2010.  Wow.

I can’t think of a decade that went by faster than this past one.  I’ve spent 7 1/2 years of the ’00’s in Pennsylvania.  That means that I have lived here longer than DC (3years), Oxford, OH (4 years), and almost as long as I lived in Syracuse (8 years).  Pretty wild.  And…what’s really got me thinking…of my 7 1/2 years at Kutztown University, I’ve been the coordinator of composition for all but two of those years.  That’s right…I’m one of those people who took on the reigns of writing program administration well before I was tenured.  I’ve been a tenured coordinator of composition for only a year and half.   Believe me, I was told all during grad school that taking on WPA duties before tenure was a bad idea.  Practitioners in our field also recommend strongly against it.  But, at the time it didn’t feel like there was too much choice if I was going to be able to help build our composition program–one of the key reasons I came to KU.

At the end of my second year, ten faculty in our department retired; one tenure-track faculty member got married and joined her husband on the West Coast; and, our then Chair decided to tell us during finals week that he had accepted a new job and would not be with us the following fall.  He even passed around pictures of his new house in Michigan.  I remember that moment as both daunting and exciting.  Daunting in that our faculty was gutted by almost a third and we had to scramble to elect and new chair and figure out how to staff all of our courses by the fall semester.  Exciting because many of those people who were retiring were the very faculty members who seemed committed to internal factionalism and personal conflict.  In one fell swoop, that dysfunctional departmental dynamic would be gone for the most part.  We had the opportunity to build a new, collaborative department.

Our coordinator of composition at the time decided to run for department chair.  She and I had talked about me taking over the coordinator position, but this would mean I would do so a year ahead of time.  I didn’t see any real alternatives, no matter how conflicted I was about my premature entry into the world of writing program administration. I can’t pretend that my first couple of years at the coordinator were easy.  It was a huge adjustment that was marked by my own, at times, ambivalent relationship to administrative work.  But, in looking back on these 5 1/2 years, I think I can say that I’ve been able to do some pretty good things here.

I think my biggest contribution has been to privilege growing the program.  This has meant: 1) prioritizing building a core faculty in composition and rhetoric; 2) cultivate intellectual spaces to support that core faculty and all faculty teaching composition; and 3) build an undergraduate (and eventually graduate) concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies (the name came later, actually). Since I took over in 2004, we’ve hired three new faculty in composition and rhetoric and we are in the middle of hiring our fourth.  We’ve also converted a temporary faculty member–who is completing her PhD in composition and rhetoric–to a tenure-track position.  So, by fall 2010 we will have increased the number of comp/rhet faculty from three to eight.  Not bad.

In terms of creating an intellectual space, I started a reading group in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies that meets monthly to discuss current scholarship in the field.  Thanks to the great work of Amy Lynch-Biniek and the Composition Conference Committee, we’ve expanded our annual undergraduate composition conference to include students taking composition and rhetoric courses at all levels.  We’ve also brought in keynote speakers such at Keith Gilyard, Rosa Eberly, and Steve Parks–and this spring Susan Wells will be joining us.

We have also revised and added several new courses to the department’s offerings.  In my first year as coordinator, we added ENG 430 “Rhetorical Traditions/Contemporary Renditions.”  Last year, we added my course ENG 316 “Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy.”  And this past semester, we added ENG 260 “Issues in Composition and Rhetoric” (Lynch-Biniek) and ENG 274 “Women, Writing, and Rhetoric” (Cullum).  Linda Cullum also worked with Lisa Weckerle from Speech/Communications to update ENG/SPE 335 “Rhetoric of Literature.”  Thanks in large part to our Chair (and fellow compositionist) Janice Chernekoff, ENU 405 “Teaching of Writing” runs every semester and is a required course for all Secondary Education/English majors.  All of these new courses are part of our proposed concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies, which I expect to have cleared all the curricular hurdles by the end of spring 2010 semester.  It’s really been quite an amazing run so far.

Like anything else, I could also list the many things I wish I had done, done better, or didn’t do.  But, I’m pretty good at beating myself up about those things on a daily basis.  In the spirit of the New Year, I thought I’d cut myself a little slack, look back at some accomplishments, and remind myself that the work is worth it.  Now I can actually begin planning for the next step!

Hmmmmm….where can we go from here?

