An editorial note on this article — the copy references two articles printed in the two weekly issues before this article was written. One article was a completely misguided attempt to put the onus of enrollment growth on the budding student governance movement on campus; the second article was the response by one of the student governance coordinators to that article. It is to both of these articles that I respond.

Clarifying My Role in Enrollment Growth
Peter Ellis, February 17, 2005

In response to Javier Berrios’ Letter to the Editor last week: I’m confused. Student opinions surrounding the issue of enrollment growth seem very diverse, yet, as the sole student representative, I haven’t heard a word of it except through articles in this newspaper that misrepresent the DTF entirely.

I applaud the work of the student union, first of all, and I am disappointed in Adam Hilton’s failure to check his facts before writing his article. However, that, to me, does not excuse one thing: students have been given opportunities to give their feedback to this DTF and, with the exception of a very small number of students, have failed to do so. The overall student reaction seems to be “So what? I’m graduating before this happens.”

In most cases, this is not actually true. There are a number of proposals being considered which could be implemented as soon as next year. This is dependent, however, upon the Board of Trustees and the President of the college; the DTF only exists to make a recommendation to the administration about where we think the college should grow.

Further, you’re graduating, but you have the most knowledge surrounding Evergreen and the way it works. You have the best insight into what this college is all about. This applies to every member of the student body. This is your college. You can determine its future. I’m on the DTF to ensure that the voices of this student body are heard, but my job is limited by my ability to get constructive feedback.

Perhaps so far I haven’t done my job. So what do I need to do to help? What would enable students to better take part in this process? I admit that this question comes at a point where the DTF is beginning to consider proposals and that perhaps it should have been posed to the community earlier. My fault. I take the blame for that.

I object to assertions that the Enrollment Growth DTF has met “under the noses” of students. This is patently false – the DTF was made known to students in Fall Quarter with an article written by myself in this very newspaper. Proposals would have been freely accepted from students if they had been submitted. There was one student on this campus who was on the list of potential proposals, but nothing was ever submitted.

I want to clarify why I’m on this DTF. I have served on the Enrollment Coordination Committee for over two years and have gained an extensive background on enrollment at Evergreen. I was approached by the chairs of this DTF because of that background, which prepared me for my work on this DTF. Since then, I have made every effort to ensure that the viewpoint of students is well represented.

Being on the DTF, however, is more about reading proposals and being buried in data. For me, it’s making sure student input is welcomed and heard. Give me something to work with. Let me know your concerns, your fears, your hopes, your ideas. I will do my best to ensure that the DTF takes the opinions of students seriously.

This is the second article for the Cooper Point Journal that I’ve written so far. I should note that the Journal staff does change some of the details when I submit articles — usually just the titles — so these aren’t exactly as they are presented in published form. In the case of my first article, some detail was added to clarify some details by the editors themselves. As with the first article, this articele has some of the contact information edited out.

Enrollment Growth Updates
Peter Ellis, January 27, 2005

Since Fall Quarter, the Enrollment Growth Disappearing Task Force (DTF) has concerned itself with creating a process by which members of the campus community could submit proposals for Evergreen’s growth to 5,000 FTE. That process is now completed, and the DTF now seeks feedback from the community.

Members of the DTF will be holding a student focus group on February 7th. Students from ten academic programs spanning Evergreen’s curriculum will be participating, with space available for ten additional students. We ask that interested students RSVP by phone or by e-mail. These slots will fill on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The DTF also announces an open comment period on the proposals that we have gathered. These proposals are available on closed reserve in the Library and in the Dean’s Area for community review. We also provide comment sheets with these proposals for community members to provide their feedback. The deadline for this round of feedback is Wednesday, February 9th at noon.

Also on February 9th, the DTF is holding an open forum for all community members from 1:15 to 3PM, in Lab I 1047. Students are strongly encouraged to attend; more information will be posted around campus as the Forum approaches. The DTF requests that forum participants read proposals before attending the forum, as there will not be ample time to provide background on each submitted proposal.

Peter Ellis is a super senior in The Novel: Life and Form. He serves on the Enrollment Growth DTF and the Enrollment Coordination Committee as a student representative.

I have decided to post the series of articles I’ve written thus far for Evergreen’s student newspaper, the Cooper Point Journal, regarding the college’s growth to 5,000 students by the 2014-15 academic year. These articles are all written as part of my work with the Enrollment Growth DTF. The first is below. I have edited out the contact information listed, since that isn’t really relevant to readers here.

Disappearing Task Force to Plan Campus Growth Charged
Peter Ellis, October 7, 2004

Evergreen, as a college, is growing. Washington State’s college enrollment continues to increase. As a public institution, Evergreen will do its part to accommodate that growth, and has committed to expanding its current enrollment count of around 4,100 students to a total of 5,000 students across all campuses. To help determine the shape of that growth President Les Purce and Provost Don Bantz charged the Enrollment Growth Disappearing Task Force (DTF) in June.

