Southern Miss (Noun Followed By Verb)

One of things that really pleases me about Kathleen Blake Yancey’s address/article “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key”—perhaps because it sets her apart from the great majority of rhetoric and composition studies material I’ve read— is her willingness to confront the material conditions, not only of our students and their writing process, but within our own departments and discipline. Yancey doesn’t eschew facts on the ground type analysis of the shift underway in today’s English departments in favor of esoteric and inside-baseball feeling conversations about this vs. that. She realizes the if none of us have jobs, this vs. that isn’t going to matter to any of us in our new careers as bricklayers.
Her discussion of the redistribution of funds from the University to the students themselves “in the form of scholarships called Lucky or Freedom” is interesting and something I’d be interested in learning more about. When I first came to Mississippi, I was impressed by the number of students attending my who had these kinds of scholarships. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think “hey, where is this money coming from?” Perhaps, this is why the photo-copier in our department was used by 13th century Irish monks. Maybe this is why nearly all full time instructor/lecturer positions were eliminated. Perhaps this is the reason why graduate students were, with no warning or chance to protest, cut from 9 credits of tuition to 6 credits tuition in the summer. (The unfairness of this is mindblowing to me. We hold up our end of the bargain by teaching all year and THEN with two months left, they change the deal, reducing our compensation across the board. If this were a business, people would be Up In Arms).
The future of the university, not just English Departments, but the full on shooting match seems to be on a lot of folks mind as evidence by Jed Lapinski’s article in today’s Salon that I happened to be reading —(i.e.) alt./tabbing back forth— while writing this response. Enjoy…
http://www.salon.com/books/nonfiction/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/03/28/anya_kamenetz_diyu_interview