DRW Digital Archive

Items

• English Department Meeting Minutes, 18 April 1980
  At this meeting, the faculty discuss a preliminary report of the Governance Committee (chaired by Alan Friedman). There is discussion of lecturers', TAs', and AIs' representation in faculty governance. Attaced is the Governance Committee Preliminary Report, describing voting privileges, procedures, standing committees, and departmental officers.
• Department of English Meeting Minutes, 3 April 1981
  At this meeting, the roles and rank titles concerning lecturers are primarily discussed. Attached to the minutes is the regents' rules for academic titles.
• Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, 29 April 1985
  At this meeting of the Faculty Senate the report on E 346K is considered. Sledd delivered a long assessment of the E 346K problem complete with evaluation of the English Department political troubles. The Faculty Senate's motions regarding E 346K are all approved with slight amendment.
• Executive Committee Constitution, 21 November 1980
  The constitution of the Executive Committee, approved in late November 1980 and stipulating the EC constitution, election of its members, and its purview.
• "Joe Boggs Goes to Slaughtergate"
  Parody article that speaks to lecturer firings controversy.
• Prefatory Note, Wayne Pounds
  Prefatory note to an unattached essay by Wayne Pounds, a dissatisfied instructor/lecturer.
• Summary of Responses to Teaching Requirements
  A report of an English Department faculty survey about how to award teaching load credits (TLCs).
• Moldenhauer memo on Faculty Recruitment, Additional Considerations, 19 September 1979
  Moldenhauer offers additional information apparently in response to questions asked about admissions and registration for courses, budgets, staffing, and promotion and tenure. He explains how the department is funded, why they hire so many lecturers, and how often assistant professors in the department have been given tenure in the last 7 years.
• Stephen Witte Review of "Composition Problem"
  Stephen Witte's effort at a comprehensive review of the "composition problem." Details history of curriculum, administrative concerns, and proposed solutions.
• "TACT and the Teaching of Writing"
  This article discusses the Texas Association of College Teachers objections to changes in staffing for writing courses.
• John Ruszkiewicz Letter to Ted Koppel, 23 May 1985
  Ruszkiewicz responds to Koppel's characterizations of writing and the firing of lecturers in a recent ABC broadcast.
• University Council Recommendations on Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness,
  28 page report outlining proposed changes to the evaluation of teaching effectiveness.
• English Department Meeting Minutes, 27 September 1979
  The meeting begins with discussion of faculty recruitment. Moldenhauer shows figures for recent years of staffing. Mewshaw advocates for Creative Writing hires, noting that several English lines have been vacant for several years. Kinneavy advocates for rhetoric instructor hires and against practice of temporary hiring current in department. A motion to adjourn defeated, and there is controversy over Mewshaw proposal. Kinneavy's motion to hire 6 tenure-track lines is defeated.
• Projected Composition Offerings 1986-87
  A one-page table of composition courses to be offered in the next academic year. The table compares these projected offerings to 1982-3 (the last year before new writing program went into effect). The table finally lists staffing needs to cover these courses.
• A Comprehensive Solution to the English Department's "Composition Problem" by Stephen Witte
  Steve Witte's proposal to solve the "composition problem," written with the help of the Rhetoric Interest Group and produced in response to Dean Robert King's request for a solution from within the English Department. Also contains a brief hand-written note by Witte.
• 50 Lecturers to Lose Their Jobs in a Dispute Over How--and If--Writing Can Be Taught
  Heller, Scott. "50 Lecturers to Lose their Jobs in a Dispute over How--and if--Writing can be Taught." _Chronicle of Higher Education_ 17 April 1985, pp. 23-25. Describes anticipated mass layoff of UT lecturers.
• University Council Debates Creation of New Division of Rhetoric and Composition in College of Liberal Arts
  Lengthy description of the debate over the DRC at a University Council meeting. Although the DRC by and large receives support from those outside the English Department, English faculty members object to the opaque procedure around the division's establishment. They argue for a suspension of the DRC's 1 June 1993 start date in order for an investigative committee to be convened. King defends his actions, stresses that the debated proposal is open to amendments, and emphasizes that the decision to establish the DRC is final. Kelley, Paul. "University Council Debates Creation of New Division of Rhetoric and Composition in College of Liberal Arts." OnCampus, 26 October 1992, pp. 2-3 & 6-7
• Change Relieves Staffing Problems
  This Daily Texan article discusses the elimination of E 307 course, which reduced the need for recruiting staff members in the English department.
• Literary Specialists Unable to Handle Technical Writing
  The Daily Texan presents side-by-side two opinion pieces on undergraduate writing instruction. Beer, who left the English department to coordinate technical communication for Engineering, asserts that literature professors are unwilling and unable to teach technical writing, and that departments that require technical writing deserve better. Carton suggests the creation of the DRC was an empty public relations move that will not substantively improve first-year writing. To do so, he suggests, would involve a serious institutional commitment including an end to E 306 exemptions and higher writing standards outside of the English department. Beer, David. "Literary Specialists Unable to Handle Technical Writing." _Daily Texan_ 4 November 1992. Carton, Evan. "New Division has Nothing to Offer Writing Education." _Daily Texan_ 4 November 1992.
• William Sutherland Memo Calling Meeting to Discuss Hiring of Lecturers, 5 April 1984
  Bill Sutherland's call for a meeting to discuss hiring of lecturers.
• Neill Megaw Memo Opposing a Proposed EC Action
  Neill Megaw memo opposed to proposed EC action, with hand-written note to "John."
• Request for Five Tenure-Track Lines
  Friedman formally proposes that five tenure-track lines be added to the English Department every year for the foreseeable future to decrease reliance on lecturers and to improve the quality of regular faculty.
• Evan Carton's Defense of a Good Lecturer Policy
  Evan Carton opposes the recently passed departmental policy on lecturers, explaining what a good policy should achieve.
• Shift of Technical Writing Classes Proposed
  Muller article describes English department proposal to shift the teaching of E 346K sections to other departments.
• Public Letter Protesting Graduate Students' Exclusion from English Department Committees
  An open letter signed by many graduate students protesting their removal from all English Department committees