On behalf of all of the Mercy University* MA in English Literature faculty: welcome, everyone in our graduate English community, to the 2023-24 academic year. I always find the start of the fall semester and the new academic year to be an exciting, fun, wonder-filled time. Each September we get to begin again our journeys together, get to begin again our explorations across the frontiers, get to once again travel through time and place through the power and artistry of writing, words, language, text, and thereby experience together something of the thrill and mystery and sublimity of all things; all while also developing particular areas of knowledge related to your specific courses of study. It is a special thing to be a part of a graduate community such as ours, to be able to begin again like this each September, together. I hope that each of you feels something of the excitement, the fun, the wonder of it all, here at the start of the fall semester and the new academic year. And I hope that each of you brings something of that feeling into your studies and your classroom discussions.

Below in this welcome post you’ll find some program info and news, along with information about support and resources available to all of our graduate students. Please read through all of this to get caught up on what’s happening and to get in view what resources are available to you.

*A footnote! Yes Mercy College is now Mercy University, as of August 22. To be a university a college needs only to have a certain amount of graduate programs, which Mercy has, so Mercy went through the process of legally switching its designation from college to university this past year.

ZOOM ORIENTATION, Q&A, AND OVERALL WELCOME TO THE SEMESTER: THURSDAY 9/7, 6PM EASTERN

Grad English students, new and continuing, interested in gathering on Zoom this Thursday 9/7 at 6pm eastern, please contact cloots@mercy.edu for the login info. All of the professors teaching your fall MA courses are scheduled to be there to introduce themselves and answer any questions, and others will be there as well to offer guidance for navigating the graduate program: e.g. Dr. Kristen Keckler, the Chair of the Department of Literature & Language; Dr. Laura Proszak who runs the English TA program; Lydia Yearwood, the current PACT mentor responsible for all grad English students; and the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Dr. Peter West, might be there for a few minutes to say hello. We already have about fifteen new and continuing grad students planning to attend. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend so don’t hesitate to ask for the login info if you’re curious.

GRAD STUDENT RESOURCES & SUPPORT

Each active graduate student has what’s called a PACT advisor, which is basically your staff advisor and the point-person for assisting you with issues that arise or general questions you might have. As mentioned above, the PACT advisor for every graduate English student is currently Lydia Yearwood (lyearwood@mercy.edu). Also know that as the Program Director I am the faculty advisor to every graduate English student, so you can always contact me at cloots@mercy.edu. I am here to help, always.

Student Support Services is the general office/portal where you can find info about many of the things that students normally need info about. Note that practically all of Mercy University’s support services have some online variation, and so are available for our distance learning students.

The College’s Office of Accessibility is the place to contact if you need to discuss or register any accommodations.

We also have an office of Counseling Services for those in need.

The Center for Academic Excellence and Innovation (CAEI) provides tutoring (including online tutoring) and other such assistance for those who want some help with their writing and researching. Occasionally a professor might recommend that you seek additional help with your writing, and the CAEI is the place you can get it, whether on campus or online.

Mercy has extensive online library resources. JSTOR Language & Literature, MLA International Bibliography, and Academic Search Premier are the main databases in the field of literary research, though there are many other databases available online through the library. Additionally, Mercy College has digitized versions of many scholarly books. To search the ebook selection use the advanced search option for the library catalog and under “format” select “EBook.” Then search away and check-out/download any useful books you find. For general research help and an overview of basic research methods, you might find useful this online guide that librarian Miranda Montez created specifically for the MA English program. And don’t hesitate to make use of interlibrary loan to secure any materials (such as academic journal articles, etc.) that you need but which Mercy might not have on hand. Librarians can secure materials using interlibrary loan and send scanned PDFs to students at a distance, within fair use and copyright allowance.

On this post here you’ll find important information about the incomplete “I” grade which some of you might occasionally receive. It’s critically important that students recognize that there is a time-limit past which incompletes cannot be fixed, after which all credit and tuition for the incomplete course is lost.

For those approaching their last semester, you must pay attention to your required comprehensive exam, to the instructions for how to enroll in the final 599 course, and to the application form you must complete in order to actually graduate. Also note that the format for the 599 thesis paper involves some in-house style requirements, which are explained here.

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ENGL 599 MASTER’S THESIS ASSESSMENT RUBRIC

The program’s “student learning outcomes” are the big-picture things we hope you are developing throughout your time the program, and all of your courses in one way or another are geared around developing one, some, or all of those outcomes. We have a rubric keyed to those outcomes that we use when reviewing your final 599 thesis papers. You can see that rubric by clicking here. Even though we don’t apply the rubric systematically to papers written for courses prior to the 599 tutorial, it’s a good idea to look at it since more or less the things listed on the rubric are the things we’re considering when reviewing all of your papers for just about any course in the program. The rubric and the outcomes, and our 599 assessment practices, as well as the sharing of this information with students, are all requirements of our university’s accreditation.

THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS ANNUAL “THEME”

Each year faculty from across the entire School of Liberal Arts (SLA) vote on a “theme” for the year. The theme becomes the focus for various SLA events and activities. The SLA theme for 2023-24 is “perception.” The SLA Dean’s Office has provided the following description:

Perception is the process by which humans apprehend their surroundings and make sense of the world that they inhabit. It is a physical phenomenon that engages all five senses. But it is so much more than the sum total of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. As a form of consciousness, perception also carries intellectual and spiritual connotations. Nor is perception a neutral process. It can (and does) vary considerably between different people, across cultures, and over the course of an individual’s life.

You might informally keep the SLA theme of “perception” in mind when designing things like research-topics for your course papers. You might even create something based on the theme to present at the annual Graduate English Student Symposium in spring 2024. It’s not too early to start thinking about attending and presenting at the spring symposium.

ONWARD WE GO

Okay, that’s it for the welcome post! Thank you, everyone, for all of your work and effort. As always, if anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know at cloots@mercy.edu. Once again, welcome, everyone, to the 2023-24 academic year here in the Mercy College MA in English Lit program. Onward we go, together.