English Department Position Request - EPC

I. Reputation

Listed as one of the top young literary scholars in the U.S. Stephen Burn John Smolens Named the Michigan Writer of the Year for 2012

New book received the 2012 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award Marek Haltof Jaspal Singh Received a Fulbright for for work on the Sikhs

His Digital Herbert (leader in cutting edge research technology) Rob Whalen Jim McCommons Waiting on a Train gained national attention

Received 5 book awards in the last two years Matt Frank 5 of the last 7 Peter White Scholars were from the English Department – Jim McCommons – John Smolens – Stephen Burn – Rob Whalen – Marek Haltof

National Recognition Five of our graduates were featured among the fifty best new poets of 2010 and another one was included in the 2011 selection. The Huffington Post recommended NMU’s MFA program as one of the 25 to look at because of exciting things happening in it.

Departmental Scholarship for books 33 short creative works 20 articles published/forthcoming 4 book reviews 38 conference presentations/panels/organizers 18 readings/interviews 7 grants 62 undergraduate conference presentations 73 graduate conference presentations

Result: Over 100 applications for the MFA Program this year so far, which offers us an opportunity to expand the program. An increasing number of writing majors & minors since the drop after the peak in 2007 to 138 until the drop in overall enrollment this year.

II. Productivity

Our English Department Has  240 majors o 135 in Writing  150 minors  80 graduate students  Total of 475

courses offered per semester, with an average SCH/FTE of 260.  70+ Developmental & Composition  45 Liberal Studies  30 Major only  15 Creative Writing  15 Graduate courses

English produces almost 30,000 credit hours per academic year  29,784 in , representing an increase of 2652 credit hours from

III. Need

Department Balance Currently  28 Tenured/Tenure Track  1 Continuing Contract  6 Full-Time Term Faculty  30 Contingent Faculty  35 Graduate Teaching Assistants/Fellows

Creative Writers in the Department 3 Poets 3 Non-Fiction Writers 2 Fiction Writers 2 Journalists Currently need someone particularly in drama & script.

Responsibilities Course Offerings – 175 courses per semester, including 10 at the graduate level and 15 undergrad creative writing courses. We cover (on load per contract) – 20 theses involving about 50 faculty commitments per year – Portfolios and other Final Projects

Spread Thin Between the offerings in creative writing and the thesis requirements, our creative writers are spread too thin. In addition, retirement plans are in effect for three of these creative writers over the next two years: – Paul Lehmberg ( ) – Ron Johnson ( ) – Diane Sautter ( )

Request Tenure-Track Position in Fiction/Drama & Screenwriting – Current staffing for courses still unstaffed