The panel's decision arrived on a Tuesday in late January.
It came in a formal document bearing the seals of both external representatives and all three internal committee members, which was itself a signal. Unanimous decisions in formal review processes were not common. They indicated something more than a simple majority conclusion.
Elowen opened it at her desk in the morning.
She read it once, quickly, for the outcome.
She read it again, slowly, for the full account.
The panel had reviewed four applications. Of those four, two had been formally qualified and two had been considered but not advanced. The qualified candidates had been assessed across the seven criteria the position description had specified, the seven criteria she had helped write, which she acknowledged to herself w
