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From the Editor: Teaching Writing after Virginia Tech
Paula M. Krebs
No higher education organization could ignore the tragic events of last April 16 in Blacksburg, Virginia. This issue of Academe examines life after the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University by taking on the topic of student writing and campus violence.
Much has been made in the media of Seung-Hui Cho’s major in English.
Members of the Virginia Tech English department, especially Lucinda Roy,
reportedly did all they could do to work with the troubled young man when
his behavior and his writing revealed severe social difficulties. Worldwide
media have focused on the dark and violent scenes, perhaps fantasies, that
appeared in Cho’s creative writing. In this issue of Academe, three faculty
authors start from the Virginia Tech shootings and go on to examine what
student writing has to do with violent impulses and actions.
Poet Monica Barron muses on the community of writers in the creative
writing classroom and what a faculty member’s responsibilities are, while
Chris M. Anson, whose work is in composition and rhetoric, offers two versions
of what role writing plays in campus terrorism. Richard E. Miller, author of
Writing at the End of the World, connects the Virginia Tech shootings to a
national climate of fear in his provocative essay, “The Fear Factor.” A fourth
article on the aftermath of the shootings comes from Ellen Gecker, a psychiatric
nurse who has worked in college health centers, including Virginia Tech’s.
Gecker takes a clinical approach to the issue of students with mental illness,
laying out some warning signs and offering suggestions for faculty members.
Community colleges are also in the spotlight in this issue. Frederick De
Naples explains the model of shared governance at Bronx Community College;
according to De Naples, the voice of the tenure-track faculty is heard loud and
clear in the Bronx, unlike at many two-year institutions with less reliable
governance models. Sharon Joy Ng Hale discusses changes in distance learning in California community colleges, while Catherine Adamowicz addresses the troubling use of part-time labor in community colleges.
Jeff Mitchell proposes a new model for university structure in “A Communitarian
Alternative to the Corporate Model,” calling for truly shared governance
that is based on deliberative democracy. David J. Siegel, who has in the past
written in Academe about the differences between corporate and academic
values, here promotes partnership agreements with corporations, asserting
that some of academe’s fear of big business is based on ignorance. We can’t
escape corporate influence, he asserts—“that ship has sailed.” Partnering with
corporations while maintaining our own integrity, he writes, is the way to go.
To have your say about any of these issues, go to Academe’s blog, “Talk
About Academe.” Just start from the magazine’s Web site, select the article to which you wish to respond, and click on “Comment on this article.” We’re currently gathering short articles (750–1,000 words) for a “Fighting Back” feature in an upcoming issue. Send in your narratives about any successful action, student or faculty, that resulted in campus change for the better. In the past, we’ve featured student-worker solidarity efforts, faculty blogging, and peace studies. Anyone out there defending freedoms on your campus—from the right or the left? Any student newspaper advisers have tales to tell? Any campus workers who won some rights or prevented the loss of some? Send your stories to academe@aaup.org.
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