I hope that the various units in the department listen to one another. I
don't know about "word on the street" and have no information, though I
doubt that 4 lecturers and 2 tenure-line faculty will be part of any
request. I do know that the department in recent years has confronted a
challenge in staffing ESL courses. There has been last second hiring of
VAPs and per course ESL faculty in August for two years running now, I
believe. Since managing and teaching those courses is currently something
that English is largely handling with visiting and per course faculty, it
wouldn't surprise me to learn that more stability would be thought
desirable there. English is a big department. It benefits by being a big
department. Its constituent elements benefit by finding ways to cooperate.
That's not to say that any particular argument has to be accepted, but
arguments should be heard in good faith.

Keith

On 11/15/11 10:11 PM, "Schloss, David Mr." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Dear Eric,
>
>I concur about our response to PW lines. They could also easily take the
>Lectureships and we'll be left with nothing. Then Lit would have 1st
>ranking for 18th C. and our choice would be limited to CNF! I highly
>doubt that 2 lines would be founded under the current austerity program.
>Reminds me of Ireland's.
>
>As for ranking preferences within our CNF request, I've heard much more
>desire for screenwriting than anything else from myriad students over
>time. Perhaps Eco/Science Writing would garner interest, but that's
>theoretical, because it requires a science interest and background that
>most English majors don't particularly have.. It mightn gather students
>from around the university, however. I'd have thought that Latino/latina
>lit could be taught by some present staff (Julia Minich)? Native American
>is not much represented here, but then again, I've never heard a request
>for it, either. If we build diversity they will come seems to be the
>rationale. Until Miami is more truly diverse, I think more diverse
>literatures will not be a major desire for our majors--but I could be
>very wrong about all this.
>
>David
>
>________________________________________
>From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty
>[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Goodman, Eric
>[[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 9:49 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Our Tenure Track Hire. Thursday's Meeting and a Pleasant Notion
>
>Dear Writers,
>
>    Thanks for your input on the lecturer hire.   I'll make the tweaks
>people suggested, and we'll be done with that one.
>
>     The results of the Lit Committee meeting are as follows.  They've
>agreed to support totally our request for a lecturer.   They are going to
>propose a long 18th Century hire with a Digital Humanities component as a
>tenure track line as the #1 priority.     They are prepared to support as
>the second departmental priority a Creative Nonfiction line with
>desirable secondary areas of emphasis in   Native American or
>Latino/Latina literature,  Ecological/Science Writing and Screenwriting.
>  I would welcome input on these secondary areas of expertise.
>
>The word on the street is that Professional Writing/C & R cohort are
>going to ask for 4 lecturer lines and two tenure-track lines.   I do not
>know the areas of speciality or the rationales.  If anyone knows, please
>share this information with the group.    After chatting briefly with
>cris today, we thought that the most prudent way to respond to this, is
>to refuse to rank any of these hires, certainly the tenure-track hires,
>based on a) their stipulation last year that they weren't going to
>require any other hires (they currently have approximately 25 majors, b)
>any pending retirements haven't happened yet, and c) to place these
>requests on a departmental ranking gives the dean the opportunity to
>change the rankings.    I welcome discussion of this in advance of the
>meeting, and think it's imperative that we have our voting ducks in a
>complete and unified row. It is also imperative that everyone show up to
>vote on Thursday.
>
>The pleasant notion is that I spoke to Patrick Murphy yesterday about the
>idea of teaching a workshop in Graphic Novels, and he leapt at the idea.
> Turns out he'd been thinking the same thing himself, he reads graphic
>novels, and certainly spends a good deal of time and psychic energy
>cartoon-ing. He would want to do it next year if possible (depending on
>demands of the undergrad office) or certainly the year after when he is
>out of the office.
>
>    e