To add to Margaret's comment re: professionalization in CW, another option to consider for the future might be offering online courses geared somewhat toward Eng/CW in the work place, whatever that might mean (a course on creativity/innovation, for example). Online courses could be offered in a variety of ways, from traditional semester-long courses to sprint-length courses to self-paced courses. One advantage of such courses is that we could draw students from anywhere in the world, including students in our own backyard who need flexible scheduling and/or only want to take a single class for credit, or folks who are already in the work force and seeking continuing education opportunities. Such students may only want/need a few courses, rather than enrolling in a degree program with face-to-face courses only. 

Here's an example of how one university is expanding its reach/generating revenue through online offerings. If you scroll the catalogue, you'll see a smattering of English-related courses. http://oce.illinois.edu/Catalog

Just a thought,
Eric M


-----Original Message-----
From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Luongo, Margaret M. Ms.
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 9:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Department Retreat

As for the future of the program, a more concentrated effort to professionalize might actually be a good idea--and internships would be one way of doing that, yes. Might be worth looking at the BFA in fine arts; how can we make our BA more like a BFA? If parents and students are worried about jobs, maybe this is a way to help students find their way more easily after graduation. A change like this would require curriculum change, I think, which is something I would like to talk about anyway. 

The other big issue for me right now is the globalization of the curriculum. I'm teaching Contemporary American Fiction for the second time this semester, and both times during the planning stages I've found myself wanting to include books by non-Americans. As a writer, I want to look at the most interesting, most noteworthy, not necessarily most American or most whatever nationality. I see the value, I suppose, in studying the literature of a nationality, but it's making less and less sense to me, when it comes to contemporary literature, to segregate.

That's all for now. I do feel strongly that the curriculum needs tweaking at least, if not overhaul--more emphasis on writerly concerns and international literature. I know, I know--it is the ENGLISH department.

--Margaret


Margaret Luongo
Associate Professor, Creative Writing
Department of English
370 Bachelor Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-3237
________________________________________
From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tuma, Keith W. [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 10:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Department Retreat

Well on top of what you have below I'd mention that enrollments at the undergraduate level have risen in cw over the last x years. It would be nice to have data/facts. Patrick might have some records.

Building a robust internship program for undergrads, a fee-paying Low-Res MFA,  and enhanced links with other departments and divisions beyond English (IMS; Fine Arts via limited participation in the Interdisciplinary Low Res fee-paying MFA currently under discussion) might be listed as priorities for the near future. Of course I am not sure all will agree with those-just tossing them out.

Literature is asking its faculty to list the two most significant contributions of the program in recent years at the undergraduate and graduate level and thoughts about priorities for the future. What I have above could count toward that last category.  It would be good to hear the thoughts of others about that and about the significant contributions at both levels. I would think that an emphasis on internships might involve some rethinking of the curriculum, but what do I know.

The press might have a role to play in internship programs, but that would require a lot of thought.

You should know that the dean of the graduate school will be coming around to departments that have grad programs soon and asking them to begin to think about how they might justify their value in ways that go beyond saying "We get our students into the best MFA and PhD programs." This does not mean that you shouldn't mention Cambridge, Columbia, George Mason, and so on, or the books and accomplishments of our graduates; it does mean that it might not and probably will not be enough to say that to the dean (jim Oris).  Our Low-Res MFA activity should help because part of what they are talking about is thinking about ways to help graduate education at Miami help fund itself. BA/MA programs with a fee for year 5 would also help: not sure how much luck we would have with that. There is an argument that can be made about carrying  lower division teaching with graduate students, but it is NOT a strong argument for a variety of reasons. I will talk/write more about this later.

Keith

From: cheekc <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:16:19 -0400
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Fwd: Department Retreat

Dear Colleagues,

at short notice Lu has circulated this request to Program Directors.

I'll happily compile all and any thoughts / comments / language  . . .

Bearing in mind Lu's schedule i would need to have input before the end of this week so that i can spend part of the forthcoming weekend on it.

I know we have some boilerplate that we can fall back on. I would like to foreground our exceptional track record placing graduate students in PhD and MFA programs of note. I'd like to mention an ongoing focus on translation, career paths in publishing (internships . . more forthcoming on that score) . . our high quality visitors . . our high achieving ex-students with their novels and screenplays and volumes of poetry etcetera . stories and structural aesthetic for future generations . . .

what else?


cris



Begin forwarded message:

From: "Mao, LuMing R. Dr." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Department Retreat
Date: August 10, 2012 5:47:51 PM EDT
To: "Cheek, Christopher F. Dr." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "Cimasko, Tony" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "Klestinec, Cynthia Dr." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "McKee, Heidi A." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "Rahman, Jacquelyn Dr." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Cc: "Morner, Debra L. Ms." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "Rosenberg, Jerome" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>

Dear everybody,

I hope you all are enjoying what's left of our summer.

I am writing to share with you my tentative plan for our dept upcoming retreat (August 22, 4-8pm, Heritage) and to seek your assistance. While our retreat is from 4-8, I intend, with your help, to conduct our business from 4-6:30 with a 10 minute break at 5:00. Dinner will be served at 7 with spouses and significant others joining us by then; Shriver can start serving drinks right after we finish.  While we technically have Heritage until 8, I don't think they will kick us out after 8 if we want to linger or I suppose we can also change the venue by taking the conversation to Uptown or Cincinnati if the night is still young by then.

I would like to use this retreat to work toward developing a dept vision/mission statement, as well as some guiding principles with which to conduct the dept business and shape its future as we face continuing challenges (limited hires and recent/imminent retirements, etc). Toward that end, I would like to ask our five programs--c/r, cw, lit, esl, as well as linguistics (though linguistics is now an interdepartmental program)--to give a brief presentation (no more than 10 minutes) at the retreat about your program's distinctive contributions to the dept and the university both at the grad and undergrad level, as well as its vision for the future in our dept.

To make sure your presentations represent the full array of opinions/perspectives, I wonder if you each could gather opinions (electronically) in advance from your program colleagues and represent them in your presentation. And if you already have plans to caucus or want to call for a meeting before 8/22 for this and other businesses, so much the better. Whatever means or format you decide to deploy, I hope you will be able to collect as much as you can our colleagues' opinions to be shared at our retreat. In fact, if you can, I would like to have these opinions made available to the whole dept before the retreat. Therefore, can you send them or a synopsis to Debbie no later than 12pm on August 21 (Tuesday) so that she can put them in one document and send it to the dept before the retreat? Please do let me know if you have any questions about this request.

In the 2nd hour of our retreat after your presentations and my opening remarks starting around 5:15, we will break out for table/group discussions, using these presentations as well as Carolyn's notes from our last retreat (they will be sent out with the agenda next week) as possible bases to develop our mission/vision statement and some guiding principles for the dept. These tables/groups will be mixed, not program/discipline specific. At 6 we will have each table report their work and do the wrap-up. I hope we can by then have some texts that we can agree upon to be further worked on and to be then approved in our next dept meeting(s).

I plan to send out the retreat agenda by next Wed. Your thoughts and suggestions are highly welcome. Many thanks in advance for your help.

All the best,

Lu