WikiLeaks Documents Release: Emails From the English Department Faculty Listserv

From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:11 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: The Ethics of Photographing Sleeping Students

I took this lovely picture of my snoozing composition scholars (see: attached). If I’ve violated student privacy rights I sincerely apologize. Sometimes being the bad cop gets the job done. Have I really been so awful, though? Because I can assure you these students will not be sleeping in class again!

Dr. Reginald Sharpington

Associate Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:22 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: The Ethics of Photographing Sleeping Students

Reg,

I have an athlete in a class who tends to fall asleep as soon as I turn out the lights for our PowerPoint. Perhaps I should shoot a video and threaten to send it to his coach!

Dr. Erin Voss

Assistant Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:40 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: While We’re on the Subject

Hi, all,

As long as we’re talking about disruptive behavior in the classroom, I’d like some feedback. I’ve noticed an epidemic of students spreading their meals out on their desks while I’m instructing, and it’s starting to annoy me. Frankly, it makes me ill because I can’t stand the smell of fast food.

Do you include a statement in your syllabus? I was once an undergrad so I can empathize, but it’s getting ridiculous.

Thanks!

Melony

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 8:47 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: While We’re on the Subject

I’m an avowed curmudgeon, which I do not advise, but at least I nip it in the bud. I don’t eat in the classroom because I arrange my schedule so that I have lunch before class or after class. When students tell me that they have a tight schedule, I say, “Why is your problem my problem?”

I haven’t had anyone go to the dean to complain (that I know of).

Eckhart

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:02 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Food in the Classroom

Melony:

I too am often dismayed by deportment in the classroom. An impromptu buffet is evidence of the deterioration of civility. It may be uncomfortable to correct the bad manners of students, but it is sometimes necessary.

On a related subject, phone use is another contagion. Even though I have a policy statement on my syllabi, it feels like a losing battle. (I am on blood thinners and determined not to have to increase my dosage!) Any thoughts about cell phones in class?

Jack

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:17 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom

I allow quiet eating. No noisy wrappers or overly crunchy foods. My reasoning is that a growling stomach can be even more distracting.

If a student claims a medical condition that requires them to eat noisy or smelly foods (I currently have one such student with diabetes), I ask for a doctor’s note.

All best,

Val

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 9:21 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom

Colleagues,

For millennia humans have been able to arrange feeding times around formal obligations. It distinguishes us from wild dogs. Students who eat in class may therefore risk losing their already tenuous hold on species membership and begin to make inappropriate barking noises. In order to prevent my class from turning into a kennel, I have a no-tolerance policy on eating. I do allow quiet non-distracting beverages (read: water). I would, however, be happy to accommodate a request from Disabled Student Services (there have been no such requests to date).

Eckhart, I may have a claim to being more of a curmudgeon than you, though I can also attest to the benefits of nipping it in the bud.

Keep up the fight!

Dr. Reginald Sharpington

Associate Professor of English, X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:25 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Friendship Bread

Hi, all,

I’m going to leave some Amish friendship bread in the lounge for everyone. Have a slice or two! It’s not vegan, FYI.

Incidentally, if anyone wants some starter and directions on how to make your own, let me know.

peace,

Melony

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:25 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Cell Phones

A colleague in another department characterized texting as “the new doodling.” Poppycock! One can doodle and listen but not text and listen. Texting engages the language centers in the cortex while doodling does not.

I propose we implement a Text While You Teach Day to demonstrate the impossibility of communicating effectively while texting at the same time. Numerous studies have blown apart the myth of “multi-tasking” that our students appear to be enamored with. If any one needs journal articles that cement the findings, email me off list and I will happily provide links to these articles for distribution in your classes.

I’m with Reg: Keep up the fight!

Eckhart

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:32 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Cell Phones

I have an old cell phone that I keep for this very purpose. I give it to one of my students in the front row, who is a plant – we’ve arranged it all ahead of time.

I go about lecturing and he starts texting right there in the front row. I pace back and forth in front of him and I get red in the face but try to continue lecturing, even though I’m clearly distracted.

I keep this up for as long as I can. You’d be surprised how much tension will build and yet no one will say anything.

Then I rip the phone from his hands and toss it out the window.

I never have problems with phones after that!

Give it a try. It’s great fun and you won’t be disappointed with the results.

