All English instructors receive notices

The same day English instructor Martha Strohschein learned she was nominated for the department's teaching award, she also received her second termination letter from Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Gaines Foster.

Strohschein, a senior instructor in the English Department, has taught at the University for 26 years and said her story is all too similar to that of other instructors within the department.

All the instructors in the English Department have received termination notices, said assistant professor Daniel Novak.

"Instructors [have gotten] their termination letters extended but still don't have job security even when they teach the majority of the writing classes for students in this University," Novak said.

The extension assures the instructors' employment for an additional six months "but instead of giving them a contract for six months, they were given a letter saying they were going to be fired in six months," Novak said.

The English Department has approximately 90 faculty members, 36 of whom are instructors who teach the writing portion of the University's curriculum.

Instructors teach 62 percent of ENGL 1001 sections and 74 percent of 2000 sections of the department's writing program, according to the Director of the University Writing Program Barbara Heifferon.

The rest of the writing program is taught by either graduate assistants or post doctorates.

Instructors teach four classes a semester, "and they are very difficult classes to teach with lots of writing," according to Novak.

"The extent of these cuts make it so that we really wouldn't be able to do the basic instruction that we're mandated to do by the state in freshman writing and second-year writing by our accreditation agencies," Novak said.

The issue is not just about fewer people teaching English, Novak said.

It's about the freshmen and sophomores who are required to take these courses that won't be able to graduate in a timely manner because of a shortage in classes, Novak said.

"We teach the required courses," Strohschein said.

"For every student in every discipline, you have to have the two University writing courses under your belt before you move on."

These courses are "the building blocks" for general education, Strohschein said.

"Part of the great mystery to those of us who teach these courses is what is Plan B if in fact the termination letters go through?" Strohschein said. "That's part of the frustration. What happens to these required courses? Who teaches them?"

Faculty and staff in the English Department worry that the University's recent academic alliance with the Baton Rouge Community College may be the University's solution to circumvent part of the problem.

"Bears 2 Tigers," a program allowing students to transfer seamlessly from BRCC to the University to complete a bachelor's degree, was signed Sept. 28 by Chancellor Michael Martin and BRCC Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey.

The partnership, which originally only included engineering, has been extended to BRCC students with business, science, and humanities and social sciences associate degrees.

Martin told The Daily Reveille last month that community college classes are not "watered-down" versions of the same courses at four-year schools.

He said in some cases, community college professors have higher focuses on teaching and can better inform students than University professors, who are simultaneously researching and consulting.

But some faculty, professors and instructors in the English department disagree. Firing and replacing these instructors is not a viable option, Novak said.

"I understand that the University needs flexibility in their budget, but that is what they are using — the idea that these terminations are a way to think about how they could do it," Novak said.

Novak called it "a clever use of fiction."

"If you want your degree to mean something, you should support the stability of having instructors, especially instructors [who are] experienced that have been teaching for 20 years," Novak said. "Everyone should support that."

Department Chair Rick Moreland said not many details are known about how the agreement will affect the department.

Moreland said he has asked the College of Humanities and Social Sciences about what the partnership means for the department but has not received details.

"I think people are concerned about the implications of those moves," Moreland said.

This is not the first time University English has had to weather severe cuts to its department.

In 2003 the number of instructors was reduced significantly by about half, according to Moreland.

"[The number of instructors] has never gone below what we have now," Moreland said.

The devastation of potentially firing 36 faculty members is already having its effects on the department, according to Strohschein.

"A lot of folks around here are wondering what is just around the corner," Strohschein said.

The air is thick and the morale low in Allen Hall because of the termination notices, Strohschein said.

"Day in and day out, I think all of us who are in the business of teaching try pretty hard to do what we were hired to do," Strohschein said.