CCSN splits up English faculty

Shaunta Grimes

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999 | 11:27 a.m.

A reorganization of the Community College of Southern Nevada English Department, the first department to be divided by campus, is causing some sparks, but officials say things should settle down in the next week.

"Whenever you have people of passion and dedication together, there will be some disagreements," Dr. Robert Silverman, senior vice president for academic affairs, said.

The English department voted Dec. 6 to split the 38 members into two departments, one on the Cheyenne campus and one on the Charleston campus. The decision left the future of the five-member Henderson campus to be considered, Dr. Don Smith, dean of arts and letters, said.

The plan for Henderson is to form an interdisciplinary department comprising the campus' English, human behavior, international language and speech instructors, Smith said.

An interdisciplinary department would give Henderson a stronger leadership presence and help the smaller college form its own identity, Smith said. Having an interdisciplinary department, rather than allowing Henderson to be tied to one of the other campuses' English department, would give the college more say in operational matters and scheduling, he said.

The proposed Henderson department would also mean that students at that campus would have a chairperson on campus. Until now the students had to go to one of the larger campuses to speak with a professor's supervisor.

There has been some concern about the high level of communication and cooperation required for an interdisciplinary department to work, Smith said. There can only be one chair for the department, so there is no way around part of the department being chaired by a professor from a different discipline.

"There is concern that mixing disciplines is a problem, that the chair will only represent one discipline," Smith said. "I don't think that will happen."

Representatives from the Faculty Senate, which is scheduled to discuss the reorganization on Friday, were not available for comment.

The English instructors at the Henderson campus are backing the department split and the interdisciplinary department.

"The administration is doing the right thing for the students on the Henderson campus," Janice Reid, a Henderson campus English professor, said. "It will make it possible for the students who want to talk to the department chair to talk to the professor's supervisor and not have to go to West Charleston or Cheyenne. Students don't do that."

Reid pointed out that most other CCSN departments are interdisciplinary: Fine arts encompasses speech, theater, music, and visual arts. Behavioral sciences has psychology, sociology and anthropology.

"English and math are such huge disciplines, they dominate their departments," she said.

Faculty from other campuses also seem to support the interdisciplinary department. "I can only speak for the West Charleston campus. We agree that it is a lovely idea." Sylvia Cara-Monica, an English professor at the Charleston campus, said. "I haven't heard any complaints from Cheyenne either. It will give them (Henderson) the profile they need and a voice in a way they never have before," said

The final decision to form the Henderson campus interdisciplinary department is expected to come down within the week, Silverman said. "The college is not being reorganized. There was a faculty request to split the English department and a faculty request for an interdisciplinary department. We are working on meeting both of these requests."

Despite the concerns about the interdisciplinary department, Smith said he believes Henderson campus will grow within the next three to five years to where its English department is big enough to stand on its own.