I am delighted to report that the last year has been … delightfully ordinary! That is to say, it has been marked by the normal milestones of a healthy department rather than by constant on-the-fly adjustments to Covid. We hired a wonderful new colleague in Latinx literary studies, Mariajosé Rodríguez Pliego, who started this fall as a College Fellow (see her bio on p. 4). Susannah Gottlieb became a full Professor, Tristram Wolff was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure, and Justin Mann was appointed to a second three-year term as an Assistant Professor. Shauna Seliy’s accomplishments as a teaching mentor in our creative writing program were recognized by a promotion to Professor of Instruction. In the department office, David Kuzel and Nathan Mead received long-overdue promotions that belatedly recognize the depth of their contributions to the department’s mission. As our new Assistant Director of Creative Writing, Colin Pope hit the ground running, bringing the department’s staffing level back to pre-pandemic levels. We’re approaching something that might be called a new normal.
As part of this new normal, I feel as though I’m seeing University Hall for the first time through the eyes of the fifteen first-year undergraduate students in my College Seminar advising cohort. I’m happy to report that Northwestern is mostly treating them pretty well. They are enjoying their classes, which are generally challenging in productive rather than unproductive ways, and they definitely appreciate the faculty and TAs who are kind to them, including helping them get back on track when they’re confused. (One of the pleasures of working with first years is seeing the transformative role that Graduate Student Instructors play in undergraduate education, especially in their first two years.) Although my students are a little bit homesick, for that very reason they are also starting to develop close friendships – and their friends are helping them to navigate this place in ways that emails from various University offices cannot do. Almost universally, they reported being skeptical when NU announced that Elder Dining Hall would be serving Korean food as part of a One Book, One Northwestern tie-in, but when their friends texted to let them know that the kimchi fried rice was really, really good, they got themselves over to Elder as quickly as possible. Now they want to know, very understandably, why kimchi fried rice is only offered as a One Book, One Northwestern tie-in rather than as part of a regular menu rotation.
At the same time, my students are confronting elements of Northwestern that make no sense to them at all. For example, NU proudly announces wrap-around academic support including office hours and peer-led study groups for introductory math and science classes. But then it devotes so few resources to them that one of my students stood in line outside of her chemistry TA’s office for an hour on four separate occasions without ever making it through the door. Another of my students shared that he had been rejected from the undergraduate crossword club, which apparently has a competitive admissions process. In that case, there’s not even the excuse of resource constraints because the cost of printing out crossword puzzles is negligible. Instead, the club’s policy seems to be driven by an ethos of competition for its own sake, as a kind of default setting. The perceived value of the crossword club derives from its exclusivity rather than from engaging in a fun, nerdy activity with friends.
Getting these updates from my first years has opened my eyes to facets of Northwestern I hadn’t previously considered. I’m happy to report that all of my students who received midterm grade warnings for chemistry have battled back, figuring out new ways to study and, in some cases, creative ways to seek help. (Apparently there is one chemistry TA whose early morning office hours are usually very quiet.) My rejected crossword club student has moved on to apply to the Sudoku society. These updates have also had the side benefit of clarifying for me what we’re trying to accomplish in this particular corner of this larger institution. In a nutshell, the English department is working to contribute to and build on the things Northwestern does well, while we push back against – or, when that fails, at least try to mitigate – the things it does badly. Above all, we try to think things through when the larger institution doesn’t always do so. Thinking things through is not a panacea, but it is a powerful and effective as well as underutilized tool. It enables us to make cogent arguments for change to the higher administration and to make the most of the resources within our control, from budgeting to curriculum to departmental policy.
This commitment to thinking things through is a key reason that I’m hopeful that our new normal will be better than the old one. It’s also a key reason why, in contrast to the crossword club, we do our best to welcome students in rather than turn them away.
With best wishes for a happy and healthy 2024,
Katy Breen