[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Chris Anson


WINTHROP UNIVERSITY                               Electronic Mail Message
                                        Date:     04-Sep-1996 12:58pm EDT
                                        From:     Josephine K. Tarvers
                                                  TARVERSJ
                                        Dept:     English
                                        Tel No:   (803) 323-4557

TO:  Remote Addressee                     ( _smtp%"wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu" )


Subject: Re: Chris Anson

Dear Centaurs,

I pass this on for your information, and, if you are so moved, your response. 
This summer I spent a good deal of time working on a book project with Chris, 
and have a high regard for his abilities and professionalism. And, as a firm 
believer in due process and academic freedom, the circumstances in which Chris 
has been removed from the directorship of his program concern me greatly. If any 
of you feel moved to respond on Chris' behalf, the names and addresses of the 
appropriate folks are included in the message from Randy Woodland. Thanks for 
your time--apologies to those who aren't interested.

Jo
-----------------
Jo Koster Tarvers
Department of English and Writing Center
Winthrop University
Rock Hill, SC 29733 USA
(803-323-4557 voice) (803-323-4837 fax)
tarversj@winthrop.edu


Friends--

You may have already received this a few times, but....

>From: "Chris M. Anson" <umcomp@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
>To: djolliff@condor.depaul.edu, woodland@umich.edu
>Date: Mon, 2 Sep 96 11:55:52 -0500
>
>Friends and Colleagues in Composition: (if you have not been affiliated
>with the Program or one of its graduates, simply read this as a general call 
for support).
>
>Last Thursday Chris Anson returned from vacation and found that he had been
>removed as Director of Composition and replaced by Professor Joel Weinsheimer,
>an 18th-century literature scholar in the English Department by our interim
>dean.  There's absolutely no cause.  This comes at a time when Chris' personal
>work was going stunningly--a new book coming out, recent spontaneous honor as
>the State Legislature's "Teacher of the Year," lots of national offices and
>honors, consistently high student responses,hip new courses--one of the best
>faculty in the University by any measure, and known and liked nationally.  And
>the Program was doing just as well--the highest student-evaluation
>responses of
>any teaching unit (we actually watch them and keep records), absolute fiscal
>integrity, a new curriculum to fit the coming semester system, training
>recognized as one of 10 "exemplary" programs in the country.  All of this will
>not come as news to those of us who know Chris and the Program.
>
>Nor will it come as news that this is a political move with a partly masked
>agenda based in opposition to progressive teaching, and various personal power
>struggles and enmities emerging from the usual range of academic psychological
>dysfunctions--the typical stuff of life in the academy or in a David Lodge
>novel.  To protect any legal case that may need to emerge, I'll mention no
>names
>here.
>
>Briefly said: our Program and its Director; the philosophy of consensus
>management, graduate student empowerment, and theoretically-based literacy
>instruction are again under attack at Minnesota.
>
>WE NEED HELP.  In the academy, only power talks, and the only power we can
>muster is the threat of national, public embarrassment.  It's a hard case to
>build, since outside of progressive literacy programs, one English teacher
>looks
>just like another English teacher, and the whole mess just looks like a
>bunch of
>pointy-headed intellectuals with too much time on their hands.
>
>But if Chris and / or the Program in Composition has really helped you in
>getting your job, keeping your job and doing your job, and you can drop a
>short
>note to the powers at the University of Minnesota (e-mail, US Mail, or both)
>saying that this is a stupid thing to do and that Minnesota will again
>look bad
>in the eyes of the national research commmunity, I (and Don, Chris, and 100
>wonderful but powerless graduate student teachers) would be very greatful.
>
>As you might guess, asking friends for help with political infighting
>feels bad
>to me.  But this is a big deal here.  Maybe not a Linda Brodkey-size deal, but
>important.  Please help, if you have time.  And please do not feel coerced,
>personally or professionally, if this doesn't feel right to you. Probably
>numbers of responses count more than eloquence.  I'm writing to as many old
>Composition friends as I can locate, but please feel welcome to pass this
>on to
>any of your Minnesota friends or friends of Chris as you can.
>
>Here's the POWER  (copying it to Nils Hasslemo, President, 202 Morrill Hall,
>might not hurt, either, and especially to Provost W. Philips Shively, email:
>shively@MAILBOX.MAIL.UMN.EDU.)
>
>Interim Dean Robert Holt
>College of Liberal Arts
>215 Johnston Hall
>University of Minnesota
>Minneapolis, MN 55455
>rholt@polisci.umn.edu
>
>Keep the faith.  Hope we talk soon in happier circumstances.
>
>
>Robin Brown
>
>English and Composition
>210a Lind Hall
>University of Minnesota
>Minneapolis MN 55455
>612.625.7836
>


*   *   *   *   *   *
Randy Woodland
woodland@umich.edu
http://www.umd.umich.edu/~woodland/

Writing Program                      ____________________________________
University of Michigan--Dearborn    | I think that "family values" means |
Dearborn, MI 48128-1491             | that we're all family and that we  |
                                    | all have value.                    |
313/593/5238 phone                  |               --Christoper Reeve   |

313/593/5552 fax                    |____________________________________|
*   *   *   *   *   *