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2017-2018 Meeting Nov. 16 (Thursday) 2:00-3:15 p.m.

English Department Meeting Agenda

Meeting Agenda for Nov. 16, 2017
(Meeting Location: 225 Humanities and Social Sciences Building)

“Go forth! Be brave! Be proud! Be true!”

  • IUP English Professor Jane Leonard (1840-1925)

Thanks

  • To Bryna Siegle Finer (Director of WAC), Melissa Lutz, Marissa McKinley, and Ben Rafoth for coordinating a fun National Day on Writing carnival which had amazing attendance
  • To Todd Thompson on coordinating another highly successful Community College Career Fair; President Driscoll mentioned how great this event was in his State of the University speech on Nov. 15

Congratulations

  • To English faculty with recent scholarly news:
    • Ken Sherwood on publishing a poetry book entitled Code of Signals
    • Matt Vetter, Dan Weinstein, Ken Sherwood, and IUP Librarian Theresa McDevitt on publishing an article on IUP’s Widipedia Edit-a-Thon
    • Ben Rafoth and Dana Driscoll on presenting at the International Writing Centers Association
    • Dana Driscoll on co-publishing a book chapter in Contemporary Perspectives on Cognition and Writing
    • Melanie Holm on presenting about teaching using interactive, fiction-based video games at the Aphra Behn and Frances Burney Societies
    • Chauna Craig for giving a short story reading at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Frostburg, MD; Chauna also faciliated a creative writing workshop at the University of Pittsburgh
    • Resa Crane Bizzaro on being invited to serve on an NCTE President’s Panel
    • Brian Carpenter for assisting English Education major Julia Serrano in doing student teaching in Montevideo, Uruguay
  • Please keep sending your news items to Tim Hibsman to keep us in the number one news-makers spot at IUP!

Approval of Minutes

We will vote to approve Minutes from the English Department meeting held on:

  • 10/12/17

The minutes were circulated by email and will be shown at the meeting using the classroom instructor projection station. A limited set of copies will be printed, but please bring your own copy or review the minutes ahead of time so we can limit paper usage and printing costs. Thanks.

Agenda Items

1. Advising

  • All students must pass 120 credits to graduate
  • A student can complete all English major and liberal studies requirements and still not have enough credits to graduate
  • Always use tentative language about graduation to avoid major disappointment for students: “It looks like you might be ready to graduate but we’ll have to wait to be sure…”

