Best picture I could find - it ain't all about the football!

God has been most merciful because for almost 12 years one of my favorite Christian brothers on the planet is a member of University Baptist and a former Chancellor of Louisiana State University. A few weeks ago he came by the church to copy something for his Sunday Bible study group and we talked for a while. I asked him about the cuts being made at Louisiana State University.

He said such cuts happen periodically. Each time people predict the death of the university. And each time the university somehow survives and grows and thrives. Because every organization needs periodically to trim the fat that has accumulated. Positions and programs that are added when none are removed or ended. Mission creep that leads to a university taking on more projects in the region that might not necessarily be part of its essential purpose.

But this time is different. This is not just trimming fat. This is cutting into the flesh. Perhaps even into bone. This could make Louisiana State University less than what it should be. This could hurt current and future students. This could damage the state of Louisiana as a whole.

From The Reveille today:

All the instructors in the English Department have received termination notices, said assistant professor Daniel Novak.

“Instructors [have gotten] their termination letters extended but still don’t have job security even when they teach the majority of the writing classes for students in this University,” Novak said.

The extension assures the instructors’ employment for an additional six months “but instead of giving them a contract for six months, they were given a letter saying they were going to be fired in six months,” Novak said.

The English Department has approximately 90 faculty members, 36 of whom are instructors who teach the writing portion of the University’s curriculum.

Instructors teach 62 percent of ENGL 1001 sections and 74 percent of 2000 sections of the department’s writing program, according to the Director of the University Writing Program Barbara Heifferon.

The writing instructor who is quoted extensively is also a member of University Baptist. She and her husband are pillars of this church family. They have hosted English Conversation for us several times.

This gets my attention also because if ever I had to leave vocational ministry I would be interested in doing something like teaching English as a Second Language or teaching English writing. During my doctoral studies at Cornell University I took a course on how to teach writing in English and taught or helped teach two Freshman Writing Seminars. It was one of my best experiences in graduate school. I like to think I was pretty good at it. The director of the program borrowed one of my handouts (on crux versus thesis) and asked me to share with the program some of my experiences – like an idiot said no can’t too busy or something – and was the only writing instructor whose students on the last day of class presented him with a cake. On top of which was written something rather mushy.

I hurt for the university. I hurt for the families I know who are affected. I hurt for a program that has a special place in my heart.

But speaking of what has a special place in my heart.

University writing courses are not optional. They are required by university accrediting agencies. This could cause problems for some students who need these classes in order to graduate. So what will the university do?

Faculty and staff in the English Department worry that the University’s recent academic alliance with the Baton Rouge Community College may be the University’s solution to circumvent part of the problem.

“Bears 2 Tigers,” a program allowing students to transfer seamlessly from BRCC to the University to complete a bachelor’s degree, was signed Sept. 28 by Chancellor Michael Martin and BRCC Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey.

The partnership, which originally only included engineering, has been extended to BRCC students with business, science, and humanities and social sciences associate degrees.

Reading through the comments section it appears many think this is a terrible solution. Some make disparaging comments about community colleges.

Dean Ed Warner (right)

I think it is long past time such a partnership was put in place. Community colleges have a special place in the heart of my own family. My grandfather (top of page 5) was dean of Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica New York which is a model of what a community college can be. One of his great achievements was to create such a network that allowed students to “transfer seamlessly” from Mohawk Valley Community College to many of the top universities in the state.

This was 30-40 years ago.

I am deeply sympathetic to faculty and staff at Louisiana State University who are being affected by these cuts. But my sympathy is mitigated by my strong appreciation for the important role that community colleges play in a healthy system of higher education. So what if some students choose to get their basic requirements at Baton Rouge Community College and then transfer seamlessly to Louisiana State University? What is wrong with that?

There is an answer to that question however. Which is what about students who don’t do that? Who begin and remain at Louisiana State? How will they fulfill their writing course requirement? The university cannot outsource the entire program can it?

For the record my wife and I hope and plan for my children to attend Louisiana State. So far they seem pretty happy with the idea. We have a personal interest in the future of Louisiana’s flagship university.

Addendum:

Revolution 21 says it very well indeed in “Louisiana: Stupid Is As Stupid Cuts”. As much as some might rebel against the idea we have too many “university” campuses and greatly need to combine/consolidate.

H/T Opinionated Catholic.

During out time in Upstate New York visiting my mom and extended family I had an idea not unrelated to ideas I have had concerning how we count in English.

Consider that every letter in the English alphabet is spoken with one syllable. Ay, bee, see, dee, ee, eff, gee, aych, eye, and so on. With one exception.

Double-yoo. Three syllables.

My proposal is to change how we speak the letter w to one syllable – perhaps something like way. So that when we give out web addresses we no longer slog through double-yoo double-yoo double-yoo dot yahoo dot com. Instead just way way way dot yahoo dot com.

It gets better.

Have you noticed how often in English when we spell a word people have to ask “Wait – did you say em or en? See or zee?” Too many letters in English are too close in pronunciation that – especially over the phone – we are not sure. (This is why the military comes up with those whiskey-foxtrot-tango systems. No ambiguity at all.)

And those crazy Canucks and Brits and Aussies and the rest say zed instead of zee – which is why they never get confused over the phone. At least between c and z. You can laugh (and Weird Al pokes at this in his song “Canadian Idiot”) – but it makes sense. I wonder if we resist changing over because of that pesky “ABC Song”.

So why stop at way for w? Why not look at all the ambiguous letter-pairs and change one so that there is no more ambiguity?

Instead of bee and pee perhaps bee and pay. (I believe one finds this frequently in how foreign languages say their alphabets.) Instead of the always confusing em or en we get em and nay. And so on.

Coming up – why we need to do this with how we count numbers.