Spreading the Good News

Rosemary Feal, the MLA's executive director, came up to say hello in the lobby while I was sitting there staring off into space. She assumed (she said) that I was contemplating something profound. In fact it was just that my sinuses are stuffed up, probably from all that time on airplanes this week.

Anyway, this seemed like a good chance to ask a question worth trying out on various people over the next couple of days: So is there any good news?

This seems like a productively counterintuitive query, given recent developments -- not least those announced by the MLA itself.

"We have an unprecedented number of sessions on teaching," she said. "People always complain that MLA panels have nothing to do with the classroom, so I think that counts as good news."

She then started talking about a workshop she was just about to attend. Here let's just quote her from the blog she is keeping at the MLA website:

"Over sixty community college faculty members have gathered at the Hilton for a workshop designed especially for them. The MLA’s Committee on Community Colleges came up with the idea for this workshop as a way of serving the needs of community college faculty members, who have asked us for more convention sessions that are relevant to what they do. The Executive Council received this idea enthusiastically and set aside funds to support session applicants so they could attend....It’s good to see colleagues who have been members of the Committee on Community Colleges. They share a special relationship, since they are in the minority among MLA members. Too often, community college colleagues suppose that the MLA does not provide enough of what they need to justify being members."

She told me that that there were fifty slots for the workshop (and twenty people on a waiting list, should someone cancel). She also said that the MLA provided $300 per person to help cover the travel expenses.

Community college enrollment is likely to grow as a result of the economic crisis. So I am told by people who know these things. By all means let's bring together as many CC faculty as possible so they can hear about Giorgio Agamben. That'll cheer everybody up!