“Yes, I wonder if you have the time to devote yourself to this institution’s true vision. I know many of the faculty in this room have covered for you in the past.”
“That was true at first. But I am ready to take the next step in my career.”
“Helen, that remains to be seen. Some of us here today remain skeptical of your desire.”
Helen glanced around the meeting room. There sat several of her department colleagues. A few of them nodded with Dr. Tanaka’s comment. The others sat as they nervously shuffled paperwork. This disappointed Helen. She thought she had a few allies in the faculty.
There was Dr. Reese. He collaborated with her on many publications. Helen considered him a true mentor and friend. But Dr. Reese was a year away from retirement. He had no intention of crossing Dr. Tanaka.
Helen’s long-time colleague, Dr. Burton was no better. This came much to Helen’s dismay. She expected his support.
“I have to agree with Dr. Tanaka on this issue.”
Helen knew Dr. Burton had a doctorate in history. She was astonished to learn she also held an advanced degree in supreme butt-kissing. Dr. Burton also was coming up for tenure.
There was no way she was getting dragged into any workplace drama. Dr. Tanaka motioned for a final vote. It was over for her.
“We are in agreement that Helen’s tenure application is rejected at this time. Agreed?”
It was a 3–3 tie. Dr. Tanaka held the tie-breaking vote. Helen bit down hard on her lower lip. Dr. Tanaka gave her a big smile.
“Do you have anything to say before I vote?”
Helen wanted to say many things to Dr. Tanaka. She deserved tenure. And yet, it was a power-hungry woman who was going to bring her grand dreams crashing to the ground. Helen was not going down without a fight.
“I have given this university and this department the best years of my career. Yes, there are things going on in my personal life. That is no secret. But I have put the needs of this university ahead of my wife and family on many occasions. If that’s not worth tenure, I should quit here and now.”
“Are you quite finished?”
“Yes, Dr. Tanaka.”
Everyone in the meeting room was silent. Dr. Tanaka leaned back in her chair as she took off her black glasses. Helen held her breath and braced herself for the rotten news.
“I choose to abstain. At this time.”
Helen could not believe it. A tie vote meant the committee would revisit her tenure application in six months. The faculty members escaped from the meeting room. Helen and Dr. Tanaka were left alone to talk.
“Thank you, Dr. Tanaka.”
“Don’t thank me. You remember you owe me one. And don’t you forget it, right?”
“Absolutely.”
With their heated conversation finished, Helen returned to her office. She wondered why Dr. Tanaka didn’t reject her tenure application, but she put those thoughts aside. Helen had six months to prove to Dr. Tanaka she should get tenure. She gazed into the small, round vanity mirror on the wall.
“You can do this, Helen! You have to do this for Erica. For Nancy. And most of all for you.”
Helen spent the next several weeks working harder to be a great professor. Her lectures were better than normal. She published two articles in well-respected academic journals. New policies established to better engage her undergraduate students.
Student evaluations were a significant part of Helen’s tenure application. She wanted to do everything possible to be the most beloved professor on campus.
“I will be extending my office hours from this week. If you have an issue, please don’t hesitate to come by my office. My door is always open for you.”
The students enjoyed greater access to Helen outside of the classroom. Helen liked the interactions with the students. One rainy Tuesday afternoon, she was eating lunch when a young woman tapped on her office door.
“Dr. Kobayashi, do you have a minute?”
“Sure.”
Helen didn’t know who the student was. The girl looked frazzled. Helen motioned for the girl to come in the door.
“You aren’t in any of my classes, are you?”
“No, I’m not. But I thought. Look, never mind. I’m going to go.”
“Wait. It’s fine. Please, take a seat.”
The student introduced herself as Sarah Yap. She was a junior majoring in art history. Helen motioned again for Sarah to take a seat. And she did.
“What’s on your mind, Sarah?”
“You see, there’s a woman. She’s been hounding me for — ”
“For what?”
“For more than I want to do with her.”
“Oh honey! We’ve all been there before. It’s part of being a woman in the college world.”
“I know.”
Helen over the years met more than her share of men and women who tried to take advantage of her. She had been lucky to find a wonderful person in Erica. Sarah was not as fortunate.
“You can always say no.”
“I did.”
“And what did she do?”
Sarah got quiet as tears dripped from her face. Helen handed her a tissue, and she gave her the box. It was obvious whatever happened to Sarah was terrible.
“I see. And where did this take place.”
“Here on campus.”
This shocked Helen. The university was well-known for having one of the safest campuses in the nation. It was promoted in a national magazine as the nation’s safest college in America.
“Where exactly?”
“In a professor’s office. Last week.”
“Is it a professor? It can’t be.”
Helen could not believe it. She knew the faculty, most of them well. Sarah’s shoulders sank.
“Yes, it is.”
“Who is it?”
Sarah’s shoulders slumped lower, and she looked at the floor. Helen put the pieces together. What Helen lacked in beauty, she more than made up for in intellect.
“It’s Dr. Tanaka, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Sarah went on to recount how she went to Dr. Tanaka’s office for private tutoring. At first, it was platonic. Soon, Dr. Tanaka was making offhand remarks about Sarah’s good looks. She assumed it was harmless banter until Dr. Tanaka demanded to give her a massage one evening.
“Come on, it will help you loosen up, Sarah. You want to pass my class, right?”
“Sure. But you are a professor. This doesn’t seem — ”
“Right?”
“Yes.”
“Dear girl, you will find there are many things I can teach you.”
“Maybe I don’t want to learn those things from you.”