The charge of the DTF is “to recommend a growth plan that will guide us as we work toward an enrollment of 5,000 [full time enrollment] students by the 2014-2015 academic year”. As a result of yearlong work, the DTF will draft and present to the President and Board of Trustees a set of recommendations that will, if accepted, shape the growth of Evergreen as a college.

It is important to realize, however, that this DTF is not making the definitive plan for Evergreen’s growth; the power this DTF has lies only in its ability to craft and propose an enrollment growth plan, not to accept it or implement it on behalf of the entire Evergreen community. The responsibility of accepting and implementing this plan primarily lies with the Board of Trustees, President Les Purce, and the administrative units that operate the College. The question we are faced with is not whether we grow to 5,000 full-time students enrolled at Evergreen; rather, the question is how we make that growth both sustainable and effective. That we grow is a foregone conclusion, and was essentially promised to the State Legislature with the construction of Seminar II.

So what does this mean to Evergreen students? Apart from the obvious growth in the number of people who will be attending Evergreen, this planning could also affect the layout of the college curriculum at basic levels, including possible expansion of upper-division, lower-division, and graduate programs, and the potential addition of support staff to student support offices such as Academic Advising and Access Services (to name examples). These will not be the only areas considered by this group, but they are some of the more obvious areas where students would notice a change should the DTF choose to recommend such changes and the President and Board of Trustees choose to accept the DTF’s final recommendations.

As part of this DTF, it is my job to represent the student population of Evergreen in the crafting and planning of any growth proposal and to ensure that student concerns and issues are recognized and discussed. While the DTF as a whole has already determined the necessity of ensuring that every major party on campus – from faculty and staff to students – can provide input to this process, I intend to be particularly vocal in making sure that students understand the scope of the planning that this DTF is taking on.

I will be publishing a series of articles in the Cooper Point Journal as the work of this DTF continues so that the student population can remain informed as to the questions and concerns surrounding this important work. I invite any comments or questions you may have about this process.

In addition, the DTF is currently seeking one or two students to assist in this planning. I would be happy to answer any questions regarding such a commitment. Students interested in applying should contact Tracey Johnson in the Vice President of Student Affairs office.

Peter Ellis is the student representative on both the Enrollment Growth DTF and the Enrollment Coordination Committee.

I was able to go over to Evergreen’s Synergy conference last Saturday for one reason and one reason only: to see a Toyota Prius on display from the local Toyota dealer. We didn’t get there until about 2:30 or so, so most of the cars in the display were gone, but the Prius was still there. Pretty car to stare at up close. I would’ve gotten in and had a look, too, but the only people there were WashPIRG representatives and one mean-looking guy who seemed to be returning the cars to whereever they came from. I did, though, at least manage to peek in windows — it was fun. Great car.

Looking at Spring Quarter classes, there’s not really all that much that’s interesting me at the moment. Currently, I’m looking at Illustrations of Character: Literary and Philosophical Studies for 16 credits, Advanced Web Design for 4 credits through the Evening/Weekend Studies Program, or Web Graphics and Flash for 4 credits, also through EWS. I may also take both EWS programs at once, since the schedule doesn’t conflict — the only thing that switching to part time studies might affect is my ability to work in the Writing Center as a full-time enrolled student. Not being sure of my eligibility for the last two programs, I’ve e-mailed the faculty member responsible for both of them.

We’ll see what he tells me. At the moment, it’s slim pickin’s.

Over the course of the quarter, as I’ve continued to judge the amount of work required for my program (The Novel: Life and Form), I’ve found myself having to make time adjustments accordingly. In addition to class, I also work in the Writing Center, do client work for naturalaxis, serve on the Enrollment Coordination Committee, and serve on the Enrollment Growth DTF. By far, the part of all that work that has taken the biggest hit is my Writing Center work.
I started out the quarter working 13 hours a week — 4 on Monday, 4 on Tuesday, and 5 on Thursday, I rapidly found that I had to drop the 5 hours on Thursday, bringing me down to 8 hours a week. Then, just today, I decided that I needed to drop that down even further, eliminating my Monday shift and shortening my Tuesday shift from four hours to three. So I’m now only working 3 hours a week for the Writing Center, in addition to all my other work.
The Enrollment Growth DTF has now completed its request for enrollment proposals from the campus community, which resulted in no fewer than 44 proposals sitting on my desk for review, averaging about 5 pages each. All these need to be read by the next meeting during the first week of Feburary, so I’m going to be hustling over the weekend to read all of them. I’ve also got a presentation on monday about John Singer Sargent, the American painter originally born in Florence in 1856. The very next day, there’s a paper due on one of our books — I forget which.
Ain’t life grand?

