Probably saving their own jobs (for the moment).
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Sounds like theyāre throwing the department under the bus.
āWe only cut the budget. The actual unpopular consequences of that were someone elseās decision.ā
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Essentially the faculty, along with the deans of Humanities and Arts, and the dean of the English Department, told us how incredible our record of teaching had been, how great our student evals were, etc, etc, before saying we would all be fired in the next two years. Many articles have been written about the situation, but there are a few aspects of the story I wanted to make clear. The first is that Eavan Boland was the program director for 20 years before passing away unexpectedly in 2020 during Covid. Under Eavanās leadership the program grew from a couple lecturers to the 23 who were just fired. The lecturers were chosen by Eavan and faculty, and kept longer than the one-year contract if they performed. Eavan believed in Creative Writing as a rigorous discipline, as essential as other departments at Stanford. The Creative Writing department was a subset of the larger English department, but over the last 20 years grew to be more popular than the English department itself, far outpacing the English department in demand for classes. One of the reasons for this is that Eavan encouraged us to teach specialized courses (Graphic Novel, Songwriting, etc) which became very popular among students. My class āThe American Road Tripā became one of the most popular classes at Stanford, and routinely had waitlists of over 100 students. Thatās right, a non-essential CW workshop with 100+ waitlists. Many of the lecturers also had classes with this type of reach and popularity. Eavan encouraged us to teach toward our strengths, which resulted in unique classes the students were excited to take. Due to the high demand, the program was able to expand, hiring more faculty, more administrators, and an additional departmental building for offices. In the world of academia these are big deals, and things Eavan was very proud of. In the statement Stanford issued about our firing, they said the Jones Lectureships were intended to be short term contracts (which they have always been and STILL are) but they left out the reason that they became renewed every yearāthe growth of the department based on student demand. This is the main reason the lecturers are feeling betrayed by the decision. The department is booming, demand has never been higher, many of us teach popular classes, and Eavanās vision for the program was working. The other thing I wanted to clarify is that Jones lecturers have been underpaid for years (by Bay Area standards) and negotiated for salary raises last year. We got the raises (which are still at the low-income level) but then were immediately fired. So this stings as a double slap in the face. Undoing Eavanās legacy, and punishing us for asking for a living wage, at a school that has massive resources and one of the largest endowments in the world. I have been treated with dignity and respect by the faculty at Stanford my entire time there, despite the lower wages and year-by-year uncertainty of future employment. I have always felt appreciated for my writing, my teaching, my commitment to the program, and have viewed every year as a gift. But during that meeting the masks came off, and the faculty didnāt even show us the respect of firing us in a dignified way. I know Iāve been lucky to have the position and Iām mature enough to know it was never a guarantee, but the way we were treated bordered on contempt, and itās hard to understand the ulterior motives for treating the folks who have built the program with such dismissal and lack of respect. It was objectively wrong and speaks to a much larger problem in the hierarchy of academia and Creative Writing, where performance is not met with advancement but rather political infighting, scapegoating, administrative shapeshifting, and the destruction of what serves students. Unfortunately, as always, it is the students who are losing the most in this, and the anger Iāve felt this week has been mostly for them, because I feel I somehow failed them, and I know first hand what theyāre up against at Stanfordāa culture that prioritizes STEM classes, pays lip service to student needs, and routinely devalues the arts. If you are affiliated with Stanford and want to support the lecturers you can sign the petition below or write to the deans and directors of the program. If you have questions about the situation feel free to ask. Iāll be as honest as I can. My priority in this āscandalā is not my job (or salary) but the integrity of the program and the experience of my students.
News Articles:
Stanford to ācycle outā creative writing lecturers
Petition:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10PoTTX9UtWr9-fCm6Rk-JyBl2tmwpInAyaFEyTSp_B8/mobilebasic
Student Letters:
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[Polish education minister promises retraining for religion teachers - English Section (polskieradio.pl)]
[Satanic Temple says Florida school chaplain program blocks religions (usatoday.com)]
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So much for STEM objectivity.
In the new study, researchers found that out of roughly 14,000 peer-reviewed articles about conflicts of interest bias, and research funding across all industries from 2003 to 2023, only seven mentioned fossil fuels. When the authors broadened their search to look at book chapters, they found only seven more.
But even by combing through the small body of existing scholarship, the authors identified hundreds of instances in the US, UK, Canada and Australia where oil and gas interests had poured funding into climate and energy research while sitting on advisory or governing boards, endowing academic posts, sponsoring scholarships, advising curricula or otherwise influencing universities.
āWe find that universities are an established yet under-researched vehicle of climate obstruction by the fossil fuel industry,ā the authors write.
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Well, this is not going to help get the enrollment or retention numbers back up to full capacity.
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Crikey-donāt they have building codes? In Illinois itās illegal for bedrooms not to have a window. The students could try suing the university for using those rooms as dorms in the first place. Image the payouts to years and years worth of past residents!
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Yeah, thatās extremely surprising. Here (Saskatchewan, Canada), every bedroom requires a secondary egress window that meets requirements for size and external clearance in case the door is inaccessible. These rooms would be a death trap if there was a fire in the hallway. Iām shocked theyāre legal!
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Texas is pretty notorious for their general lack of building codesā¦
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Thatās described in the article. In most other places it is illegal to have a bedroom without some source of natural light.
But the building codes relevant here say
Every space intended for human occupancy shall be provided with natural light by means of exterior glazed openings in accordance with Section 1204.2 or shall be provided with artificial light in accordance with Section 1204.3.
And that āorā means that developers can interpret that to mean that if youāve provided enough artificial light, then the natural light is optional. And thatās cheaper, so thatās what they do. Because you donāt have to be a sociopath to be a successful developer, but you do have at least be able to act like you are.
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Once again I am thankful for Schulpflicht
The idea (on paper, anyway) is to nurture and encourage a childās emerging interest and preoccupations, not just to build more curious students but more well-rounded people.
This is so misguided. Yes, absolutely nurture their interests, but there are so many things that children (or individual children) are not interested in that they need to learn to be a well-rounded human and a member of society.
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So, this was today, following the GA happenings.
When can we say definitively "THERE ARE TOO MANY FUCKING GUNS IN THIS COUNTRY!! Because I think we are there. Seriously, WTF does it take? (He asks after Sandy Hook changed nothing)
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Voting out all the fascists who believe that this is ājust a fact of lifeā and putting in politicians who will do the hard work of passing laws that will help fix the root causesā¦
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