Dr. Reginald Sharpington

Associate Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:36 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Cell Phones

Reg,

A defenestrated phone! I love it!

Eckhart

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:44 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities

Fellow Scholars:

I’m forwarding this article from The Chronicle that’s been making the rounds (see attachment).

The gist of it is that we’re graduating too many students and it is contributing to the casualization of the profession. The large numbers of humanities grads has helped to create the current untenable situation with respect to the glut of adjuncts and contingent faculty.

The article suggests weeding out those who may not be cut from our cloth, so to speak. It works in other professions where they keep the numbers low so as not to cheapen what they do.

I love our graduate students. I think we all do. But we need to be honest with them, even while maintaining our program. I believe we can strike a balance where we keep it going without flooding the job market.

According to the article, at least part of the problem is that we aren’t retiring. So another fix would be for all of us to retire to Aruba. Hahaha. Not me. No, thank you. I love my job and I love our students!

Jack

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 10:44 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities

Jack,

I just want to remind you that we have adjuncts and contingent faculty on this list. I know it wasn’t your intention but they might read your post as a suggestion that they don’t really belong in the field. I was an adjunct once myself.

I worked hard to distinguish myself. I volunteered for a lot of unpaid committee work and presented paper after paper at MLA, and eventually it paid off, because here I am among you, my esteemed peers.

I’m with you, Jack. I love my job and I love our students.

And so I propose we start a separate list-serve for tenured and tenure-track faculty only. Not to exclude anyone, but so their email inboxes don’t get bogged down with our conversations. There’s a lot we talk about that doesn’t really concern them and we don’t want them feeling left out of the conversation.

Thoughts? I think we could contact I.T. and get it set up post haste.

And to any contingent faculty reading, don’t be shy. We welcome your opinions and your voices here. Feel free to join the conversation from time to time. We’re all so glad you’re a part of our department!

Val

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Jack Johns [J.Johns@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 11:07 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: FWD: We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities

Val,

You make a good point. I certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone.

It’s true that disciplines in the humanities have been cheapened, but not by anyone here.

I’m thinking about your suggestion re: a new list-serve, and I’m wondering, since you pointed out that none of the adjuncts or contingent faculty hardly speaks up on this list-serve, maybe instead of staring a whole new one we could just have them removed from it. Wouldn’t that be easier and we could probably get one of the administrative assistants to do it without having to wait on I.T.

I don’t know about any of you but I.T. tends to give me the run-around.

Jack

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 1:26 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Super Size Me

All:

Someone left this DVD in the cart, presumably for a class viewing.

Anyone know to whom it might belong?

I’m leaving it with Cheryl in the English Office.

Thanks,

Dr. Erin Voss

Assistant Professor o f English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 1:54 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: For My Research

Colleagues:

It’s been reported on the local news that the Muslim community is breaking ground to build a new cultural center on State Rd. 11 near the Pack-N-Go. I was wondering if anyone had heard of any demonstrations organized by our red state denizens.

As I’m sure you know, my dissertation was on the rhetoric of xenophobia in Modern American poetry, and I think it will be fruitful for my research if I were present at one of these Tea Party protests as a non-participant observer.

If anyone else wants to go, it might be a hoot.

Maybe we can get some of our locals to enroll in Erin’s Twentieth Century Islamic Literature in Translation course (joke!).

Dr. Reginald Sharpington

Associate Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Valery Jenks [V.Jenks@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:14 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Super Size Me

Erin,

The DVD is Melony’s.

I think she’s giving her students a lesson in why their smelly and noisy food is also bad for them.

Hey, Mel, when you see the administrative assistants can you see if there’s any headway on this idea of having the adjuncts and contingent faculty taken off this list? I, for one, second the idea.

And I agree with Jack. Every time I have an encounter with I.T. they make me feel like they’re doing something I could have done myself. I mean if they came to me and wanted to know the difference between a diphthong and a spondee, I’d be happy to explain. It’s their jobs to help us, right?

All Best,

Val

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:30 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Super Size Me

Erin,

Thank you for returning my DVD.

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Val,

Ha! I wasn’t actually schooling anyone. I’ve taken care of the food situation, btw. What I did was to riff on Reg’s observation of feeding times and wild dogs and that pretty much took care of it.

The video was for an analysis of Spurloch’s argumentative presentation. I’m trying to get them to articulate something a little more sophisticated than “fast food is bad for you,” or “fast food will kill you.”

