BYU tries to cancel SF/F 318

[EUOL]

So, I got the following email today:

Brandon,

The department executive committee has decided not to offer ENGL 318R this winter semester.  They wanted to acknowledge the wonderful job you did pinch hitting for the department during the winter 2003 semester.  You will certainly be on the list of possibilities should full-time faculty not be available to teach that course again.

Thanks again for your interest.

Jo Scofield


----

The 318 in question, of course, is the science-fiction and fantasy themed creative writing class.  

I've fired off a good dozen emails to my contacts in the department trying to fight this.  We'll se what happens.  I don't think, however, that the department has thought this through all the way.  In addition, I don't know if they understand the kind of maelstrom we geeks can create if we're slighted.

[Archon]

  You tell them EUOL! I can only wish that my school had a class that was as cool as that one. No, our school decided that to have a class that could connect to something that we are interested in would be counterproductive. I loathe our school.

  If classes like that get canceled, where do people expect students to turn to learn more about how to write fiction. They havent taught us how to write a story since elementary school. Someone needs to acknowledge that fictional writing has its place in society, and has enough value to be taught to students who would like to pursue it. Just like they need to realize that they send two buses into my subdivision to drop off and pick up 3 kids. And then they complain about funding. Morons.

[stacer]

It's not just fictional writing here, Archon, it's specifically SF/F that's the issue. From what I hear, now that Sally Taylor has retired, BYU is trying to get away from having to teach SF/F. Or something. That's what's going on, right, EUOL?

And it seems to me that a university that holds LTUE and has TLE, etc. ought to be looking out for strengthening that part of the program, not just letting it quietly slip aside.

You haven't been teaching it this semester, have you? Is it just a winter semester course?

[Spriggan]

BYU realy, realy wants to be an uber acidemic (read ivey leauge) college, and SF/F isn't considered acidemeic.  It's dosen't suprise me on bit they're trying to get rid of the class.

[Skar]

LTUE and TLE are considered embarrassments by the faculty of BYU.  They bring people to campus who are not football fans and who think on their own about things.  Neither class of person is really welcome.

It's sad really.  

-BYU is the western mecca for gay men (they're not all just really nice return missionaries folks)

-Teaching the students is a far second or third to getting grant money from the feds and being prestigious

-And they pump our tithing funds into scholarships for lying, theiving, raping, football thugs.

-And they called to ask me for more of my money last week.  How sad is that?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

What are some names and addresses we can write to to give our support?

[fuzzyoctopus]

-And they pump our tithing funds into scholarships for lying, theiving, raping, football thugs.

A-FREAKING-MEN!

[42]

This completely irritates me to no end. I understand that BYU got a lot of its current statis by getting the current administration into Ivy League grad schools and then hiring them as instructors when they graduated. It's how my uncle got hired and how he got recognition for BYU's cancer research program.

But BYU is so eager to get into the academicly popular crowd that they don't seem to care about what they are trading in for this worldly acceptance. So essentially, BYU is turning its back on why it was founded. Its suppose to provide an education for those who do not want to follow the worldly ways of academia.

But, BYU's English department is weak. So out with SF&F and make way for Homosexual Erotic Lit. Got to be like the Ivy League.

[stacer]

Maybe it's just what I'm looking for, but I see a trend *toward* accepting fantasy and science fiction critically, especially in children's literature (which is what I pay attention to, after all). It always seemed to me that BYU was ahead, or at least with it, on this subject. Not everyone wants to study the classics or postmodern stuff. Look at all the analyses of Buffy and Harry Potter that are out there, popular culture integrated with academia. My Victorian teacher is a Buffy fan and wants to write a paper on it.

I just don't see how SF&F are unrelated. It seems to me that this is a step in regression, not toward being an elite school. My program is considered pretty much the best children's literature master's program in the country, and half my classes include science fiction and fantasy (depending on the teacher's preferences--my YA/crit teacher prefers gritty nasty realism)--not to mention the fantasy class and the origins of story class (folklore and fairy tales).

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Sounds like its time to call Scott Card too. Thats something he might have some influence with too.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

We shoudl organize. Yes. Letters from Alumni will mean a lot mroe than ranting on a message board. Brandon, you're best entrenched, who should we start addressing letters to?

[EUOL]

Boy.  To be honest, I'm not sure.  

My worry is that we'll overwhelm the department, and end up painting ourselves poorly.  No less than one hour from the time I got that email, I had three professors in the department head's office complaining.  If he started getting a flood of letters too, he might react the wrong way.

However, I don't think letters are a bad thing.  Perhaps if you directed them to Dr. Perry, who is the liaison now that Sally is gone?  He could then use them as ammunition?  Or, perhaps to Dr. Bennion in the creative writing department?  He's fighting for us too.

I'm not sure how Jo would react to letters.  She's the prime one who got attacked by my professor friends.    

My sources tell me that the class has been put back on the table, and that they're going to meet on it in two weeks.  The fact that the only one around to teach it isn't full-time faculty is, apparently, part of the problem.  I wonder if they realize it's ALWAYS been taught by an outsider.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think probably Dr. Bennion is a good place to start. If we all write professional, adult letters and he can use them, that's great. In those letters we can let him know that if he thinks writing someone else would be helpful, we'd be happy to do so.

[stacer]

Yeah, I would only write in a professional "I would like to see this great tradition continue at my alma mater" kind of way, if I wrote. If you think it would be helpful to write someone, let us know.

[MsFish]

EUOL---Would letters and/or emails from former/prospective students of the class help?  I'd write one, and I bet others would to (Maybe James, Brad, Charisa (?), the Robinsons)  We could spread the word, but make sure everyone keeps it positive, you know, talking about what a great class it was and how it helped us (and not harping on the department at all, cause that would probably hurt the cause.)  What do you think?

Incidentally, when I took a copy of Leading Edge to Jo Schofield yesterday, she asked me if we advertised at all.  I told her that we don't do any advertising that costs money, cause we don't have much, but we are in the writer's market.  That's all the info I had to give her.  You don't think that's a bad sign, do you?