“What was that?”
“Never mind. Just forget it.”
“That’s better, sweetheart.”
Sarah felt that was creepy, and she made excuses to avoid going back to Dr. Tanaka’s office alone. She realized this angered her when she gave back her essay in front of the class. That was her first mistake.
“Now, here class, we have a classic illustration of incompetence. Sarah’s essay is utterly devoid of any merit. D-.”
A note written on the back page of the essay. It was from Dr. Tanaka. She offered Sarah an olive branch.
“Come see me if you want to talk about how you can raise this grade.”
It was against her better judgement, Sarah went to see the woman. That was her second mistake. Dr. Tanaka made it clear how she could pass her class. Sarah resisted at first. Dr. Tanaka’s once positive disposition changed. Her shoulders raised, and she growled at Sarah as she spoke.
“You will never graduate from this university. And that big scholarship of yours? Gone. Do you need me to go on?”
“No, Dr. Tanaka.”
Sarah caved. She came from an impoverished family. Her scholarship was the only thing keeping her from cleaning toilets on her knees like her mother did at the big hotel downtown. Sarah felt worthless. She knew it was wrong, but Sarah did it anyway. That was her third mistake.
Sarah told nobody about the assault. The shame was too much for her to have the courage to speak about it. Helen wondered what Sarah was thinking.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I came to you.”
“Do you know if there are others?”
“Maybe. But if there are, none of them will ever come forward alone. Nobody wants to cross Dr. Tanaka, you know?”
Helen knew what happened to the women who crossed Dr. Tanaka. She felt bad for Sarah. Someone should have called the police, but Helen didn’t suggest it. She had a horse in this race. Her tenure application hung in the balance.
“I tell you what. Let me see what I can do.”
“Thank you, Dr. Kobayashi. That means a lot to me.”
The traffic on Helen’s commute home was terrible. She spent an hour stuck behind a smelly garbage truck. It was an apt metaphor for her present state of mind. She had time to think about the situation.
Helen pulled in her driveway, and she stared into the rearview mirror at her reflection. She made a choice. Helen was going to speak face to face with Dr. Tanaka.
The next day Helen went to the university earlier than usual. Dr. Tanaka’s daily routine was as precise as a Swiss watch. Helen knocked on her office door. She was eating her usual breakfast, two bananas, tofu, and grape juice.
“Good morning, Helen. You’re early. How can I help you?”
“Eunice, I need a word with you.”
Dr. Tanaka was taken aback by Helen’s bold attitude. She sought to reclaim the upper hand.
“That’s Dr. Tanaka.”
“Not today, Eunice. I am here about Sarah.”
Dr. Tanaka stopped chewing her banana. She leaned in her chair as she pulled off her black glasses.
“Sarah who?”
Helen stared at Dr. Tanaka. Her smug smile told the truth. Helen put her hands on her desk, and she glared at her.
“The Sarah you’ve been assaulting this semester.”
Helen said it loud enough for the world to hear, But at that early hour, there was not a soul around them. Dr. Tanaka was indifferent. It was clear she didn’t care who knew.
“Is that what she told you?”
“Yes. Do you deny it?”
“Deny what? Assaulting her? Yes. Having sex with her? No.”
“You’re a horrible monster.”
Dr. Tanaka laughed. And she resumed eating her banana. It was clear this was not the first time she had faced accusations. She was a real professional sleaze. Dr. Tanaka was so good she almost convinced Helen.
“Sarah wanted to pass my class. When I told her that her inferior work would make it impossible, she offered to do whatever it took to pass.”
“And you suggested sex?”
“That was all her. She’s a slut.”
Helen was infuriated by Dr. Tanaka’s nonchalant attitude towards her inexcusable behavior with Sarah. The ‘Moore’ anger boiled inside her body. She thought about smacking her across the face. But Helen thought better of it.
“Sarah is not a slut. I’m telling you to leave her alone, or I swear to God you will pay. You hear me? No more, Eunice.”
Dr. Tanaka stood, and she tossed her banana peel in a green wastebasket. Helen wondered what she was going to do next. She sat in her office chair, and she gave Helen a wry, little smirk.
“Fine.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t forget this.”
“Nor will I. Don’t you forget you are up for tenure again in just two months. And you owe me one, remember?”
This was not the first time Dr. Tanaka had messed with a student. Dr. Tanaka always had her ducks in a row in case any of her victims developed a backbone. Helen was nothing more than an unwitting pawn. And she knew it.
“Oh — ”
“It would be a shame for your tenure application and career to go down the drain.”
“Yes, it would.”
Helen lamented that Dr. Tanaka regained the upper hand with her in a single sentence. She should have pushed the issue up the chain of university command. Helen realized she sold out Sarah for a new title and a closer parking spot.
Helen had, “made her bed,” and she was going to “have to lie in it” as Pastor Andrew always said. Helen felt terrible about not helping Sarah more with her problems, but Helen had hers.
Thankfully for Sarah, Dr. Tanaka kept her word. She didn’t lay a hand on Sarah after that day. Helen took some solace in that. Dr. Tanaka gave Sarah an ‘A’ for the semester.
Sarah later received department honors along with a glowing letter of recommendation from Dr. Tanaka. She got into graduate school on a full scholarship. Thanks to a phone call on her behalf from Dr. Tanaka to the dean of the graduate school.
Helen got tenure with a unanimous vote two months later. Dr. Tanaka made certain of that outcome. And Helen was happy if not without some measure of guilt about her silence to the university about Sarah.
