First, it's clear this man is a bioethicist and not an English teacher. He's also not a linguist or a compositionist.
And now here's a long and dismaying letter from Midwest Modern Languages Association. Hold on tight, it gets pretty ugly:
Dear Colleague,
Because you are an active member of the Midwest Modern Language Association, I thought you might be concerned that things have not gone well this past year, thanks to an unexpected report. After more than 40 years, the University of Iowa has decided to withdraw M/MLA support. More specifically, the dean of Iowa's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences now wants to reclaim the graduate research assistant, the Program Associate, the Executive Director's two-course release, and the M/MLA's space.
This is frankly a bolt from the blue. What began as an assessment of fiscally ailing journals in the English Department, which only included the *M/MLA Journal* because of the graduate RA, has turned into code blue for the M/MLA and salvation for everyone else. Fortunately, after much arguing the dean has reluctantly postponed termination until August 2008.
For what it is worth, recent performance does not seem to be the issue; rather, the pressing matter is too many undergrads to teach at a time when budgets have been cut sharply. Nevertheless, the M/MLA now faces an uncertain future that includes convention hotel contracts signed through 2010, all of them with stiff cancellation penalties. You will doubtless appreciate why the M/MLA's administrative officers are in shock.
Come September, I will meet with Dean Maxson, who could at least guarantee that the M/MLA will not dissolve while affiliation negotiations continue and hotel contracts still need to be honored. With that in mind and on the chance that you might know of a department or institution that could be interested in an M/MLA future, I am attaching the brief self-study this year's review mandated. If you would like to see the appendices noted in passing and/or a recent survey of affiliation arrangements at regional MLAs across the country, just drop me a line. Naturally I would also be happy to detail current finances (which are good) and the M/MLA's truly modest needs, which run to roughly $50-70K plus space--or half that if the convention and the journal go separate ways.
Meanwhile, if you have a moment before Labor Day, a message of consternation to the dean could really make a difference, especially after so many decades of recognition. She may be reached at [email protected], and you can guess that she might appreciate knowing about the nature and extent of your involvement. It would be a further kindness to copy the M/MLA ([email protected]) so the office has a sense of what the dean is hearing.
The report I have received suggests that the *M/MLA Journal* represents too little bang for the buck--or, more exactly, too little prestige for the penny, even with the addition of the annual convention. As a result, the issue seems to be what a Research 1 institution should rightly support as well as what constituency the M/MLA should rightly serve.
Any help you can provide--contacting the dean on behalf of the Association, making inquiries about a possible new home (or homes), offering advice about how the M/MLA might move toward more solid footing--would be welcome. If I can lend a hand, just let me know. Otherwise, I am simply--well, stunned.
Yours in dismay,
kathleen
Kathleen Diffley
Executive Director of the M/MLA
Associate Professor of English
Midwest Modern Language Association
302 English/Philosophy Building
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1408
http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/
Tel: 319/335-0331
Fax: 319/335-3123
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