By Sophie Foster
Opinion Editor
The journalism, editing, and publishing minor arrived at Washington College more than five years ago, and its popularity immediately rose.
The College’s website pinpoints the strengthening of skills in “critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis” as well as “increased creativity and clarity of expression through a study of writing in a range of different styles and modes” as valuable components of the minor that incorporate factors of journalism, editing, and publishing as subjects all at once.
The minor was originally introduced “due to a rising interest in journalism and publications among the students” which was evidenced by “the large amount of students enrolling in classes like [literary editing and publishing] with Dr. James Hall,” which is almost always a full class with a waitlist, according to previous Elmcoverage.
According to Associate Chair of the English Department and Director of the JEP Minor Dr. Elizabeth O’Connor, the minor currently has 24 students enrolled, making it among the five most popular minors at the College. As a relatively young minor, and the English department’s first pre-professional minor, it is ever-developing, and there is still space for it to improve as we look toward future semesters.
Today, the department is approaching the minor with an investment in increasing course offerings, such as Assistant Professor of English Sufiya Abdur-Rahman’s new advanced journalism workshop course this semester. According to Dr. O’Connor, Prof. Abdur-Rahman’s visiting line was recently converted to tenure track, which the department is “so grateful” for, because it promises “some stability with the future of this minor.”
Junior Brionna O’Dell, who is enrolled in the course, also took Dr. O’Connor’s introduction to journalism and Dr. Hall’s literary editing and publishing classes.
“When I declared a JEP minor, it was because I was more interested in the editing and publishing side of things. Now, I am more interested in journalism, but it would have been nice to focus on editing and publishing,” O’Dell said.
This division of interest implies that there may be a need to split the programs into two separate minors to more thoroughly address the differing investments of different students at the College.
On a basic level, intertwining the elements of journalism, editing, and publishing into area of study that interlocks their comparable qualities allows students to dip their toes into unfamiliar areas and build fresh interest in subjects they may not otherwise have been well-acquainted with. A student originally interested in journalism may gain an interest in editing and publishing, or, as in O’Dell’s case, vice versa.
“We thought that this was a distinctive pairing that was — and still is — unique among our peer and aspirant institutions…Although some students concentrate on either the journalism or publishing side of the minor, the goal is offer classes in both,” Dr. O’Connor said.
According to previous Elm coverage, “by structuring the minor this way, students can incorporate their own interests within the program and craft it to suit them.”
The converse of this is that some might feel their studies of an area of particular passion or interest are not as prominent as those of the other region of the minor. Currently, more courses are being offered in journalism than in editing and publishing.
“I think it would be better if journalism was a separate minor from editing and publishing,” O’Dell said, adding that she would like to see courses on how publishing works and more visiting publishing professionals. “Right now, I feel like the minor is mostly geared towards journalism and editing. I would love to see more courses focused on publishing.”
According to Dr. O’Connor, O’Dell is not a solitary voice of this belief. Last fall, when a survey and external review were conducted, the department received students’ insights into courses they hoped to see offered and saw a pronounced desire for more class offerings in editing and publishing in particular.
“We intend to continue expanding our offerings as faculty availability allows,” Chair of the English Department Dr. Courtney Rydel said.
According to Dr. Rydel, examples of this expansion include Prof. Abdur-Rahman’s aforementioned advanced journalism workshop, as well as her classes in journalism ethics and narrative journalism. It also includes a course to be taught by Dr. O’Connor in fall 2024 on digital humanities editing using Sophie Kerr’s works to produce new online editions.
“Our goal is to continue offering as many classes as we can given our staffing constraints,” Dr. O’Connor said. “Over the past eight years, we have occasionally offered some additional publishing and book arts classes and would like to continue to grow these classes, especially in relation to publishing and technical writing.”
“Staffing constraints” is the operative phrase. The reality is that the number of faculty members in the English department is highly limited, and that nearly every professor is overworked, forced to split their time across a variety of different initiatives, many of them teaching several courses each.
The English major itself requires regular offerings in introductory English studies, pre-1800s literature, and post-1800s literature, as well as elective courses and first-year and junior seminars.
Additionally, the creative writing minor is the College’s second most popular minor, according to Dr. O’Connor, and requires the department to keep up with offerings in introductory writing courses and a mixture of upper-level workshops.
Equally important to factor in is the reality that much of the English department’s professors have other responsibilities. Dr. Alisha Knight recently became Associate Provost of Diversity and Inclusion and Senior Equity Officer. Dr. Hall, Professor Roy Kesey, and Professor Amber Taliancich all fill primary roles as the staff of the Rose O’Neill Literary House. Both Dr. Rydel and Dr. O’Connor have administrative and facilitative responsibilities as chair and associate chair of the English department.
All of this combined means it is very difficult to ensure simultaneous offerings in journalism, editing, and publishing all together, and nearly impossible to suggest this minor, at present, should be split in two.
“Students can tell their advisors what courses they’re interested in taking, note on course evaluations their appreciation for these types of courses — those are official college records — and take our current offerings,” Dr. Rydel said. “If we have robust enrollment in JEP courses, it makes it easier for us to offer more such courses in the future.”
Rather than splitting up a popular minor into two separate categorizations, students should continue to advocate for courses that compel them. In an alternate reality where WC had thousands of students instead of hundreds, or a longer list of English faculty, there might be more of a case for it, but that is not the current reality, nor is it likely to become so.
Keeping the minor as one cohesive region of study invites students to build discernment, flex uncommonly utilized muscles, and test the waters of studies they previously were not embedded in. Pushing student journalists to become tactful editors and student editors to become more skilled journalists is, certainly, a good thing.
Ultimately, it is up to students to make themselves heard on the subject of which course offerings they would like to see offered next — fortunately, the department is in the hands of those who are more than willing to receive that feedback.
Elm Archive Photo
Photo caption: The majority of English department courses are offered in William Smith Hall.