Executive Officer's Letter, Spring 20001.27.00 Dear Friends, Welcome to 2000 at 365. I hope that you all had a fruitful and warm break and weren't too let down by the millenial fizzle. In any event, there's much excitement ahead and quite a bit to celebrate. To begin, our Program was once again strongly represented at the MLA convention in the windy city, with several students and faculty members giving papers and/or chairing panels. And, once again, our interview showing was impressive, with 10 job seekers interviewing, some with multiple interviews. Since then, 8 have been invited for campus visits; 4 have been offered full-time tenure track positions, though it is still very early in the landing-the-job process. Among these offers/positions is Fred Kaufman's at the College of Staten Island. This last detail is cause for great celebration, indeed; we hope it marks the beginning of a trend of senior CUNY colleges' hiring our Program's graduates to full-time positions. In terms of trends, I am happy to report, as well, according to the MLA, that the number of tenure-track jobs available in English rose for the second year in a row; since 1997, the number of entry-level tenure-track jobs has shot up by 40 percent, although the ratio of new Ph.D.'s to new entry-level jobs in English is still more than two to one. MLA executive director Phyllis Franklin notes that "there are signs that universities are taking steps to improve the hiring situation," administrators having begun to realize, at long last, that their institutions "really need a critical mass of tenure-track members." The long and short of it is, then, that in the face of keen competition, our candidates are more than holding their own, and that this seems to have to do with the edge that wide and varied teaching experience gives over the now almost standard requirements of having published and participated in conferences. It should also be noted enthusiastically that in large part as a result of continuing efforts of the Graduate Student Caucus, in which Gregory Bezkorovainy and Mark Kelley have been so active, the MLA Delegate Assembly passed the following three resolutions: 1) that graduate students when performing services for paid compensation for professors, their departments, or colleges are employees, not apprentices; 2) asks the MLA to oppose the use of sweatshop, prison, and nonunion labor throughout the academic world; 3) endorses the right of all faculty (full and part-time), graduate employees, and support staff to engage in collective bargaining and notes that administrators should honor the results of employee votes on collective bargaining. In addition, motions were also passed strengthening the Taskforce Against Campus Bigotry, requiring graduate student representation on the Executive Council and Nominating Committee, making it MLA policy that job applicants be reimbursed the cost of travel to interviews and for the cost of sending application materials by express courier when required to do so, and urging the MLA to nominate and appoint people of color to the MLA Executive Committee and its committees. In connection with eventual job application, the sessions on professional development begun this fall at the suggestion of the ESA will continue and expand. I am most grateful to Professor Greetham and to all the others who participated on the "Publication and Presentation of Papers" panel. For the spring Professor Wayne Koestenbaum will organize and lead two or three sessions on what we might call "Developing Professionalism": discussions of where to go and what to see in New York City, how to write about it, and get published. In addition, there will be a new series beginning. Under the rubric of Getting Real: Professional Issues and Concerns, topics in this series will reflect the changing currents in both the writing and teaching markets and how best to negotiate a literary version of supply and demand. The first of these discussions is scheduled for 2-4 on March 31st, as you will see on the revised Friday Forum Plus calendar attached to this newsletter; please note changes and additions. We have a very full dance card for spring, starting off this time with the next in our featured faculty presentations. On February 4th, Professor Fred Kaplan will speak on "The Pleasures and Perils of Writing a Biography of Gore Vidal," the first of the privileged occasions we are most fortunate to sponsor and attend this term. Professor Geoffrey Hartman's extended stay with us as Center for the Humanities Scholar-in-Residence will come up just after the Lincoln's Birthday holiday, his lectures bracketing yet another new addition to what will become regular Friday Forum scheduling, the Student Poetry Reading on February 18th from 4-6 (following Hartman's talk from 2-4). Then, accompanying March's lion-like entry, we'll have Billy Collins reading his poetry on March 3rd. Just after the ides, on the 17th, comes the ESA Conference, "Envisioning Revision" (not to be confused with "The Wearin' of the Green"). Next we shall celebrate Professor Alisa Solomon's elevation to Executive Director of CLAGS on March 24th. And on March 31st Professor Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick will give a very special talk about death/textiles/Buddhism with a concurrent slide show of about 400 pictures illustrating various aspects of textiles in Buddhist culture and practice. There will also be an installation in our lounge running the week before the talk, and for as long as possible after, of fiber art somewhat connected to the subject of Professor Sedgwick's talk. April will begin with the long-awaited Arc of Celebration events, for