From the Chair

When I received the departmental operating budget prior to the beginning of the school year, I should have known that this year was going to the unlike most others.  I never would have predicted, though, that the Chancellor of the university would resign or that the university would already have been closed because of a hurricane.  Fortunately, damage from the hurricane was minimal around campus and in Greenville, although much of eastern North Carolina suffered devastating losses.  We can only hope that the Chancellor's resignation will have as little negative impact on the University as did the hurricane.  We can also hope that William Shelton, the interim chancellor recently appointed by UNC President Molly Broad, will provide the leadership needed during a time of unprecedented change, but static or declining resources.

As we move further into this academic year under new leadership, I find a number of issues awaiting action to be of particular concern:

1).  The university's task force on fixed-term faculty has yet to initiate the development of policies that provide guidelines for the employment and evaluation of this rapidly growing segment of our faculty.  Ever since the university abandoned the six-year cap on employment of fixed-term faculty, the lack of policy has led to frustration, contention, and loss of morale.  The Faculty Senate and the higher administration need to establish policies this year that will enable the department to address meaningfully the legitimate concerns of its fixed-term faculty.

2).  The provost has indicated that he plans to initiate an Integrated Performance-Based Management System that will govern the allocation of resources beginning with the fall semester 2004.  I have not yet learned the details of this system, but I am concerned by reports that it relies solely on quantifiable data and gives little weight to issues of quality.  The provost is to meet with the chairs of Harriot College in October to explain the system; I hope that at that time my misgivings will be allayed.

3).  The provost has asked each department to identify an "aspirational" or "aspirant" department; that is, a department that can serve as our role model.  Moreover, we are to identify specific steps for us to take within the next three to five years that will enable us to become more like our role model.  Departmental discussions last spring, however, highlighted the difficulties we face in modeling ourselves after any single institution, for while our many programs, especially at the graduate level, are not unique, a similar combination of programs is difficult to find at a single institution elsewhere.  Perhaps a discussion of this issue will convince the department that we should not be innovative, but should follow the standards set by traditional departments of English.  The implications of our discussion of this issue are far-reaching and will impact the development of the department for years to come.

I suspect that we're all familiar with the alleged Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times" (a statement that apparently first appears in print in a 1950s science-fiction story by Duncan H. Munro).  I just hope that our interesting times turn out not to merit the concerns that I have and apprehension that I am experiencing.