Welcome
Dear Friends,
All of you will remember the sense of misnomer when we begin “spring” semesters in Pullman. How many times have we dragged ourselves through knee-deep snow trying to get to class, or slipped and slid with bone-breaking threats down the hills outside of Avery and the now “Old Bookie”? Those times are too many to count for most of us. But then there’s that occasional Palouse winter when the snow disappears, skies clear up, and temperatures rise to what we can only call the balmy mid-40s. Now that’s the kind of beginning to spring semester that makes sense, and that’s the kind we’re happy to say we’re having this spring semester, 2010.
With the uplift in weather comes an uplift in spirits, which we find is both good and needed more than ever this year as we face yet another, potentially, very damaging budget cut. We hear from the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the Provost and the President that it’s almost certain the University will have to find reductions in its budgets amounting to as much as 7%. That added to the ~10-12% cut of last year makes for very lean and challenging times ahead.
We’re led to believe, however, that the days of across the board cuts are over, and by extension, primarily vertical cuts will take over. So it will be up to us to present our best case for protecting our BA degrees in English and Digital Technology and Culture and our MA and PhD degrees in literature and rhetoric and composition. For us, that effort is made slightly easier by the very large service obligations the University has placed on us in the teaching of English 101, Introductory Writing, and 
English 402, Technical and Professional Writing. Cutting in these service areas, unless the University steps in and continues to fund them at near-present levels, will mean reductions in temporary instructional faculty, while at the same time keeping tenure track faculty fully enlisted in teaching in the major and graduate areas of our curriculum.
Since we were fortunate enough a couple of years ago to be able to hire three new tenure track faculty members in Pullman, we are able to run full, or almost full, programs in our four English major options. We realize a bit of uncomfortable stretching in Rhetoric and Professional Writing with the loss of a faculty line that would have funded a person in that area. But we are stretching where we can and are still keeping our numbers up in all options in Pullman and in limited options in Vancouver and Tri-Cities. We now have 251 English and 77 DTC majors in Pullman, and adding our majors in Vancouver (English 110; DTC 116) and Tri-Cities (English 35; DTC 45), we are realizing record numbers of nearly 400 English majors and almost 240 DTC majors on all campuses.
We continue to maintain smart levels of enrollments in our graduate programs and are pleased to say that we are having a pretty successful campus-interview season this year, in spite of the dismal job market for the last couple of years running. But we are going ahead with reviewing over 100 applications this year for spots in our graduate programs and hope to make offers again to about 17 new students for fall beginnings.
Given our enrollment figures, it would be tempting to think the wolf can’t possibly be at our door. But as appealing as that would be, it would also be silly and smug. The only responsible course to take is one that plans for cuts. And the only hopeful plan for cuts includes turning to you for your continued support. So once again, as I sincerely thank you for your past support, I am as sincerely asking for your present and future support. With your help, students and faculty alike can continue to work hard in keeping the humanities and liberal arts at the heart of universities like ours. We look forward to hearing from you and wish you the best for a strong 2010 to come.
Sincerely,
George E. Kennedy
Chair
February 4, 2010
From the Editors
Dear Readers,
It is with great pleasure that we release our fourth edition of Impact! While Impact covers newsworthy items of interest to WSU English Department students, alumni, and faculty, it is meant to be more than that. We hope to develop partnerships with people around the country and around the world who, like us, are striving to positively impact their environments and communities.
For helping us put this issue together, a special thanks to: Erin Jepsen, Charlotte Pearson, Nick Kiessling, Peter Chilson, Sarah White, Chris Arigo, Linda Russo, Jacqueline Lyons, Ted Tremper, Buddy Levy, Paul Mulhauser, Nancy Bell, Crag Hill, Will Hamlin, Annette Bednar, Todd Butler, Maddie Starkovich, Rachael Nelson, Cayla Lambier and Bryan Fry. Send corrections and contribution ideas for the next edition of Impact to: deblee@wsu.edu
Debbie Lee and Donna Evans
Research and Development
