Thursday, April 29, 2010

Delusions of Grandeur

UCF is going to cancel afternoon classes on 6 October to accommodate tailgating for the evening football contest with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It’s no surprise that UCF is putting pre-drinking ahead of academics. What is pathetic is they believe a weeknight game against another minor football program is going to draw such a giant crowd that they need to close the whole stupid school. The attendance for this game won’t be much bigger than one of UCF’s many large lecture classes.

An Email I Stopped Reading After the First Sentence

Gollum announcing the new Department of Writing and Rhetoric:

Will students one day improve their writing skills by taking an Engineering class?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Nasty But Predictable

I was trying to write a post about the new Department of Writing and Rhetoric. It started off with this sentence: “One of the challenges of writing this blog is to not sound like a broken record. This is especially difficult because UCF administrators keep acting like broken records.”

As I was working on this sentence, a reader forwarded to me an email written by UCF English Professor Elizabeth Wardle (it’s boring, but hang in there):

A message to all members of Writing-About-Writing

I am writing to let you all know that yesterday the English Department at UCF officially learned that as of July 1 we will have a brand new Department of Writing and Rhetoric, and an infusion of $1.7 million of new money to replace all composition adjunct and visiting lines with permanent faculty over the next four years. The new money will also begin a brand new WAC program, which will also be phased in over four years.

We will begin with 7 tenured rhet/comp faculty, and hire six more over the next few years. Three of these will be program directors—Director of Composition, Director of WAC, and Director of the Writing Center. All three of these programs will be part of and funded through the new department.

The new department will also be innovating new BA, MA, and certificate programs related to writing.

This is a presidential initiative, and a direct result of assessment of our new WAW curriculum. I presented our assessment results to the President's Council over Spring Break, and ended with a vision for how to build on this foundation through a vertical curriculum. The president listened, and this is the result.

Of course now is a difficult time, as people in English are very upset about the change and uncertain about their futures. Some of the reaction is very nasty but predictable (see the UCF Love
[sic] Money blog for an example). But the impact on students will be extremely positive, we have the president's full support, and I could not be more excited.

So, Elizabeth, I’m wondering: what does Hitt’s ass taste like? Now, that was a nasty reaction (I re-read all the comments about the split, and they were pretty mild).

Putting aside your tender sensibilities for a moment, Elizabeth, I would contend that because a counter-argument is “predictable” doesn’t mean the argument is wrong. Perhaps, the response was both predictable and justified.

Anyway, I’ve got a homework assignment for you, Dr. Wardle. Please explain why writing and rhetoric can’t be taught within the existing English Department. Why is it necessary to spend so much additional money to have a separate department?

I am flattered that you take the time to read and tell others about my blog, and with some top notch rhetoric and composition you could convince me that this time is different; that this time UCF won’t be wasting money on something stupid.

Show me a little bit of what students will be getting for 1.7 million bucks.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Wish I Could Buy Put Options on Rhetoric/Composition

Regarding the split of the English department, a reader writes:

Thanks for spreading the word. You could also add the fact that there is absolutely no demand whatsoever for the BA degree in rhetoric/composition that they plan to create. There is no rational reason to create such a degree program.

Another reader writes:

The division is one of the most cynical and ill-advised moves I've witnessed yet. The very fact it is happening at the last minute and secretly (with claims it is all above board) tells the whole story. Hickey splits the college and cripples the humanities. CAH claims it can't afford a ream of paper--and then suddenly we have a new department with no majors and hiring plans galore…All chiefs supervising a few Indians, to what purpose?

All sad--since the people who are authorizing it are all going to be gone when the place looks like Brazil (the movie) or Mad Max country.

If only they would quit saying things like strategic plan and goals. They lie and lie and lie.

To use the idiot language of a UCF administrator, this is a win/win. Heads they win; tails we lose.*

* I stole this phrase from someone, possibly Paul Krugman. He was writing about the executives at big banks...I don’t even need to say it, do I?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Divorce = Spending More Money

From a Reader:

So, did you hear that the English dept will be split in two? It will become a "Department of Writing & Rhetoric" and a "Department of English."

The new dept will begin with 7 tenured faculty and approximately 10 instructors. It is to have at least 6 administrators: Director of Composition, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, Director of University Writing Center, all of whom will be overseen by a Director of Writing Outreach Programs; also a Director of Writing Degree Programs who will oversee a yet-to-be-created BA, MA, and grad certificate. And of course a chair, who has the Director of Writing Outreach Programs and Director of Writing Degree Programs reporting to him. Over the next four years, the new dept will hire 6 new tenure track faculty and 30 more instructors. All of this is to be announced tomorrow and will be in place by next fall.

Good thing UCF saved all that money by laying off faculty in engineering and COHPA, isn't it? Now UCF gets to have two English departments. Isn't that a joke--that in hell, the provost manages two English departments?