I mean, yes, but why? Or, in what ways does he demonstrate that? And, are there counter-arguments? And, if true, who is most affected by these facts?

We started out slow, but I kept them past the period and that finally got some of the smarter ones talking.

Overall, a great class!

Reg, I don’t know of any demonstrations but I have a neighbor on our road who hates Muslims (an unfortunate consequence of rural living). He calls them towel-heads and something else I’m not going to repeat here. Does that help? I could ask what kinds of things he might put on a sign if he was going to protest.

And yes, I’ll talk with Ceryl about thinning out the members of this list-serve. No offense to any adjuncts who might be reading this, but I think it’s a grand idea.

Melony

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:39 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Food in the Classroom

Everyone:

I’ve decided to only allow sushi in the classroom. It’s a healthy non-crunchy food that couldn’t bother anyone.

Dr. Erin Voss

Assistant Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of John Minichillo [j.minich@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 2:55 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Your students

Hey everybody,

I’m going to go ahead and say this before I’m taken off this email list: your students would be appalled by the ways you talk about them, although I’m sure they already suspect it, given that you rule over them with totalitarian class policies and in-class approbations.

You are really lucky to have the state pay you for what you do, and they do so not because of you, but because of the students. Civility is over-rated. Human connection is probably the central quality of good teaching and one for which several of you are severely lacking. You come across as class pets forever seeking approval for being the smart kid. I can only speak for myself, though I’m sure there are plenty who agree with me but are afraid to say anything.

My temporary contract will be up next semester and it’s non-renewable so this will be my last year of teaching at this institution and possibly my last year in the profession (not by choice, but it has gotten extremely competitive out there). And so I’m free to voice what others are afraid they’d be punished for….

None of you would find jobs in today’s market and I think on some level you probably know this. Minus your one stroke of luck, you would also be contingent. I had already seen the Chronicle article and wasn’t offended by it—believe me we know more than anyone what the score is—but I’m often offended by the way you talk with each other as if contingent faculty didn’t exist. I’d like to remind you that we teach twice the number of classes with two to three times the number of students, for less pay, with no chance of promotion or job security, and it seems the natural order—it would never occur to you to stick up for us. We are ineligible for teaching awards or travel money, and we’re required to come to faculty meetings even though we can’t vote. I know you probably can’t help yourselves, but a little more respect—for your students, for the people who live in this community, and for the contingent faculty—would go a long way. It’s easy enough to give the students the benefit of the doubt. You should assume that eating fast food in class is not their first choice. Being here is costing them a lot more than it did us, with mostly debt and shitty jobs ahead of them. You could at least be nice.

JM

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Erin Voss [E.Voss@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:20 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Your students

John,

I’m sorry that you didn’t make the most of your time here. It truly is a great place to live and to work.

You should know that the faculty list-serve really isn’t the place to air overblown negative grievances. If you have a beef with someone you should send an email off list. That’s the courteous and professional thing to do.

And with that, I agree that we should remove all adjuncts and contingent faculty from this list-serve. The sooner the better.

Hope this helps,

Dr. Erin Voss Assistant

Professor of English,

X State University

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Melony Erikson [Melony@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:36 AM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Contingent Faculty Observations

Hi, all,

I sent an email last week asking for volunteers to conduct in-class observations of our contingent faculty. There are still a few instructors who will need the required observation reports. Their schedules are listed on the attached doc. If anyone can help out, email me off list and I’ll have the instructor contact you.

As I’m sure you know, our instructor evaluations are an important way of communicating to the administration all the good work we do in the classroom, and we’ve got a great bunch of contingent faculty—I love watching them in action.

Thank you in advance,

Melony

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Eckhart Winn [E.Winn@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:41 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Contingent Faculty Observations

Mel,

I can observe John Minichillo.

Eckhart

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From: ENGL-LISTS [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU] on behalf of Reginald Sharpington [Reg.Sharpington@xsu.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2015 3:56 PM

To: [ENGL@LISTS.XSU.EDU]

Subject: Re: Contingent Faculty Observations

Eckhart beat me to it! I was just about to volunteer to observe Minichillo myself. Put me down as an alternate.

Does anyone have an update on when we can get this email list more exclusive?

Dr. Reginald Sharpington

Associate Professor of English,

X State University