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San Diego State University’s provost resigned from his position suddenly this week, and both he and the university have declined comment as to why.
But there is one glaring clue: an unusual email he sent to a former professor last year, which has since been made public.
If “all I have ever done was to promote your wellbeing and progress as previously detailed, and in return you willfully sought to harm or hurt me, may my Lord Jesus Christ ensure that you reap what you sowed,” the former provost, Chukuka S. Enwemeka wrote in the September email, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
So that “instead of blessings,” he continued, “you are showered with unending curse and harmed, hurt and visited by evil a million fold in everything you do throughout the rest of your life.”
Enwemeka ended the email by saying, “I am not necessarily cursing or wishing you evil. I am simply invoking the natural Law of Karma; the Law of Retributive Justice.”
Enwemeka, who was appointed provost in 2014, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. He reportedly wrote the fire and brimstone-style email to Douglas Deutschman, a former professor of biology and associate dean of sciences at San Diego State who is now the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. Deutschman asked the university to conduct an early performance review for Enwemeka, according to the Union-Tribune. And while the March review turned out positive overall -- save a few, perhaps now ironic pointers about communicating with the campus community -- Enwemeka was apparently irked by the request.
The university in a statement thanked Enwemeka for his service as provost and said he will assume a professorship in the College of Health and Human Services.
Sally Roush, interim president, is expected to name an interim provost by June 8.
A university spokesperson said that San Diego State doesn’t comment on "specific" personnel matters.
