On everybody’s minds at UNH—well, the comp program’s, anyhow—is the impending departure of comp grad faculty (and rising star in rhet/comp) Jess Enoch to the University of Pittsburgh. This is gonna be tough to deal with. First, Jess is a great teacher: no other teacher I’ve ever had does a better job of balancing her part of the conversation with our part. She talks and listens and the right times. But another reason it’ll be tough is because we don’t yet know what the post-Jess picture will look like. Two comp grad faculty members remain, and that might be the case for… well, awhile.

Friday is prospective grad student day, and it’s going to be interesting how we PhD-comp folks choose to talk about the program. I was wondering how I’d handle it, but I have to admit that faculty are only one part of the picture for me (maybe because I’m nearing the end of coursework). No matter how that situation resolves itself, we, the students, are still here. And frankly, Kate, Christina, Mike M., Mike D., Jeff, Steve, Kuhio, Meagan, Abby, Joleen, Michelle, Alex and I are doing some interesting stuff. Absolutely.