Beach gone M.I.A.
On Wednesday, September 25, students in Professor Jensen Beach’s Literature Survey course received an announcement in their online class forum. The message was from Kristi Castleberry, an English professor housed on the VTSU Lyndon Campus. In it, she told students that she would be taking over as the new instructor of the class, and that it would now be taught asynchronously. Students would soon find that this was just one of all of Beach’s courses to be re-assigned, with similar messages being sent to students over the next couple of days.
Said Castleberry, she was contacted on September 23 about taking over the Literature Survey course, which she initially didn’t take because it conflicted with her schedule.
“Although I was worried about switching the students to a format they hadn’t signed up for, I was immediately impressed with the enthusiastic participation of the group.”
And while classes were running smoothly, students’ initial reaction was worry. Beach has been battling stage four metastatic melanoma for the past few years, and because no announcement had come beforehand, his students and advisees feared the worst. That was until a confused Beach joined the Zoom of his Fiction Workshop course at the end of that week.
“He was telling us he couldn’t access our class on Canvas anymore but that he would figure it out,” said student Mickey Frances. “We had to tell him ourselves that his classes had been given away. He had no idea.”
After the wave of relief brought on by the confirmation of Beach’s life, focus returned to the issue at hand. Why, then, had the professor’s classes been reassigned? And when will he be returning?
It was rumored that absences caused by his illness caused students to complain, resulting in the forced vacation. But was there no warning? Beach is notorious among students for missing emails or forgetting to reply to them, but surely multiple emails, subject line: “important” or “your job at risk” would warrant some urgency from the professor.
The classes Beach taught at the start of this fall are no longer under his name on the online course catalog. He is also not listed as an instructor for any courses being offered in the Spring 2024 semester. Another student, Bekkah Lambert, commented on Beach’s connection with students in various programs aligned with literature, English, and writing, as he taught a majority of the in-person classes that they would need to take.
Prior to this fall, it became a running joke that all the writing students would graduate with “degree in Jensen Beach,” and that his students would walk across the stage and have him sign their diplomas personally.
Beach has not yet responded to emailed questions from Basement Medicine. When asked for details about the situation, President David Bergh responded “I do not have information related to your inquiry.”
Course Chaos and Staffing
As Johnson students are reevaluating their programs for new pathways to their goals, concerns about the longevity of writing and English programs for the campus have become a topic of discussion for upperclassmen in related fields.
Students have highlighted concerns regarding the lack of in-person English classes at the Johnson campus as well as the lack of faculty to accommodate the increase in enrollment that VTSU is hoping for, with only two “English” professors currently available at the campus.
Said David Kupferman, the dean of both the School of Arts and Communication and the School of Education, Psychology, and Social Sciences for VTSU, “These are not positions that are automatically filled again with new, young, fresh faced assistant professors right out of grad school.”
According to Kupferman, the university is “well aware” of the need for in-person classes at individual VTSU campuses, and that it is “at the top of [his] list.”
Kupferman explained that the fluctuation in the number of course sections offered is standard practice, as universities expect to see a decrease in enrollment generally during spring semesters.
And multiple factors come into play when the modalities a course gets offered in are being arranged by the university. Kupferman said that the UKG consultants that examined the university gave them a target number of 18 students per class. Courses with 10 and fewer enrollees are those that are generally looked to for alterations. If a class has five or fewer students it might be canceled, and student may have to take it as a tutorial or independent study. On top of that, he says that the university offers a larger number of programs in comparison to “peer universities,” institutions that share similarities like faculty: student ratios, demographics, and financial considerations.
“We’re trying to find a way to be more efficient with the resources we have,” said Kupferman.
At the time of writing, the VTSU website page for the Creative Writing BFA includes “share your writing and engage in the production and publishing process” with Johnson publications as part of the “Academic Experience.” One of the publications included is Green Mountains Review (GMR), a 35-year-old award-winning literary journal once operated by Johnson State College and then Northern Vermont University. Unfortunately, the university stopped funding GMR in September of 2023, making the internship the website advertises (currently) impossible.
Students worry that incoming English and writing students won’t be able to experience the kind of vibrant writing community and experience that they’re being promised.