MMLA affiliation review at Iowa

[Kathryn Remlinger]

Greetings all,

Below is message from Kathleen Diffley of the MMLA about the loss MMLA's affiliation with the University of Iowa. MMLA has generously held the ADS Midwest regional meetings over the years. Any support--either by writing a letter or by suggesting other possible university affiliations--that you can offer could help the situation. The message includes all the details. If you'd like me to send you the attachment she refers to, let me know.

Many thanks,
Kate

*******
From:   <kathleen-diffley at uiowa.edu>    Wednesday - July 11, 2007 9:25 PM
To:     <remlingk at gvsu.edu>
Subject:        M/MLA affiliation review at Iowa

Dear Kate,

Because you have been active in the M/MLA for a good long stretch, I
thought you might want to know that things have not gone well this
past year, thanks to an unexpected report.  After more than 40 years,
the University of Iowa has decided to withdraw its support from the
Midwest Modern Language Association.  More specifically, Iowa's CLAS
dean now wants to reclaim the graduate research assistant, the Program
Associate, the ED's two-course release, and the M/MLA's space.

This is a bolt from the blue.  What began as a review of fiscally
ailing journals in the English Department, which only included the
*M/MLA Journal* because of the grad RA, has turned into code blue for
the M/MLA and salvation for everyone else.  Fortunately, after much
arguing the dean has reluctantly postponed termination until August
2008.

For what it's worth, recent performance does not seem to be the issue;
rather, it's too many undergrads to teach at a time when budgets have
been cut sharply.  Nevertheless, the M/MLA now faces an uncertain
future that includes convention hotel contracts signed through 2010,
all of them with stiff cancellation penalties.

Everyone in the office and on the EC is in shock and casting about for
reasonable responses.  You too, I'm guessing.  Because you might be
interested in how widely affiliation support actually varies across
the country, I'm attaching a table that details conversations this
spring with the EDs and editors at the five other regional MLAs.

In a nutshell, things are rosier to the south, harsher to the west.
At the moment, three regionals (SAMLA, M/MLA, RMMLA) house both
journal and convention in the same dept at the same university; the
other half have split those operations but relatively recently.  Until
1999, as I understand it, PAMLA was housed entirely at Pepperdine;
until the last few years, SCMLA enjoyed remarkable and seemingly
permanent funding at Texas A&M, which now supports only the journal.

If there is a future for regional MLAs, financial independence seems
to be the key, and creative ideas seem to be the ticket.  You can see
at a glance that I haven't put a price on course releases, the very
expenditures that have apparently incensed the dean.  Should the M/MLA
consider turning stipends into buyouts, despite other affiliation
arrangements?  Perhaps seek university press support for the journal,
as SCMLA's *South Central Review* has at Johns Hopkins UP?  More
drastically, is it time to split up the convention and the journal?
You can bet I have already contacted Rosemary Feal, and she is taking
the situation to the MLA board.  But in this rattled moment, got
thoughts?

Come September, I will meet with Dean Maxson, who could at least
guarantee that the M/MLA will not dissolve while affiliation
arrangements elsewhere are underway and hotel contracts still need to
be honored.  With that in mind and on the chance that you might know
of a department or institution that could be interested in an M/MLA
future, I'm also attaching the brief self-study this year's review
mandated.  If you'd like to see the appendices noted in passing, let
me know.  Naturally I'd also be happy to detail current finances
(which are good) and the M/MLA's truly modest needs, which run to
roughly $50-70K plus space--or half that if the convention and the
journal go separate ways.

Meanwhile, perhaps a message of consternation to the dean, especially
after so many decades of recognition?  She may be reached at
linda-maxson at uiowa.edu, and you can guess that she might appreciate
knowing about the nature and extent of your involvement.  It would be
a further kindness to copy the M/MLA (mmla at uiowa.edu) so the office
has a sense of what the dean is hearing.

The report I've received suggests that the *M/MLA Journal* represents
too little bang for the buck--or, more exactly, too little prestige
for the penny, even with the addition of the annual convention.
Perhaps here, too, both the self-study and the record of institutional
support across the regional MLAs might be of use.  The issue seems to
be what a Research 1 institution should rightly support as well as
what constituency the M/MLA should rightly serve.

Any help you can provide--contacting the dean on behalf of the
Association, making inquiries about a possible new home (or homes), or
offering advice about how the M/MLA might move toward more solid
footing--would be welcome.  If I can lend a hand, just let me know.
Otherwise, I'm simply--well, stunned.

Yours in dismay,
kathleen

Kathryn Remlinger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English: Linguistics
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, Michigan
tel: 616-331-3122
fax: 616-331-3430

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