CFC rejects tenure position

Position now unavailable to Expository Writing Program

The College Faculty Council (CFC) rejected a third tenure track position that would have been available to Visiting Assistant Professor Wendy Hesford in the Expository Writing Program. The decision was made at Thursday's meeting.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Mary Ella Feinleib said, "The CFC really struggled with this and it finally decided that on procedural grounds it was not ready now to approve the third tenure track position in the Expository Writing Program. It doesn't mean it won't."

Feinleib said, "[CFC] wanted to wait until it could see all the position requests that came in later on this year. It was a very difficult and, in some ways, sad discussion because we were very well aware that the college would lose Wendy Hesford as a result of this… It never got to a stage of being able to offer positions because the position was not at this point authorized."

"It is no reflection of the very high quality of Hesford's work," Feinleib added.

Hesford, in response to the CFC's decision, said, "I'm disappointed." She plans to write the CFC and Feinleib a letter expressing her disappointment. Hesford has been offered a position at the University of Indiana's English department. She did not comment on whether she was accepting the position or not.

The Educational Plans and Policies Committee (EPPC) reviewed the Expository Writing Program this month. The eight faculty and four student members on the committee confirmed their decision during a special meeting Wednesday that they would recommend to the CFC that there should be three full time positions for the program.

The meeting was held on Wednesday because the EPPC wanted to recommend Hesford and have the CFC consider the approval of the third tenure track position before Hesford made a decision to leave Oberlin. Traditionally, EPPC requests any additional staff members to the CFC during late spring. CFC then reviews the individual departments and staff members in those departments. It also ranks them in order of importance and in their need of tenure and temporary track positions.

Dan Persky, a college sophomore on EPPC, said, "Although the Expository Writing Program will probably be able to survive with less than three professors, I think that with a third position they would have been able to expand offering to teach different styles of writing and writing for different disciplines."

Director of the Expository Writing Program and Professor of Expository Writing and English Leonard Podis said that the third position has been staffed temporarily since 1984, when the college writing requirement was implemented. Over the years, several people in the position have come and gone, according to Podis.

Podis said, "We have been pushing for the tenure track status for the whole time."

Hesford took her current position in 1990. According to Podis, Hesford has done an excellent job.

Without the tenure track position, Podis feels that "[The Expository Writing Program] could be in trouble. We're looking at some serious threats to our stability and functioning."

Professor of Expository Writing and English Jan Cooper said, "I know from both reading student evaluations and observing her in class that she is one of the most gifted teachers at Oberlin. She has a profound influence on students of Oberlin. It would be a terrible shame to lose her."

After hearing the CFC's decision, Cooper commented, "I am very disappointed. I think it's a great loss but what remains to be seen is what happens to the third faculty position, which is crucial to the support of the writing proficiency requirement."

Elizabeth Dilkes, a college junior, said she transferred to Oberlin last semester because she was attracted to the one-on-one attention and the personalized education offered in classrooms. She is presently taking one of Hesford's classes.

"Professor Hesford's incredibly dedicated, very accessible and teaches in an accessible way. She gives great feedback and she is a great facilitator. The fact that [CFC] would choose not to make her position permanent is just an incredibly poor choice," Dilkes said. "It seems that the procedure has gotten in the way of what the real issue is. The real issue to me is that we have a great teacher and we shouldn't lose her."

Rebecca Bryan, a college junior and EPPC member who has taken expository writing classes since last spring, said, "I think that it's a really big mistake for the college. I think that Council knows very well that they're not going to find someone better than Hesford in a national search. They're hiding behind rules, I think, and if expository writing was a program that got the respect it deserves from the school, then Council wouldn't have decided to do this."

Bryan said she spoke to Feinleib after the CFC made its decision. She told Bryan that the decision was not based on financial circumstances and that there is money available to create a new position in the college.

Miriam Axel-Lute, a college junior who has also taken expository writing classes since last spring, said, "I was horribly disappointed." Axel-Lute delivered a petition to Feinleib's office on Thursday with 225 signatures by students in support of speeding up the process to support the third tenure track position. The petition also made a counter offer to Hesford. Numerous students will continue to send e-mail to Feinleib and CFC members about Thursday's decision.

"I think it absolutely still needs a third permanent position. I don't believe they will find someone as strong as Wendy and have as many unique things to offer as she did. She is a marvelous professor of writing," Axel-Lute said.