Fostering dialogue for a handful of students, alumni and administrators, the Middlebury College Student Government Association (SGA) Diversity Committee sponsored a sparsely attended forum for anti-defamation on Tuesday evening in Mead Chapel. The forum

Author: Derek Schlickeisen

Three months after Middlebury's faculty voted to merge the major programs in American Literature and English, opinions remain mixed as to whether the move was a good one. Proponents say the new Department of English and American Literatures reinvigorates an awkwardly organized literature program, while critics decry the loss of a curricular distinction unique to Middlebury.

Beginning with the class of 2010, the major in American Literature will cease to exist. The new English and American Literatures major will limit to six the number of American literature courses that students may take to satisfy their major requirements. In addition, majors will be required to take a number of introductory courses introducing them to the "founding texts and authors of the tradition in English," according to a statement on the department's Web site.

Supporters of the merger held that, under the current system of divided American and English literature programs, majors in one program of study are not exposed to material from the other program. Reginald L. Cook Professor of American Literature Brett Millier, who first proposed the merger, argues that the reorganized major program means that "something awkward and wrong is being set right, finally."

Millier said she believes that most, if not all, students who have already declared majors in American Literature will choose to complete the requirements for that major. In contrast, Millier said the department is encouraging students who have declared English majors to re-declare English and American Literatures majors, as they will have already completed many of the required courses.

Associate Professor of American Literature and Civilization Michael Newbury noted that, "the faculty of both departments will be entirely supportive of any student's desire to complete the new major."

Preliminary descriptions for the 2006-2007 Course Catalog were due this past Friday, March 10. Said Professor of English Cates Baldridge, the new department "will be mounting a large, diverse and robust group of courses in American Literature next year, as well as several new courses in British Literature."

According to Fulton Professor of American Literature Stephen Donadio, however, the plan for reorganizing the American Literature and English requires "no change whatsoever in the structure of [the English Department] or of the requirements for a major in English." Donadio, a staunch opponent of the merger, voiced his opinion in the November 2005 Opinions pages of The Middlebury Campus recently said that the intervening three months between the vote and Friday's submission of revised course offerings have not changed his opinion. The merger was "vague in its intentions and devastating in its impact," said Donadio.

Students have reacted in as mixed a manner as their professors. "I trust the professors who petitioned for the merge," said American Literature major Amanda Tavel '07. "I trust that it is crucial to place American literature in a broader context - that you cannot look at the U.S. in isolation." Tavel added, however, that she wondered what the merger said about the value of those alumni holding degrees in American Literature. "What do you tell the previous generations of Midd alumni who devoted their undergraduate education to a program that is now seen as insufficient?" she asked.

Fellow major Eli Menaker '08 said he did not view the major quite as favorably.

"The American Literature department was another unique aspect of Middlebury College that is being assimilated into the mainstream," he said. "I think it's unfortunate that the administration believes it is better to reshape the College and make us similar to other schools."