Hey all…and now for something completely different.  That is, non-College of Business stuff.  I actually began writing this post a few weeks ago, but I needed to clarify some info.  Then the College of Business stuff exploded and I put this on the back burner.

On October 26th representatives from English, History, Modern Languages, and Math (Math dept. was not in attendance) met with LAS Dean Zayaitz and Ass’t Dean Rauenzhan to discuss what’s up with the timeline for the “New Lytle.”  For those of us who reside in this architectural remnant of 1960s functionalism (aka the movement to make all state buildings look like housing projects), we have been waiting quite patiently and have put up with our share of building issues.  You might even go as far as to say we feel we deserve a new building.

At our November department meeting, we learned a little bit about the Administration’s plans for the New Lytle–what’s being referred to as the North Campus Academic Building.  At this point I think it’s fair to say that many if not most of us Lytlers are somewhere between skeptical and pissed.

Here’s some of what’s included in the Administration’s current plans:

• one (1) computer lab
• 16 classrooms of approximately 2000 square feet with a capacity of up to 50 students (double the size of the Lytle’s current classrooms), some of which will have electronic divider doors
• suite (aka bullpen) offices for temporary/adjunct faculty

I contacted LAS Dean, Anne Zayaitz, to see make sure I had the details right and it seems what is listed above is pretty much on target.  She did say, however, that what was discussed at the meeting was a “feasibility study” not a detailed architectural design: “This implies ‘footprint’ info—e.g. number of classrooms at particular sizes, number of offices at particular sizes, open spaces for student interaction, etc.”  So, if we are looking at doubling the classroom size as part of a feasibility study and that is accepted, then is seems that all future architectural plans will begin from that premise.

There are two additional issues that I’ll have to take up in an additional post.  First, the number of faculty to be located in the New Lytle.  From what I’ve been told, the new building will house more faculty members than the current Lytle, yet there will not be a proportional increase in space (again, we are working from a feasibility study, I know).  This can only mean a herding of temporary faculty members into one large, inadequate office space.  Second, it seems that the Old Lytle may not go away as previously thought.  The “New Lytle” is actually the “North Campus Academic Building.”  It seems that despite Lytle’s persistent problems (mold, wasp infestation, and over-heated classrooms) that the plan at this point is to keep it.

Stay tuned.

On Wednesday, the same day that Chancellor Cavanaugh met with faculty and announced that the AASCB accreditation mandate was lifted, the Chancellor also met with KU students.  Click here to read the Reading Eagle story on the meeting.

Hey all.  I went through my book order today and now can tell you that we will be reading Susan Kates, Activist Rhetorics and American Higher Education, 1885-1937.  That’s in addition to the book list I posted last week.

I got a little bit concerned looking at amazon.com because it looks like the book might be out of print.  However, on the Southern Illinois University Press site, it shows the book in-print.  Very cool!

So, any KU students who are last minute register-ers and might dig this class…REGISTER SOON!  I want to make sure this class runs.  It looks pretty good now, but I stress over this kind of stuff.

Here’s a preliminary list of books for my spring course, ENG 316 Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy.

• Emergent Publics: An Essay on Social Movements and Democracy (Semaphore Series)
• The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control
• Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists
• Rhetorical Democracy: Discursive Practices of Civic Engagement
• Rules for Radicals

I think I’ve got another book on order, but for the life of me I can’t think of what it is at the moment and the file is at work.  I also have some articles and on-line material that we’ll bring into the mix.  If anyone has any “must read” books and/or articles for a class like this, please pass them along.

Not surprisingly, my friend Seth Kahn down at West Chester is teaching a class similar to this one…another parallel made to order.  Just too cool.  A little plug for Seth…he’s co-edited with JongHwa Lee an awesome book, Rhetoric and Activism: Theory and Contexts for Political Engagement due out early 2010.  The next time I teach ENG 316, I’ve gotta put this one on the reading list.

Well, actually, the fall semester wasn’t delayed at all.  Only my post to this blog .

Welcome back everyone!  I have to say that  it was pretty incredible coming back this semester and having seven–SEVEN– comp/rhet faculty at our first meeting.  We’ve come a long way in terms of faculty hiring and program development in a very short time.  When I took over the Coordinator position, we had three comp/rhet faculty members.