2. Free IUP Dropbox Accounts

  • Secure online cloud file storage
  • Works super easily
  • Total accounts are limited, but there are still enough for our whole department, so sign up today
  • If everyone signs up, it will really help us to share files
  • Dropbox is much easier to use than the O: drive; you don’t have to log in, Dropbox just works like a folder on your computer
  • Dropbox also automatically backups every file in your folder to the cloud, so you will never lose your files and you can access files from anywhere via the Dropbox website
  • It is faster and works much better than Google drive, Amazon drive, and the other storage services
  1. 3.Spring 2018 Retreat
  • April 4: Wednesday
  • Focus on student recruitment, alumni relations, and program work
  1. 4.Search Committee Procedure Proposal
  • Proposal to approve a new Search Committee procedure as a 1 year pilot (Todd Thompson, Search Committee Chair)
  1. Keeping Our Classrooms Welcoming to All Students
  • Academic freedom is highly important and we want to preserve it and encourage our students to participate actively in our class discussions
  • Please be sure to focus class discussions on the topic of the course
  • If you are talking about current event issues, it’s important to help students to understand how the discussion is tied to the course content
  • Please also think carefully about how to make all students welcome no matter what views they may hold
  • Sometimes students feel compelled to hide or alter their real identities/beliefs if a discussion seems to be supporting one particular ideology
  • Please work to make discussions in IUP English classes models where diversity and inclusion are priorities and all students are made to feel safe and supported as they grow and think and learn
  1. 6. Library Weeding Project
  • Drastic cuts in the library book collection
  • Letter drafted by Susan Comfort and Gail Berlin
  • New Adhoc Committee to Review Process created by Provost (has Council of Co-Chairs, Senate Library and Educational Services Committee Co-Chairs, a Librarian, and the Student Government President)
  1. Title IXUpdate
  • New PASSHE/APSCUF approved Title IX syllabus language:
    • Indiana University of Pennsylvania and its faculty are committed to assuring a safe and productive educational environment for all students.  In order to meet with commitment and to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and guidance from the Office for Civil Rights, the University requires faculty members to report incidents of sexual violence shared by students to the University’s Title IX Coordinator.  The only exceptions to the faculty member’s reporting obligation are when incidents of sexual violence are communicated by a student during a classroom discussion, in a writing assignment for a class, or as part of a University-approved research project.  Faculty members are obligated to report sexual violence or any other abuse of a student who was, or is, a child (under the age of 18 years of age) when the abuse allegedly occurred to the person designated in the University protection of minors policy.
  • The Title IX coordinator would be glad to visit English 101 or other classes to present briefly on sexual harassment issues; this is entirely optional
  • Our goal should be to help students stay in school, so providing them with support when facing traumatic issues of sexual harassment or violence is vital
  • Any crime committed on campus, whether discussed verbally or in a paper, must be reported
  • Any crime committed to students when they were minors must be reported
  • Other crimes do not have to be reported, but offer to talk to students about crimes and encourage them to report them
  • If a student begins to reveal something, be sure to tell them you want to support them but you may be required to report it
  • Report issues to the Title IX Coordinator (724-357-3402) or report to Associate Dean Dot Gracey, our Concern and Response Team (CART)representative; contacting them fulfills your mandated reporting obligations
  • You do not have to contact the chair, but Gian is happy to provide assistance or just to talk when you face a difficult situation like this
  • It’s good to tell the student you will follow up with them later to make sure they are doing ok
  1. English DepartmentReports
  • I’ve highlighted in green where we left off at the last department meeting. Each meeting we will work our way through as many reports as we can and then start back at the top when we get there. I’ll mark in green where we leave off so everyone gets regular opportunities to report. If you have something really urgent/important to report, please let Gian know and he’ll make it an agenda item.
  • The more I’ve thought about the reports, the more I can see how many people it would be nice to hear from, at least occasionally. However, the more I increase the list, the more I can see I am probably missing things. Please help me add everything so that we eventually get a complete list of everything. It’s really amazing how many things the people in our department do.
  • I also want to make sure I get every name correctly listed.
  • I have also noticed that our titles vary between advisor, chair, coordinator, or director. The titles aren’t very systematic, more just based on past practice, so I’m happy to re-title things however people want.
  • If you have no report, it is fine to save time by saying “No report.” I want everyone to have a chance to talk, but it’s definitely not required every time.
  • If I left you out, I’m sorry, it was not intentional. Please help me correct any mistakes I’ve made!
  • Finally, I like showing everything everyone is doing, but obviously we will never have time to get through all these reports in any one meeting. So, if you have an important item, please send it to me, and I’ll add it as a regular agenda item. Beyond that, we’ll try to just rotate through as many reports as possible during our meeting time.

English Department Reports

English Program Reports

  • Liberal Studies English (Director: Bryna Siegel Finer)
    • Assessment (Coordinator: Katie Miller)
    • Crimson Quill (Coordinator: Marissa McKinley)
  • Bachelor of Arts in English (Director: Heather Powers)
    • Literature and Culture Track (Coordinator: John Marsden)
    • Pre-Law Track (Coordinator: Tim Hibsman)
    • Writing Studies Track (Coordinator: Tony Farrington)
    • Film Focus (Coordinator: Tom Slater)
    • Internships (Coordinator: Oriana Gatta)
    • Student Recruitment (Chair: Mike Sell)
  • Bachelor of Arts in English Education (Director: Jo-Anne Kerr)
  • Post Baccalaureate in English Education (Director: Linda Norris)
  • Master of Arts Composition and Literature/MA Literature (Director: Mike Williamson)
  • Master of Arts TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Director: Curt Porter)
  • ESL Program Specialist Certification (Director: Brian Carpenter)
  • GCORE – Graduate Certificate Program in TESOL (Director: Gloria Park)
  • Graduate Studies in Composition and TESOL (Director: Sharon Deckert)
  • Graduate Studies in Literature and Criticism (Director: Veronica Watson)