us marked especially by the all-day CUNY English Forum with Professors Gayatri Spivak and John Brenkman holding the keynote dialogue. On April 14th we will welcome both the Northeast Victorian Association Conference and Professor Jerome McGann who will give a CUNY Faculty Development Lecture in honor of Professor Speed Hill. The term will end up with equally stunning events, the annual Shakespeare Conference, this year featuring director Andrei Serban and Professor Stephen Booth on May 5th and another all-day conference, this time on Law, Literature and Culture, sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the CUNY Faculty Development Program. There is something else to look forward to, though in a bit more distant future. The Program has been given an anonymous gift of $15,000, with more promised to follow, from one of its alumni/ae to make the lounge area a truly liveable space. We'll not be able to begin designing and actually reconfiguring the space, however, until we have received the rest of the furnishings ordered by the administration. I am told these pieces are to arrive during February. In terms of other fundraising, no, you have not missed the annual Phonathon, so get ready! The dates had to be postponed until this spring because of space considerations. They are Wednesday & Thursday, February 23rd & 24th, and Monday & Tuesday, February 28th & 29th (when, as a special, added feature, any women who are interested are invited to propose to any men they might desire). Please volunteer for as much time as you can spare over these days. Last year we raised a record amount, well over $7000, half of which was returned directly to the Program budget. These funds are of major importance to us in supplementing financial aid and fellowships. Another extraordinarily good bit of money news is that Governor Pataki's recently released Executive budget included a line item for the $4.1 million necessary for the maintenance of our new building. If this line item remains in the budget through the legislative session (which we have every reason to believe it will) and becomes part of the adopted budget for next year, it will mean being able to keep the Graduate Center open longer hours over the week and staffing a number of what President Horowitz has termed "operating units." Other good news about the Executive budget is the inclusion of funds to cover many of the mandatory costs in CUNY's budget that in recent years have not been covered. Of course, much remains to be done: fellowships, tuition remission, and the replenishment of full-time faculty across CUNY. Still, there has been some progress. Many thanks to all of you who wrote letters to the Governor and legislators last year. And now on to the few spring newsletter headline items: Admissions: Once again, we have an exceptional number of excellent applications from around the country, as well as several international submissions, all told, 138 by the financial aid deadline of January 15th. And as last year, we will be in competition with other top-ranking institutions, all of which have much deeper pockets than we. In view of this sad fact, I want to remind you of how many students apply to and accept admission into the Program because of the reputation of our faculty and what they have heard about our collegial life, as well as for the teaching opportunities they will have. I shall be calling on you collectively for Recruitment Day on March 24th, from 2:30 until 3:30, and individually throughout the process to be available to speak with and/or email prospective students. This kind of thing really does make all the difference, for them and for us. Thank you in advance. The first meeting of the Admissions Committee is this coming Friday, the 4th. I shall keep you posted with results and statistics. Registration: We are running 24 regular courses this term, not including the Dissertation Workshop and Poetry Workshop, nor Professor Fletcher's March/April mini-course. For the most part, registrants are well distributed. Website: Tune in and see if there's anything you'd like to add or change about your entry and/or other items. Remember, please, to keep Linda Sherwin and/or Matt Gold posted with anything you would like on the "Announcements" page. Recognitions: I am delighted to report that two of our faculty members have been chosen as the Graduate Center's nominees for the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, Professor Luke Menand for the former and Professor Scott Westrem for the latter. Nomination by the Center constitutes an honor in itself. We congratulate them. Announcement of the NAGS awards will be made in April. Faculty Cocktail Party: On February 5th, Anne, Scott & I will be hosting a cocktail party for those who taught in the fall. For those teaching this term, there will be another such event in May. (It was only consideration of space that necessitated splitting the guest list this way since these will be at-home, that is, at-apartment, occasions.) Friday Forums: I am attaching a revised schedule for the spring term. Again, welcome back. The days have begun to get longer, and we now have a Program coffee pot, located in the room that one day will be Linda's where the Xerox machine currently lives. I look forward to seeing and speaking with all of you. The open-door policy still obtains; I keep my door only slightly ajar because there is quite a bit a movement just outside my office which I find distracting, but as long as the door is not latched, consider it open. And, of course, you can always reach me by phone and/or email. Warmly, Joan ________ |
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