Director of Undergraduate Studies, U of A

Word has just officially come down: for the next two years, I'll be the new Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) for the University of Arizona's English Department. The following is a daunting list of all the tasks now my responsibility:

• Assess and evaluate undergraduate course curriculum and course scheduling
• Provide support and coordination for English Honors program
• Manage undergraduate scholarships
• Coordinate assessment, undergraduate
• Address student inquiries, complaints, and requests
• Work closely with academic advising team to anticipate and address student needs
• Collaborate with Program Coordinator on undergraduate matters
• Write newsletter
• Create and run activities related to recruitment and retention
• Lead meetings: UGCC, Collaborative English Team

Honestly, I'm rather shocked that I got the position. After all, I'm a mere lecturer ....contingent faculty ... for one of the largest English Departments in the entire country (and for a top-tier R1 research institution, no less). This kind of position is normally the bread-and-butter of the tenure track folk. Indeed, I'm the first contingent faculty to ever hold the position -- it even took a change to our department's constitution, just a few weeks ago, to even grant people of my rank eligibility for the post.

It's a telling sign of the times, though. Tenure-track positions are cratering everywhere in the humanities; my own department has lost something like 25% of its TT positions in the last eight years alone. Not only is contingent labor becoming the new normal, but we'll also be shouldering a larger proportion of the important administrative loads that TT faculty used to handle in more prosperous times. It's a credit to my department, though, that they were willing to change with the times to allow CT faculty to apply.

A few other factors worked in my favor:

• Our Gen Ed program is undergoing a major restructuring right now, and because my Monsters course is a Gen. Ed., I'm actually pretty up-to-date with all the refresh requirements.
• Obviously, I produce a lot of research ... and unlike many CT faculty at the university, I got my degree from somewhere other than the U of A.
• I was the only applicant for the job (!).

The last point is rather amusing .... but not actually surprising. For reasons known only to upper admin in their infinite wisdom, they decided to eliminate the stipend normally associated with being DUS -- a position that involves what colloquially may be called a "shit-ton" of work. (It also comes with two course releases.) Thanks to that eliminated stipend, our chair decided to create a new position, Associate Head, that'll assume some of the former responsibilities DUS and herself, but still, nobody but me applied. Professionally speaking, I'm hoping this will boost my credentials so that I can finally, maybe, get a tenure-track job somewhere. ... but the upshot, at least for upper admin, is that they're now getting a DUS who only makes a fraction of what the TT folk make.

Still, I'm cautiously excited for this position. It's a lot of work and responsibility, but I'll definitely feel more involved in the department, and it'll be a fantastic, exciting opportunity to help shape our undergraduate program. Rather than being a hardworking but rather anonymous member of the contingent faculty, I can now get involved with the fantastic work being done by my colleagues in programs other than the Writing Program. While my inner Marxist cannot help but notice the increasingly exploitative labor realities of the neo-liberal university, I'm personally quite eager to tackle everything now on my plate.