English Committee Reports

  • Department Elections Committee (Chair: )
  • DEC – Department Evaluations Committee (Co-Chairs: Gloria Park, Bryna Siegel Finer, and Mike Williamson)
  • DPC – Department Promotions Committee (Co-Chairs: John Branscum and Jean Nienkamp)
  • DTC – Department Tenure Committee (Co-Chairs Jo-Anne Kerr and Judith Villa)
  • Summer School Committee (Chair Ben Rafoth)

English Organization Reports

  • IUP NCTE – IUP National Council of Teachers of English (Advisor: Jo-Anne Kerr)
  • NGAR – New Growth Arts Review (Advisor: Chauna Craig)
  • Sigma Tau Delta (Advisor: Mike Williamson)
  • Studies in the Humanities (Editor-in-Chief: Reena Dube)
  • Works & Days (Editor-in-Chief: David Downing)

English Department Initiatives

  • Alumni Newsletter – The Word (Editor-in-Chief: Todd Thompson)
  • Banned Books Week (Coordinators: Tanya Heflin and Emily Wender)
  • Graduation (Coordinator: Jo-Anne Kerr)
  • Honors Ceremony (Coordinators: Jo-Anne Kerr, Jean Nienkamp, and Heather Powers)
    • Writing Contest (Coordinator: Reena Dube)
  • Placement (Coordinators: Dana Driscoll and Melanie Holm)
  • Web Site (Director: Dan Weinstein)
  • Writing Plan (Coordinator: Oriana Gatta)

CHSS and University Organization Reports

  • APSCUF (Department Representatives: Resa Crane Bizzaro, Tanya Heflin,Mary Stewart, and Todd Thompson; Legislative Assembly: John Marsden)
  • Center for Film Studies (Director: Tom Slater)
  • DHC – Center for Digital Humanities and Culture (Co-Directors: Ken Sherwood, Dan Weinstein, and Gian Pagnucci)
  • IUP Senate (Department Representative: Tim Hibsman)
  • NGAR – New Growth Arts Review (Advisor: Chauna Craig)
  • Sigma Tau Delta (Advisor: Mike Williamson)
  • Studies in the Humanities (Editor-in-Chief: Reena Dube)
  • Works & Days (Editor-in-Chief: David Downing)
  • Writing Across the Curriculum (Director: Bryna Siegel Finer)
  • Writing Center (Director: Ben Rafoth)

Upcoming Events

Retirement Party for Gail Berlin!

  • December 7 @ 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Remarks starting at 2:30 p.m.)
  • It’s not going to be easy to let her go, so please come and celebrate Gail’s 32 years of teaching at IUP
  • Coordinated by Judith Villa and Todd Thompson

Announcements

APSCUF Membership

It is very important for all tenure track and temporary faculty to join the union. The cost is minimal as all faculty already pay roughly 90% of the membership due. But a strong union helps protect both temporary and permanent faculty. If you are not a member, please join as soon as possible.

In addition, please consider joining APSCUF CAP which does lobbying for the union. This is the best way to influence legislators to support our concerns.

IUP English Google Calendar

  • Please remember to email Dawnette to get all English Department events and key meetings added to the department web calendar
  • Please check the calendar before scheduling meetings to help limit conflicts
  • TR from 2:00-4:00 p.m. is a common open time for tenure track faculty members to use for meetings

Additional Announcements

  • If anyone has an important announcement, we’ll use the last few minutes of the meeting to cover this