The undersigned members of the English department regret that Professor Harry White, in a recent issue of The Independent, resorted to airing his scholarly and pedagogical differences with his colleagues in a public manner, expressing them in the forms of insult and personal animosity rather than in the spirit of academic argument based on mutual respect. Professor White’s claims were grossly distorted; we disavow what he said, and we lament his disrespect to both colleagues and students. We also regret that his inaccuracies have led to other letters that repeat false statements about our faculty and our MA Program. We hope students realize that the claims White made about his colleagues’ attitudes toward students are not consistent with the thought, care, and hard work we put into our teaching. We invite students who have concerns about his comments to feel free to speak to any of us.
Sincerely, Tim Barnett, Debra Bruce-Kinnebrew, Vicki Byard, Chi Eze, Bradley Greenburg, Sandra Hunt, Julie Kim, Tim Libretti, Kristen Over, Tim Scherman, Christopher Schroeder, Donald L. Hoffman, Professor Emeritus