There has also been a pretty rapid increase in student interest in upper-level composition courses.  ENG 430 Rhetorical Traditions/Contemporary Renditions, went live in the Spring 2007 semester and this coming Spring, my new course ENG 316 Rhetoric, Democracy, Advocacy will be offered for the first time.  Amy Lynch-Biniek authored a new course, ENG XXX Composition and Rhetoric Studies which is making its way through the curricular process and will be one of the key courses for our proposed concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies.  Linda Cullum will be submitting her new course, ENG XXX Women, Writing, Rhetoric to the curriculum committees this semester.  In addition, our ENU 405 Teaching of Writing, continues to fill every semester with graduate and undergraduate students. Needless to say, we are excited about the direction our program is headed!

This semester I hope to get all our comp/rhet faculty up and running on this blog too.  This way you can hear from all of us…of different approaches to teaching, latest scholarship, thoughts on writing and rhetoric, musings, and random contributions to this little space.

I am going to leave for now…but will return soon!  Thanks for taking the time to check in.

There are just three days left in the semester and we’re wrapping things up. Like most of my colleagues, I am deep in grading mode. However, I thought I would take a few minutes this morning (before I head into campus and while my son is sleeping) to post.

This past academic year has been pretty incredible for our little composition program.  We have one new class on the books, ENG 316 Rhetoric,  Democracy, Advocacy, which will be offered in spring 2010 for the first time.  We also have two classes heading for college and university curriculum committees after passing our department unanimously: Women, Writing, Rhetoric and Issues in Composition and Rhetoric Studies.  A very productive year for course development and another step toward rounding out a solid concentration in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies at KU. 

This past year we also completed two successful tenure-track faculty searches.  In the fall, we will welcome Mysti Rudd from Lamar State College-Port Arthur (IUP PhD candidate) in Texas and Moe Folk from Michigan Tech.   Over the summer I am going to ask Mysti and Moe to introduces themselves to you, but for now let me just say that both of these folks promise to contribute to our program in exciting ways.  As I have suggested before on this blog, our program has at its core an ethic of “conversation.”  That is, we are interested in a diversity of approaches at our composition table that can contibute to a lively conversation over the teaching of writing, literacy in the 21st Century, and all things composition and rhetoric.  Many of us got into this field because of its lively discussion over the purpose and nature of writing, rhetoric, and literacy…so, it only makes sense that we would want to use that energy, that commitment to discussion as the model of our program.  I am sure that Mysti and Moe will both expand and deepen our conversations. 

This past spring saw another successful Composition Conference for student writers.  This 5th annual conference was expanded to include student writers from all levels of composition courses, which exceeded our expectations.  Despite a very miserable weather day, attendance at this year’s conference was the best yet.  Our keynote speaker, Steve Parks from Syracuse University, gave an engaging talk entitled “Once I was a Washing Machine: Worker/Writer Alliances at the Edge of the Economic Abyss” (see the pics below).  His talk was both well attended and sparked conversations that echoed through our conversations for weeks. 

Over the course of this summer we will be planning for what promises to be an exciting new academic year.  We will be hiring an additional tenure-track faculty member in Multicultural/Multiethnic Rhetorics; formally submitting our concentration for department approval; expanding our course offerings; deepening our use of new media; and continuing conversations in our weekly meetings and reading groups.  Toward the end of this semester, we began some interesting and exciting conversations with our fellow rhetoricians in the Speech Department (soon to be Communications Studies).  Frankly, the promise of reuniting rhetoric just gets me all happy (yes, I am a rhetoric geek). In short, I think we are in great shape…or, given that today is Obama’s 100th day in office, maybe I should say: “the state of our program is strong!”  :-)

In addition to all the vlogging we did and photos we took, we did our first experiment in podcasting for the KU Composition Conference.  Three students from my Advanced Composition class–Tim Crane, Katrina Albert, and Renee Franklin–agreed to having their panel recorded for a podcast.  A huge thanks goes out to them for their willingness to try this out.  

I just finished loading up the audio (with very minimal editing) and it sounds good!  If you’d like to check it out, click on the radio icon above.  A QuickTime (or other audio program) should start up and play the file.  If you want a little context for the panel, check out the paper assignment that provided the prompt for Tim, Katrina, and Renee’s paper.  Or, check out the Ramage-tagged posts on our class blog.