One Too Many

So I'm on the treadmill at work. That kinda sounds impressive - I've always wanted to be one of those people who could begin a story with 'I was on the treadmill...'. Well, technically, I think what I've really wanted was to be one of those people who say it and it be believable. I had just finished my run (it was more of a sloppy jog but I was out of breath and sweaty so I'm rounding up) when an email alert flashed across my phone. I don't normally open them while I'm at the gym but I was closing out my run program and just hit the tab - almost out of instinct. Or maybe it was the lack of oxygen.

It was from my college president and it had one of those high priority red exclamation marks so I opened it immediately. It was one sentence long. "This is not our Student Support Services program, correct?" I'm confused. And immediately concerned.

I open the attachment to find a letter from the Department of Education informing us that our grant application did not score high enough to receive funding. I look to make sure it's supposed to come to us. And it is. It's addressed to our president and has our college name on the letter.

I'm confused and filled with panic. Did the Department make a mistake? Were we not supposed to be funded?

I have another 10 minutes of walking on the treadmill but I literally jump off that instant and run to my office. The first thing I do is pull up the notification slate. And call a friend at the same time. I'm in such a frenzy that I can't think straight - I need someone to bring me down. I get that way when I'm panicked. I'm like this little wind up toy that won't stop spinning on it's own. It reminds me of this funny scene in Clue (hilarious movie, by the way).

Yep, I am totally Mrs. Peacock.

But she doesn't answer so I continue in my frenzy.

But look. We're on the list. Right there. We're on the slate. What the hell is going on? I feel better but I'm still confused and still a little panicked. I call my program officer.

She asks me to check the award numbers. Of course, why didn't I think of that? Because I'm still spinning, that's why. They are different numbers but only by the last digit. One is 106, the other 109. When I read them to her she says "Hum, it's not good that they're so close.".

In my mind, in that instant, I wonder if they accidentally submitted my grant twice and it got two different scores. I'm not sure that's even possible. And the awarded grant scored 105/106 (Yes, I only lost ONE point! How cool is that?) and this one was 87/106.  That's a huge difference. Could there be a discrepancy that big?

As I tell her no, we only submitted one I skim the reader comments again and this time the word Veteran jumps out at me. And it suddenly dawns on me. Our grant writer (the one that viciously said to me when he discovered I was writing the grant "Well, when you don't get refunded I'll say to them, you should have had me write it.") has submitted a grant application for a Veterans program without telling anyone.

Not only did he not even bother to ask for input, the arrogant SOB didn't even notify the president! I mean, who does that?

The saddest part is that I would have collaborated. I would have shared everything I know in order to make that grant successful. And not for any type of credit, but simply because I wanted it.

What a wasted opportunity.

Thankfully our grant was not impacted and I can rest easy that we do, in fact, have another 5 years of funding.

And it must have been a bonding moment because the next day my program officer sent me a fb friend request...Yes, really. And how do you handle that?  But that's another story for a different day...