Prof. Kuypers's Letter

By Professor Jim Kuypers | Friday, April 22, 2005

11 April 2005

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The 2004-2005 academic year is my last at Dartmouth; I have accepted a tenure position with Virginia Tech's Department of Communication. As many of you know, for a decade I have been the only faculty member in Speech. As each year passes it is increasingly easy for the faculty deans to accept this deplorable situation as the tradition here. With the praiseworthy exceptions of Deans Mary Jean Green and Barry Scherr, all other deans to whom I've reported have utterly failed to address the situation, willfully ignoring the directive of the Trustees of the College: Jim Wright, Ed Berger, Jamshed Barucha, Michael Gazzaniga, Carol Folt, and Lenore Grenoble. Each has failed to act; each was apprised of the situation: <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~speech/deanletter.html>. For nine years I was told there were no funds for new faculty; this year I'm told speech is taught all over the College. Both statements beg credulity.

To be fair, Dean Gazzaniga eventually met with me spring 2004, promised to give the situation his "active attention," and then resigned two weeks later. I met in the fall of 2004 with Deans Folt and Grenoble; this meeting convinced me that I must leave Dartmouth College. In this meeting Dean Folt displayed what I personally consider to be a superficial understanding of the role of the Humanities in Higher Education; moreover, she appeared, in my professional opinion, to be utterly ignorant of the role of rhetoric within a liberal arts tradition. She went so far as to say that she taught speech in her science classes, so it was presumptuous of me to imply I was the only one teaching speech at Dartmouth College. Seemingly as an afterthought came the Sunday punch: she resolutely stated that she had limited resources, and that were she to have extra, she would not give any to speech.

In my opinion, Dean Grenoble has consistently neglected speech concerns, so I was not surprised by the comments she made in this meeting. Responding to my statement that the Trustees had specified the number of speech courses to be offered each year, Dean Grenoble replied, "Why can't you get it through your head that" those rules no longer apply? I tried to explain that no contravening event had occurred to change the Trustee mandate, but Dean Grenoble interjected: "those were the old rules; if you don't like them, then you don't have to sign your contract." Dean Folt smiled and nodded her assent. I found myself in the dangerous waters between Scylla and Charibidis.

In the wake of that meeting, I knew that no support would be forthcoming from the Dean's office. Dean Grenoble had actually refused to read and consider my winter 2004 faculty supplement record, so her behavior in the fall 2004 meeting only confirmed what I had suspected. It was made abundantly clear in that meeting that any attempt to better my position or the standing of Speech would be looked upon with grave displeasure. I saw little other recourse than to move on.

I informed the Dean of the Faculty office on 23 February that I was resigning my position; to date I have no knowledge of any plans for hiring a replacement. I fear Speech's long history here at Dartmouth College will draw now to a close. Rhetoric has been taught here since the founding of the College; its formalization into an independent department in 1920 brought the very best minds in the discipline to Dartmouth. Sixty years later, the study of rhetoric weathered the abolition of its home department. It simply cannot, however, weather both ignorance and indifference. How ironic, that at an institution which so prides itself on its liberal arts tradition, the study of rhetoric—one of the original Trivium—is so misunderstood, marginalized, ignored, and even reviled. I fear for our students when such illiberal attitudes prevail.

My time here has been a blessing. My students have been wonderful, and I've met many fine persons. There have been some truly loyal friends of Speech; I'll remember each of them fondly, and with an appreciative air.

"Although strength should fail, the effort will deserve praise. In great enterprises the attempt is enough."
Sextus Aurelius Propertius, Elegioe

Farewell Dartmouth,

Jim A. Kuypers

Prof. Kuypers's Letter

Article Tools

Related Articles