Meeting Minutes

Present: Jamie Skye Bianco, Jaime Cleland, Jessica DeCoux, Robert Diaz, Denell Downum, Sean Egan, Lauren Elkin, Lise Esdaile, Rachel Ihara, Kate Moss, Audrey Raden, Tyler Schmidt, Devin Zuber

1. Committee Reports:
2. Course Assessment Committee- Devin Zuber noted that each semester some courses are not evaluated. For instance, there were no student evaluations available for the two classes that David Kazanjian taught at the Graduate Center. In order to ensure student evaluation of all courses, the course assessment committee will send out a call for student volunteers earlier in the semester, students may be asked to conduct evaluations before the final class, and evaluation forms will be made available via the listserv for those who were unable to complete the form in class. Students who have evaluation forms from previous semesters are encouraged to hand them in to Devin Zuber or to other members of the course assessment committee.
3. Curriculum Committee- Audrey Raden reported that the Curriculum Committee met and determined that the required theory course should stand. Since there is some concern that the course lacks uniformity, faculty teaching this class have been asked to submit a course description to the Executive Officer. In addition, faculty at the Curriculum Committee meeting noted that students are not performing as well on the poetry portion of the ñrst comprehensive exam as on the rest of the examination. This led the Curriculum Committee to recommend that a non~required course devoted to the close reading of poetry be added in the fall.
4. Website Committee- Sean Egan reported that the Website Committee is updating the pages on faculty bios and updating information regarding student groups.
5. Faculty Membership Committee- Kate Moss reported on the most recent Faculty Membership Committee meeting. A full report of that meeting is forthcoming on the ESA listserv.
6. Elections Committee- Rachel Ihara presented several possible amendments to the ESA Bylaws intended to make the elections process run more smoothly. These proposals will be posted to the listserv for discussion and will be voted on at the December meeting.
7. ESA Conference: Jessica DeCouX reported on the current status of the ESA Conference. The conference will be held on March 26″’. A CFP is currently available on the Penn State website and an additional CFP will be sent out to the ESA listserv.
8. Changes to the Election of Conference Co-Chairs and Topics: During the last meeting James Hoff proposed a new procedure for selecting the conference chairs and conference topic. Those in attendance at the last meeting seemed interested in electing the conference co-chairs and conference topic in the spring elections rather than in an online discussion at the beginning of the fall semester followed by a vote at an ESA meeting. At the last meeting there was some disagreement about whether the topic and the co-chairs should be elected separately or as a unit. Following up on this issue, Rachel Ihara presented three versions of the proposals to be discussed on the listserv and voted on at the next meeting. Discussion of this topic was not renewed during the November 7 meeting and Lise Esdaile expressed reservations about altering the current method of selecting co-chairs and topics since selection of a conference topic and co-chairs went smoothly this semester.
9. Winter Revels: The Winter Revels will be on December 19 following the Friday Forum. Unless an alternative site is proposed revels will be held in the English Department lounge. The disadvantage of holding revels at a different location is that we are not allowed to bring our own food and drink into other rooms at the Graduate Center. The $199.66 left over from last semester has been used to purchase wine and hard alcohol for the upcoming revels. However there is an additional $586 in DSC funds that must be spent this semester. Denell Downum proposed that the ESA hire a tango teacher to give lessons. There was some discussion of renting a dance floor for the English Department lounge. If students have other suggestions for this semester’s revels they should speak up on the listserv and/or bring their proposals to the next ESA meeting on December 5^th.

Thank you to everyone who attended.