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English Department Meeting: Oct. 18, 2023

English Department Meeting Information

Zoom Meeting Link

Meeting Minutes Takers

  • October 2023 Minutes Taker: Todd Thompson 
  • November 2023 Minutes Taker: Dan Weinstein
  • February 2024 Minutes Taker: Matt Vetter
  • March 2024 Minutes Taker: Emily Wender
  • April 2024 Minutes Taker: Mike Williamson
  • September 2025 Minutest Taker: Lingyan Yang
  • October 2025 Minutes Taker: John Branscum (as we return to the beginning of the 4 year minutes rotation!)

Next Department Meeting

  • Nov. 15 Wednesday from 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
  • Guests: Paula Stossel and Amber Rachini to talk about Student Success and the IUP Navigators
  • Discussion English Mission Statement and English Tagline
    • “Go forth! Be brave! Be proud! Be true!”–IUP English Professor Jane E. Leonard (1840-1925)
  • Please send Gian and Melanie any items you want included on future department agendas. I’m happy to include any items anyone wants to discuss.

Minutes

Important Dates & Information

English Community 2023-2024 Events Calendar

Upcoming Events

  • Oct. 20 Friday: The National Day on Writing
    • Oct. 20 Friday: A writing craft talk by Jolene McIlwain, author of Sidle Creek (10:20 a.m.-11:10 a.m. in Leonard Hall 113)
    • Oct. 20 Friday: Lunch with Jolene McIlwain, author of Sidle Creek (11:30 a.m at the Allenwood; Lunch is only $8)
    • Event Coordinator: Dr. Bryna Siegel Finer (IUP English Professor and Director of IUP Undergraduate Writing)
  • Oct. 30 Monday.: Into the Archives: Shakespeare Unbound with Professor Chris Orchard (6:00 p.m.-7:oo p.m. in Elkin Hall Great Room)
  • Oct. 31 Tueday: English Halloween Party (11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in the English Department suite)

DETC Tentative Deadlines

  • Fall Observations Due: Nov. 14 (Mon.)
  • Spring Observations Due: Feb. 27 (Mon.)
  • DETC Digital Documents Due: Mar. 6 (Mon.)–Send via email attachment to Reena Dube and Gian
  • DETC Printed Documents Due to Reena Dube: Mar. 6–Place in a manilla folder with your name on it
  • DETC Evaluation DRAFTS Due: Mar. 20
  • Thanks to DETC Chair Reena Dube and DETC Members Brian Carpenter, Chris Orchard, and Tony Farrington
  • On the plus side, we only have 4 people up for 5 year evaluation this year!

News Items

Best of Luck

  • To Teaching Associate Sayed Ali Reza Ahmadi who defends his dissertation at noon today
    • Thanks to Dana Driscoll, his dissertation chair, and Curt Porter and Dan Weinstein, his readers

Thanks

  • To Melanie Holm for submitting a new course proposals for ENGL 850/851/852: Professional Studies in Composition and Applied Linguistics I/II/III, a 1 credit sequence of courses to prepare CAL doctoral students for the job market

Agenda Items

1. Support for Students

  • IUP Homecoming Incident
    • These are extremely difficult times for our students and us
    • Over 100 students were in the community center where the Homecoming shooting occurred
  • Israeli/Hamas Conflict
    • There are many IUP community members, especially those who are Jewish and Palestinian, who may be impacted by the conflict that has exploded in Israel and the Gaza Strip
  • Time to Reflect
    • Your students might benefit greatly from having some time to write, reflect, and talk about all the troubling things going on in the world around them
    • This does not mean you have to be a counselor, but just a supportive listener
    • A few words of acknowledgment and support from their professors can mean so much to students
  • IUP Rhonda H. Luckey Center for Health and Well-Being
    • The Health Center offers an Open Support Group on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. (G-18 Suites on Maple East)
  • IUP Care Team

2. New English Leadership Council (ELC) Member

  • Because the Program Review work includes our English MA Programs, I have asked Chris Orchard to serve on ELC for the 2023-2024 academic year
  • I also want to thank Tanya Heflin who had volunteered to serve, but then step aside for Chris once we learned about the program review focus
  • As a reminder, the other ELC Members are:
    • ELC Chair 
      • Gian Pagnucci 
    • English Leadership Positions 
      • Assistant Chair/CAL Director: Melanie Holm 
      • English B.A. Director: Dan Weinstein 
      • English Education B.S. Director: Emily Wender 
      • L&C Director: Mike Williamson
      • Undergraduate Writing Director: Bryna Siegel Finer 
    • ELC Elected Members 
      • John Branscum (through 2025) 
      • Ken Sherwood (through 2024) 
    • ELC Appointed Members 
      • Chris Orchard (through 2024) 
      • Lingyan Yang (through 2024) 

3. Volunteers Needed

EAPSU

  • One person to serve as the IUP English Representative to the English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities (EAPSU)
    • Duties include attending the annual conference, giving the department a brief report, and coordinating selection of an IUP English student nominee for the EAPSU annual award
    • The EAPSU 2023 Conference will be held at Kutztown from Oct. 13-15
    • Our IUP English representative will be reimbursed for their travel expenses to attend the annual conference
    • Please email Gian by Friday Sep. 22 if you wish to serve as our EAPSU Representative
    • Thanks to John Branscum who served as our EAPSU Representative for many years

APSCUF

  • One person to serve as the Alternate for APSCUF Representative
    • Duties include attending monthly meetings (on Thursday afternoons) if one of our elected representatives cannot attend and giving a brief report
    • Please email Gian and Tanya Heflin by Friday Sep. 22 if you wish to serve as the APSCUF Alternate
    • This person would need to be elected to the position
    • Thanks to Susan Comfort and Mike Sell who serve as our 2 elected department APSCUF Representatives

4. Follow-up on Idea to Shift English Majors Courses to All in Person

  • Some people had suggested that it might strengthen English major community to have all English major courses taught in person
  • The suggestion is review by the BA Committee
  • This idea is likely to be difficult for many students, but Dan Weinstein will be surveying students to gain more information

5. Discussion of Academic Restructuring and Program Reviews

  • Discussion of Foreign Language merging with English
  • Foreign Language Department Faculty Members
    • Spanish Faculty
      • Christina Huhn
      • Sean McDaniel
      • Lydia Rodríguez
      • Marveta Ryan-Sams
      • Dawn Marie Smith-Sherwood
      • Marjorie Zambrano-Paff
    • French Faculty
      • Jean-Louis Dassier
      • Charles McCreary
    • German Faculty
      • Heide Witthöft
    • Chinese Faculty
      • Shijuan Laurel Liu

6. Discussion of Program Reviews

  • We have 3 programs under review
  • MA Composition and Literature
  • MA Literature
    • We will be suggesting that these two programs be merged together which will boost their enrollments
    • Chris Orchard and Mike Williamson are working on this proposal
    • We have reconstituted the M.A. Literature Committee (Mike, Chris, and Ken Shewood) to review this proposal
    • If anyone else wishes to serve on this committee, please contact Mike
  • MA TESOL
    • This program was down to 4 students enrolled for Fall 2023, so we are placing it in moratorium
    • We had already voted to place the program in moratorium, but IUP administration rejected our idea
    • Admin. is now accepting our recommendation since the numbers declined as we expected

7. Winter Preference Sheets Coming

  • For all those interested in teaching in Winter 2023, Gian will be sending out the Winter Preference Sheets soon

Announcements

  • We will finish the meeting with any important announcements