April 24, 2025

3pm

Room C333 and remote

Attendees:      Rob Cowan, Annie Del Principe, Amy Karp, Brian Katz, John Keller, Andie Sheridan, Eben Wood

Following announcements, the first agenda item was the planned discussion of course offerings, modalities of courses, and faculty governance with English Dept. Chair Annie Del Principe. Annie explained the complex factors informing her decisions on course offerings and modalities, particularly now that the LA concentration status will affect enrollment. Brian offered his perspective based on the data from past semesters with regard to modalities and the running of courses. Such data is useful but, as Annie reiterated, we are entering new territory so we will see how the concentration affects these issues in order to make informed decisions going forward.

Brian raised the issue of what options will be open to concentrators in CW if a given course does not run and they need that course to fulfill the concentration. As Annie pointed out, given our regular offerings of concentration-required courses, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Related issues discussed were the potential conflicts with other departments or concentrations regarding online and hybrid courses as well as faculty experience within the program over course offerings and modalities. While these decisions fall ultimately to the department chair, Annie affirmed her desire to work closely with the CW program to assess data and discuss options for upcoming semesters.

Annie left the meeting at 3:30 and we moved to the second agenda item, the proposed program governance structure, election cycle, etc. Due to the low turnout for the meeting, we agreed to table this discussion until our next and final meeting of the spring 2025 semester. We tentatively agreed that a 3-year term for the program or area director was a likely outcome, and discussed whether that election cycle should coincide with that of the Lit. Program’s election or to stagger those two cycles. Eben will circulate a proposal for the governance structure and election cycle prior to the final meeting (date TBA) that can be discussed, amended if necessary, or otherwise altered prior to voting at that final meeting.

The third item was the Creative Writing Awards updates and selection of candidates. As Eben stated, he had just gotten an update from the English Dept. Awards Committee rep, Megan O’Neill, just minutes before the meeting. We are still working to determine what money is available and which awards we can offer, but the deadline for getting award recipient names to the college is approaching (it is the first week in May). We will also be working to develop a more clear and proactive deadline system for next year and beyond to help streamline and clarify this process.

The final item on the agenda was a thank-you and follow up discussion of the Kimiko Hahn and Nicole Cooley reading on Tuesday 4/22. Organized by Rob Cowan and co-sponsored by the Literature and Creative Writing Programs, this was a very well-attended, exciting event, with copies of both poets’ books provided with support from KCC’s Student Union and Intercultural Center, coordinated with Helen Nasser. Congratulations and thanks to Rob on this great success. We will be discussing future readings and student events in our final spring meeting.

Andie Sheridan provided some updates on the re-boot of the Creative Writing Club, which Andie is graciously working on with a current student of Amy Karp who is a former youth poet laureate of NYC. Andie and the student are currently organizing a first meeting and creating publicity fliers for that event in conjunction with the Office of Student Life, date and time TBD. The student will also be enrolled at KCC at least through the fall 2025 term, so there is some flexibility with getting the club up and running at this point in time. Again, Andie, thanks so much for your work on this.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00pm.