Emily Bartelheim
News Editor
The College’s English Department like other departments, will undergo staff changes for the 2012–2013 academic year. The Research and Studies Committee decides when professors can take their sabbatical leaves. The process is competitive, and there are certain prerequisites before a professor is able to take their leaves, such as a required number of semesters spent teaching.
Professor Nancy Grace said that this change in departments just happens — it’s no one’s fault and is just a matter of how things fall in time.
While there will be many changes next year, as there were this past year, replacement and returning professors will fulfill the requirements for current course offerings, so there will be no hindrances for future students.
Currently, Professors Debra Shostak, Thomas Prendergast and Jennifer Hayward are on leave, but will return in the fall of 2012.
A large portion of this year’s English Department will also either be on leave or taking other job offers after this spring semester (2012). Professor Larry Stewart will be retiring after teaching here for 45 years, as well as Kathie Clyde, the administrative coordinator for the English Department, who retires on May 31.
Professor Grace will also be moving to the position of Director for the Center for Diversity and Global Engagement for the next three years, starting in the fall of 2012. She will continue advising English I.S. projects, but will no longer teach classes. The three-year replacement for her in the English Department requires journalism and creative writing experience, in order to maintain the journalism course offered biannually.
Additionally, Professor Maria Prendergast will be on leave next academic year, and Professor Leslie Wingard will be on leave during the fall semester of 2012, to return in the spring.
Professor Travis Foster will be leaving after this spring for another job offer at Villanova University, and Professor Mazen Naous has accepted a position in Beirut, Lebanon. Positions have already been placed to replace both teachers. Professor Suzanne Daly, currently a one-year visiting professor, will also be leaving next year.
This fall, Professor Thomas Prendergast will return to be the Department Chair, Professor Hayward will also return, and Professor Daniel Bourne will remain. Eighteenth-century scholar Professor Bryan Alkemeyer is on track to achieve tenure, and Professor Katharine Beutner is currently on a three-year contract. Professor Matt Hooley will also return in a visiting one-year teaching position. A new professor, Rob Maclean, a 1999 graduate of the College, will be joining the department in the fall of 2012 as well.