To add bloody murder to injury, I see the following in my Evergreen e-mail inbox this afternoon:

Hi... I've ordered the Everyman hardcover 1961 edition of Ulysses
Ulysses (Everyman's Library, 100)
by JAMES JOYCE
Hardcover: 1136 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library; Reprint edition (October 28, 1997)
ISBN: 0679455132

And this for those of you who'd like some help on this adventure...

The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Ulysses
by Harry Blamires
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 3rd edition (August 1, 1996)
ISBN: 0415138582

Ouch.

I’m getting so completely and absolutely slammed it’s not funny.

I’ve begun to wonder where the flaw is in my handling of this situation, and I’m beginning to think it’s a combination of low reading speed, bad time management, and having a lot of stuff on my plate at once. It’s undoubtedly at least partly my fault. It’s not that I’m procrastinating — I recognize that procrastination in a dog-eat-dog program will basically skewer you very quickly (which is happening). It’s that the time I do have is managed in such a way that I have to split my attention across two or three different activities at any one given time. It doesn’t help that I’ve already had to basically blow off a client because I don’t have the time to complete a major work request. Not only is that a monetary hit, I’m always afraid of alienating the client by not being attentive enough. Of course, the big thing I value about my client relationships is communication, which has saved me from a whole lot of problems (and has probably stopped me from losing a client or two).
Far from it from me to diverge from my main point. I’m not completely to blame here — the pace of the class is cutthroat, and I’m not the only one questioning my own abilities. The consensus between a fellow writing tutor and myself seems to be that we both woefully misjudged our abilities at the start of the program. We assumed that we would only have to read the material and analyze in class; instead, we are expected to mark up the book and do some small amount of analysis on our own while reading. This turns two hour’s worth of reading into what is easily eight hours (which is about as much time as I spent reading on Sunday). The pace of the class itself is such that there’s a paper due tomorrow on the reading which is also due tomorrow, which means I can’t turn the paper in (or even write it) because I’m too tired to finish the reading.

…

So why am I posting this?

I surrender!
I’ve decided I can’t take any more reading tonight. I realized today that I’ll probably have to take a huge hit in my work hours in order to stay sane this quarter with this workload and everything else going on. My boss probably won’t be happy, but she’s let me do it before. I’ll probably come to a conclusion by the end of the week and adjust my hours accordingly.
I only made it halfway through the reading, but of course, I’ll catch up tomorrow. Today’s Enrollment Growth DTF meeting really screwed up my ability to read, and I’m deader than a doornail.
Pages Read Today for Class: 84

Pages Read to Date For Class: 266 (89 pages/day average)

Books Read to Date For Class: 1 (1 in progress)

Class started yesterday, so I thought I’d share my reflections on what’s gone on so far. I meant to do this last night, but obviously didn’t get around to it, or else I would’ve posted before now.

As most readers probably know, I’m taking The Novel: Life and Form this quarter — a class that focuses mostly on literary interpretation and comprehension. The first day consisted both of reviewing the syllabus and discussing some of the historical background behind our first reading, The Princess de Clèves. Thad is a very energetic and knowledgeable faculty member; he is very clearly versed in much of the historical background surrounding this novel. The expectations for this class are extremely high — five-page papers, 125 pages of reading a night on average, a presentation to the class once every other week, and a question on the text brought to class every day — but the faculty evaluations I’ve read about him suggest that this is the norm and ends up being quite beneficial.

I came home and had lunch with Amanda while watching Season 2 of Quantum Leap. After she left for her class, I read quite a bit of the book. By the time I was done reading around 11PM, I had read 108 pages (the introduction, editor’s note, chronology, and parts 1 and 2). Quite impressive for me, since I usually don’t do that much in such a short amount of time.

I went to class this morning and met up with a fellow writing tutor, who is taking the same course. He apparently had a rude awakening last night because of the length of the text. I’m not surprised; even I didn’t really expect that the reading would take so long. The entire class day basically consisted of dissecting the text, which I enjoyed immensely. It’s been a long time since I really have been able to get deeply into the text and discuss the details. The last time I did that was in high school.

Tonight entailed 76 pages of reading from The Princess de Clèves, which I haven’t quite completed at the time of this writing. I still have about 20 pages left. Overall, this is going to be a very hectic quarter between my work at the Writing Center, my work with the Enrollment Coordination Committee and the Enrollment Growth DTF, and my work with naturalaxis. I’m basically going to get slammed. As a good friend of mine put it, "we’re going to get our asses kicked, but we’re paying to get our asses kicked." I second that thought. Hopefully, it doesn’t completely and utterly cripple me in the process. I have confidence I will succeed, however, since I usually do, albeit with a fair amount of griping.

Pages Read to Date for Class: 184 (92 pages/day average)
Class Books Read to Date: 1