Dear President Cotton,

I was disappointed to hear that FlexFaculty did not have a chance to meet with Gingrich and Associates, during their visit to campus last week. And while we are all pleased to hear that additional ways to stop up revenue leaks and to build a more sturdy financial outlook are being developed that build off last year’s report from the Heritage Foundation, we still cannot help but have some concerns specific to our own unique situation.  Gingrich and Associates recommended that we reframe our financial imperative as part of a deeper move to sustainabilitize campus by reducing our dependence on foreign and polluting oils and gases. And while we laud the Willard College community, including the main  the Harriet Tubman campus, and its decision to reduce use of personal vehicles by charging for parking, we note that this forms a regressive charge on lower paid employees. But of special concern to us is the new credit card controls of the bathroom facilities. Although I have not seen this personally, I understand that most FlexFaculty now bring mason jars to the office in order to relieve themselves. In addition to the humiliation, you would no doubt agree that this presents the campus with issue of hygiene and public health. And these problems are aggravated by the fact that FlexFaculty often share their offices with upwards of 5 to 6 other instructors. I hope we can find a reasonable solution to these challenges.

Sincerely, Hammond Phillip Phillips, PhD

Dear  Howard,

I agree with the sentiment of your recent letter. It was not appropriate for a faculty member outside of English to offer a course on Moby Dick. This was aggravated by the inflammatory title of the course, “Hating Moby Dick: Not Reading Melville in America.” I agree that such a course hardly speaks well of Willard College and it does little to help the embattled humanities. Moreover, it is understandable that a scholar such as yourself, who spent his career publishing books like “Knots: Ropes as Metaphor in Moby Dick” and “Why Were there no Women on the Pequod?: Moby Dick as Degendered Literary Space” would find the “Hating Moby Dick” course a slap in the face.

But let me also remind you that the new Faculty Curriculum Freedom Policy does stipulate that neither the College administration nor individual departments may prevent faculty from teaching any course that meets the basic curricular and assessment requirements. Furthermore, one suspects that you and the professor of record for the course, have what some consider to be a rather long and personal feud.

I hope that the two of you can resolve this without resorting to either mediation, or lawyers, as happened last year. I would also ask that you not send your letter to the New York Times or other media outlets as the topic at hand is not of national concern in anyway that I can discern.

Have a great weekend, Henry Cotton

Prison 2 (Photo credit: planetschwa)

Dear Colleagues,  The Willard College Educational Excellence Enterprise, Inc. is excited to be collaborating with the Sylvester County Unified School District to begin conducting reading evaluations of all third graders as part of a pilot program with the State Boards of Prisons around the nation to help them better plan for prisons, youth detention facilities, and half-way houses.

Beyond simply using the reading scores to predict incarcerated populations, we hope to develop metrics that can help the state to predict the types of crimes to be committed, while also providing profiles of certain criminal traits.

We have total buy-in from Sylvester County Unified School District, which has implemented a new reading campaign, Third Graders are Readers in Sylvester County Unified School District. Reading and testing materials have been requisitioned through Pearson, the school supplier of choice.

Helping local children to achieve their dreams! And building Willard College brands throughout the nation!

Best, President Henry Cotton