From (the Edge of) the Chair's Seat

Graduate matters are in the air of late, and not just for those who might be re-reading Crime and Punishment, whose protagonist should probably not be the first person to spring to mind (but did) when thinking about post-baccalaureate students.

As September wanes, the Task Force on Graduate Education, one of four such advisory groups convened by Provost Wallace Loh last spring, is beginning its review of the more than 100 graduate programs at the University of Iowa (for its charge, see here: http://provost.uiowa.edu/work/strategic-initiatives/tf-grad.htm). Claire Fox has turned in the requisite report on the English graduate programs—twice. The first report, dutifully submitted by the due date, covered what we thought were our graduate programs, which is to say the Ph.D./M.A. in literary study and the M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing. The second, subsequently demanded on the grounds that we had made a serious omission, included those three programs plus, who would ever have expected . . .  the M.F.A. in Creative Writing! Surely that’s a mistake, one thought, surely the Writers’ Workshop has long been in every way a fully autonomous entity. But no. In the eyes of officialdom, it turns out, English offers three graduate degrees: the Ph.D., M.A., and M.F.A in English, the latter covering students in both the NWP and the Writers’ Workshop. (There is no M.F.A. in Creative Writing, it seems, nor one in Nonfiction Writing, only an all-purpose M.F.A. in English). If this surprise revelation piques your curiosity, you can see the entire report on the entirety of the English graduate programs here. Many thanks to Claire, along with Robin Hemley and Samantha Chang, with help from Cherie Hansen-Rieskamp, Maggie McKnight, and Connie Brothers, for putting it all together.

A quick snapshot shows that there are 268 students currently enrolled in the English graduate programs (including 100 students in the Writers' Workshop). An entering Ph.D. class of about 18 students typically contains two Presidential Fellows and 2.5 Dean’s Fellows; 20% of our current Ph.D./M.A. population consists of under-represented minorities. Two to three Ph.D. students on average receive Seashore/Ballard Dissertation Fellowships, a number that is supplemented by our in-house Seely and Dietz Fellowships that combine a semester of teaching with a semester of research support. In addition to the dissertation-year support that is part of the Presidential and Dean’s Fellowship packages, as well as occasional other internal (e.g., Bach Fellowships) and external awards (e.g., Newcombe, Woodrow Wilson, and Mellon awards), a significant number of our Ph.D. students receive a full or partial year of teaching-free dissertation support. Although the recent market downturn might obscure it, our placement record is impressive: for the five-year period from 2003-2008, 88% of our Ph.D.s obtained initial placements in academic positions, and 49% held initial tenure-track positions. Even in last year’s tight job market, with advertised positions in English down by approximately 26%, 12 out of 17 of our prospective applicants secured academic positions. Over the past five years, our students have landed tenure-track positions at a number of leading colleges and Research I institutions, including Arizona State University, UC San Diego, Butler University, Yeshiva University, Purdue University, and Wake Forest University.

The M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing has a typical entering class of around 12-16 students (although this year that number increased to 20) for a total of around 45-50 in the three-year program, with most students funded at least partially, through TAships, Iowa Arts Fellowships, and other sources. Recruitment into the NWP is highly successful and most students who are accepted into the program matriculate. Over the last five years, 21 NWP students have found academic appointments and 10 have found editorial or other professional jobs. Recent graduates have authored more than 22 books and have received at least eight prestigious national awards or fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Rona Jaffe). A unique strength of the M.F.A. in Nonfiction, which sets it off from competing programs, is that its position within the English Department gives students the opportunity to ground their writing in literary and cultural study in a way that deepens and expands their work.

The report gives us a number of things to mull over. Could we, for instance, reduce the number of students admitted to the Ph.D. while better targeting those who actually enroll (For AY 2009-2010, 212 applied, 42 were admitted, and 20 accepted)? Doing so would improve our selectivity scores while also making for a more efficient recruitment effort. Are there, to take another instance, ways to speed the time to degree for Ph.D. students? At seven years, it’s better than the national median for English Ph.D. programs (at a whopping nine years), but still longer than many of us (and certainly the Graduate College) would like. Recent efforts to limit financial support to six years for those admitted with a B.A. and five years for those with an M.A. or a Presidential Fellowship combined with special funding from the Graduate College that allows us to offer a course release to students who are making timely progress towards their prospectus should help. And if we ever have extra funding again, the ability to offer post-doc teaching might also encourage swifter completion of the degree, providing an incentive to finish even in a rough job market.

Those and other questions are certainly worth thinking over as we move forward, and as we train our current crop of graduate students. In the spirit of resourcefulness for which we are known, under the guidance of Teresa Mangum, the department’s Graduate Placement committee (Miriam Gilbert, Susan Lohafer, and Dave Wittenberg) has begun its work of preparing students for the job market. One of the committee’s first initiative is a panel discussion to be held this Saturday, September 26, 1:00-2:00 in Gerber Lounge. The panel’s topic is how to apply for jobs at Liberal Arts colleges. The panelists include: Leslie Kathleen Hankins, Professor of English at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon; Gina Hausknecht, Professor of English at Coe College in Cedar Rapids; and Mary Vermillion, an alumnus of our own graduate program, Professor of English at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids.

I suspect we’ll be returning to discussion of graduate matters again this semester or next, particularly once we learn what the Task Force has to report about our report. In the meantime, if you have further thoughts on these or other questions about our graduate programs, I’m sure that Claire Fox or Robin Hemley would be happy to hear them. And if you would like to share your views on graduate issues in a larger forum, the Task Force on Graduate Education is holding two open forums, on Tuesday, October 13, 4:00-5:00 in the Old Capitol Bldg and Friday, October 16, 12:30-1:30, in Shambaugh Auditorium.

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