Yesterday afternoon, the town hall meeting held to discuss
the findings of two curricular reports on
Marshall
Dimensions of Culture writing program erupted in a string of public accusations
that TMC Provost Alan Havis and D.O.C. Director Abraham Shragge were failing to
commit to the reports’ recommendations and quality undergraduate education.
At the meeting, UCSD students and faculty members posed
questions to a panel composed of members of the student-run Academic Council of
Excellence, the Faculty Curricular Committee and Provost Havis about the
content, pedagogy and administrative practices of the D.O.C. program. Some of
the structural concerns raised included the absence of ladder-rank faculty,
shortage of educational resources, controversial content material and the lack
of collaboration among faculty and teaching assistants.
A.C.E. and FCC — curricular committees charged with
evaluating the writing program — recently released two comprehensive reports
suggesting a mass overhaul of the program.
The release of the reports has fueled further criticism and
protest against Shragge, who in a controversial move to not rehire two D.O.C.
teaching assistants last spring quarter.
At a climactic point during the forum, UCSD literature
profesor Luis Cabrera called to have Shragge ousted from his administrative
position, claiming that Shragge’s dismissal was needed in order to successfully
enact the recommendations outlined by the
reports.
Scott Boehm, one of the two D.O.C. teaching assistants
dismissed last year, said that Shragge has worsened many of the weaknesses
associated with the writing program.
“Shragge’s silence on the curriculum committee report, just
like his obstinacy during the D.O.C. conflict last spring, further demonstrates
how out of touch he is with campus consensus that D.O.C must change,” Boehm
said.
Other audience members voiced concerns that the TMC and
D.O.C. administrations would fail to implement the changes in the report,
especially because executive decisions regarding changes to the structure of an
undergraduate writing course require the creation of an implementation
committee.
Literature professor Jorge Mariscal said that the TMC
administration should act now rather than continue to debate changes to the
program.
“Pre-emptive action, not more committees, will go a long way
to creating the space that you mentioned in your commitment to implement the
changes made by the faculty committee,” Mariscal said.
Havis, however, reassured concerned audience members
that TMC administrators were taking the
necessary measures in following implementation procedures.
“Doing a meeting like today is good faith that we are in
change,” he said. “Doing a meeting like today [means] that we are thinking of
the implementation of the report. We project perhaps too much pessimism about
next year or in next two months. This is really bad thinking in my idea because
we are going forward. We have to have the willingness to believe that the
process is unfolding.”
Despite these reassurances, many TMC faculty members
continued to voice their doubts over the effective implementation of the two
curricular reports’ findings.
History professor David Gutierrez, chair of FCC, said that
the current D.O.C. faculty would have to be cleaned out in order to facilitate
the future realization of the curriculum reports’ recommendations.
A number of D.O.C. TAs have expressed that under the current
administration they feel unwelcome and discouraged from expressing curricular
suggestions to faculty members for fear of hostile reaction to their ideas.
“I feel that there has been an atmosphere of hostility,”
D.O.C. lecturer Lynn Ta said. “In fact, I was told that my suggestions were
quote ‘horseshit.’ This is extremely unprofessional to me.”
