Hi,
Belatedly, I realize that, having posted something about the state of the
SFU English Department a few years back, during the worst of our
“Troubles,” I should post a message now that most of the trouble is in the
past. Especially since we are now hiring in Writing & Rhetoric. Besides,
this is basically good news, and good news is nice news.
The Department went through a professionally guided “conflict resolution”
process about two years ago. Amazingly, it worked. The factions that tore
the Department apart are pretty much gone - we no longer vote in blocs, we
work together as cooperatively as ever, we are collegial, etc. Yes,
differences still exist about what “English” is, but the Writing Centre,
also a centre of struggle, has been moved out of the Department, into the
Dean’s Office, where it has morphed into a writing-in-the-disciplines
project directed by Wendy Strachan. We function with more transparency,
more decisions made by the Department rather than the Chair, and so forth
(and are apparently about to enshrine that in our constitution). Our
current Department Chair is an “elder statesman,” charged with implementing
the goals reached during “conflict development,” and I don’t expect the
election of our next chair will be controversial. By September next, we
will have hired ten new faculty who were not here during the “troubles”;
since they are now almost 30% of the Department, they transform who “we” are.
As for Writing & Rhetoric, well, there never was much of an issue about
Rhetoric, and attitudes toward writing are a mixed bag (as in many English
Departments). The Department consensus, unfortunately is that our faculty
shortages in literary studies will hereafter be a higher priority than
hiring in W&R, though we are in the process of hiring a W&R person right
now (application deadline, Thursday, 31 October). On the upside,
however, (1) none of our scheduled courses have ever been at issue,
including the first-year academic writing course Janet Giltrow created, (2)
we are in the process of converting our first-year literature courses into
writing-intensive courses (which will reduce TA workload from 45 to 30
students), (3) we are transforming our graduate “professional development”
course, required of all entering graduate students, is on the way to
becoming a graduate course in teaching–60-70% of which will focus on
teaching writing. Although many faculty still don’t quite “get it” about
writing, both the undergraduate and graduate curriculum committees are
being very cooperative (esp., re: items 2 & 3 just above).
That’s how I see it at this point. Everything isn’t hunky-dory, I am not
leaping with joy, nor as excited as I was five years ago. But I am once
again comfortable in the SFU English Department. I no longer think you
need warn students who want to do graduate study at SFU. Nor do I think
SFU need any longer be approached especially warily by those applying for
faculty positions.
Rick Coe
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