Ian Black

Disclaimer: While place descriptions and news events may coincide with the real world, all characters and the plot are fictional. 
== Biography ==
=== Portland State University ===
==== Book 3: Don't Go ====
In Spring 2017, Ryan Matthews and Teresa Valdez were both enrolled in Professor Ian Black's honors class about fertility symbols in pre-colonization Mexico. Teresa thought the course was sexist, both in content, and how Professor Black treated her and other female students. Teresa lodged a formal complaint for sexual discrimination, but left Portland before the term finished. The complaint was dismissed when she didn't return in the fall.
Provost McShane blocked Black's promotion to full professor. McShane would have liked the university to have gotten rid of Black, but Black had tenure so it was out of his hands.
As a result, Black blames Teresa, Ryan, and most of all Provost McShane for his failure to be promoted. He concocts an elaborate scheme to expose the Provost's participation in BDSM and cause him to lose his job - a scheme that involves Ryan's death from an overdose on November 24, 2017 - and comes close to succeeding. When that fails, he spends 3 years in Mexico on a fieldwork project funded by the US State Department.
On returning to PSU in 2020, Ian Black visits EWN, and is met by Ryan. He mildly threatens Ryan with 'what would staff say if they heard', but Ryan replies that Black can't tell stories without outing himself, and that would damage Black's reputation more than Ryan's. Black says he missed Ryan, but Ryan says he hasn't thought of Black in years, and without the drugs and alcohol he finds the old scene tawdry. Finally Black reveals that he wants Ryan to support him when he publicizes McShane's private life. Ryan says that if Black is going on the record, say in the Faculty Senate, then a reporter would cover that, and then cover the slander suit that the Provost would bring against Black. Black says he thinks 'unnamed sources' would be more appropriate, and Ryan refuses. Black asks in Spanish where Ryan's bride and son are, and says he'll call ICE about Rafael. Black leaves, not realizing Ryan has recorded the conversation on his phone.
Black calls EWN around 3pm on Monday, October 26, 2020 and speaks to Emily Andersen. He wants to know if Ryan had assigned the 'feature piece' he'd discussed with Ryan. Emily told him Ryan had not talked to her about a feature, but she finds a press release about Black's new book, and says that she will assign a reporter to interview him about it. Black gets hostile, saying that Ryan should know better than to play games with him.
As Ryan starts driving down the hill from OHSU the following afternoon, a large V8 car apparently driven by Ian Black races down behind him and trys to run him off the road. Having grown up in the area, Ryan is familiar with the streets and turns suddenly into a cul-de-sac evading the other car.
As Ryan Matthews heads to his car on leaving EWN at 10pm that night, Ian Black speaks from the shadows, saying he's being relieved of his duties pending an allegation of plagiarism. Black says that ICE knows where Teresa is, and will be picking her up in Twin Falls ID the next morning and then they'll go for her son. Ryan says Rafael is his son, which makes him a US citizen by birth. Black says that as Ryan won't be around to support him, Teresa will be assumed to be lying. Ryan says Rafael's guardian is impeccable, but Black says he has friends in high places, and there's a cage waiting. For a pretty little boy like Rafael, some private adoption agency will be just waiting to get their hands on him. Ryan says Black will be lucky to get an adjunct position teaching intro US history at a community college, and will need food stamps to make ends meet. Black says he's been promised a permanent consulting job - less prestige, but more money. Ryan says Black is delusional, in just days there will be a new president-elect, and no one will remember any promise made to Black. Ryan observes Black has one of the cushiest jobs in the world, he'd got his feeling hurt and spent three years pursuing a vendetta, but the only one he's hurt has been himself. Black raises his 9mm snub-nosed handgun, and two shots ring out. McShane appears as Black falls to the ground, saying Ryan had baited Black into that. Ryan says Black had tried to run him off the road that afternoon, and was getting more and more desperate. Ryan waves off Pete Madison who is sitting on the roof of a nearby apartment building. McShane says he has a concealed-carry permit on file and he gets death threats. Black fired first, and he's dead so he doesn't get to rebut that.
== Physical Appearance ==
In 2020, Professor Black is in his mid-40s, of a similar height to Ryan Matthews (so about 6-foot-1). He has sun-damaged skin, with lines at his eyes and around his mouth. His dish-water brown hair has a sun-bleached blonde streak in front.
== Personality ==
He is known to frequent gay bars.
Category:PSU
Category:Character