Career Advice, Red Hyacinth Journal, Student News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Red Hyacinth Journal: Editors Needed!

Red Hyacinth Journal is an annually published, perfect-bound literary magazine that showcases the writing and art of Mercy College students and alum. The journal’s first issue was produced in 2018 through the generosity of the family of the late Professor Valerie Lewis, a former instructor in the English program.  Over the past few issues, Red Hyacinth has featured the diverse creative work of over 200 Mercy College graduate and undergraduate students from across many majors and disciplines. Student editors from the Departments of Literature and Language and Communication and the Arts collaborate on the editorial decisions, design, and concept. The journal’s student editors receive hands-on experience in the editorial and production processes as they select the work (poetry, drama, nonfiction, fiction, and art) in a blind-review process, prepare the magazine for press, and communicate with the college community regarding its release. The journal’s website can be found at https://redhyacinthjournal.wordpress.com/

As we put together a 6th annual issue (2023) we are looking to assemble an all-volunteer staff of Editors. Many literary magazines are produced by not-for-profit entities such as colleges and art collectives, and as such, most rely on a volunteer staff. While the positions are not paid, the Editors’ names appear in the Masthead of the journal and editorial service can be listed on one’s resume and referenced in job interviews. Serving as an editor provides graduate and undergraduate students with invaluable, relevant, hands-on experience in editing, publishing, and arts administration, and allows you to make an important contribution to the Mercy Community, one that will endure for years to come. The journal is a “living” artifact, representing not only the students and editors who collaborate on an issue, but the challenges and aesthetics of the time in which the journal was produced.

We are looking for reliable, dedicated volunteers to fill the following positions for the 2022-23 academic year. The positions will start immediately and generally run until May 2023. In general, the first month or so of service is light as we wait for submissions to come in. All positions will currently operate remotely and applicants must have access to a computer, Zoom, reliable Internet, and the ability to meet at least twice a month during the day, Eastern Standard Time, to collaborate with other editors; some daytime availability (morning or afternoon) is required. Editors cannot publish their own work in the issue they are serving on.

If interested, please send your resume and/or a brief letter stating your interest and qualifications, as well as the general hours of your availability Eastern Standard Time, to Dr. Kristen Keckler, kkeckler1@mercy.edu no later than Oct 4, 2022.

Because the work is spread out over several months, the time commitment is manageable. Editors will be provided back issues of the journal so that they can see various versions of the finished product. Below you can find more information about the two different types of editorial positions we’re looking to fill:

Managing Editor (Priority position)

The Managing Editor position functions as the top editorial position on the staff and manages the day-to-day operations of the literary Journal for one cycle/issue, with the opportunity for renewal for another issue cycle if the candidate so desires. The Managing Editor will coordinate with the content and design editors to ensure that the team stays on task and that deadlines and benchmarks are met at key junctures in the production schedule. The position requires strong organizational skills and ability to create spreadsheets using Google.

Responsibilities include:

  • Manage the email and Google drive for the journal
  • Communicate with students/alum who submit to the journal
  • Create spreadsheets to track submissions and ensure a blind submission process
  • Create and monitor Google doc for Content Editors to mark as they review submissions
  • Lead editorial meetings
  • Communicate with faculty advisor about progress  
  • Ensure names of contributors are correctly reflected in journal and titles of pieces are accurate

Content Editors

Content Editors will review submissions in various written genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, etc.) and determine the artistic merit/potential of each piece and its suitability for the issue of the journal. There are a limited number of Content Editor positions.

Content Editors’ responsibilities include:

  • Read submissions and mark notes on the spreadsheet
  • attending Zoom meetings to discuss the submissions and decide on which content is most suitable for the issue in terms of showcasing a variety of themes, styles, voices, and genres.
  • collaborating to decide on the order and “arc” of the journal’s creative work, deciding on, for example, which pieces have connections that can be highlighted through juxtaposition and ordering
  • assist in light copy editing and review of proofs for errors/omissions
  • assist with outreach to classes and potential contributors about the journal
  • other assistance as needed from faculty advisor and managing editor
Faculty News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Author Event with Patricia Engel, Hosted by Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile, Wed. 9/28

On Wednesday, September 28, Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile of the Mercy College English Program will be hosting a discussion with author Patricia Engel, regarding her book Infinite Country. Mercy College MA students are strongly encouraged to attend this event; you can attend on zoom, or can join a larger viewing party in the Mercy Hall Rotunda on the Dobbs Ferry campus. Click here to register for the zoom webinar. Or click here if you plan to attend the viewing party in the Rotunda.

Annual Director's Welcome

Welcome to the 2022-23 Academic Year

On behalf of all of the Mercy College MA in English Literature faculty: welcome, everyone in our graduate English community, to the 2022-23 academic year. Courses are now underway and hopefully each of you are already finding your classroom experiences to be interesting, challenging, and meaningful. The world seems finally to be turning the corner on covid, enough at least that for the first time in three years faculty and students here at Dobbs Ferry were able to begin the semester all on campus, all unmasked, and all without chairs spread out for social distancing. It has been absolutely remarkable to witness and experience. And already, practically in time with the start of the academic year, the hot and humid northeastern summer is suddenly hinting at autumn; with just the slightest cooler breeze now carrying off of the Hudson and over the campus; and with the uniform deep-forest green of the surrounding trees just slightly starting to gesture toward the browns and yellows and reds soon to come. Let us all in the graduate community venture forward, together, into the autumn and the academic year, into our explorations and studies into the vast regions of literature and story, word and culture. Here’s to the 2022-23 academic year ahead!

Below in this post you will find some program news, along with information about support and resources available to all of our graduate students.

UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENT WITH DR SAX, THURSDAY 9/15

This Thursday, September 15, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm (eastern), Dr. Boria Sax (Senior Lecturer, English) will be the speaker in the first installment of the the 2022-2023 Mercy College Research Salon Series. Dr. Sax will deliver a talk about his recent book Avian Illuminations: A Cultural History of Birds. Dr. Sax is one of the world’s leading scholars of animals in literature and culture, and he occasionally teaches his Animals in Literature course in the MA program (most recently in summer 2022). We encourage our graduate community to attend this event, whether on campus or on zoom. If you’re near Dobbs Ferry this Thursday you can attend in the college’s Charter Room which is in Verazzano Hall. Anyone interested in attending on zoom, please write to cloots@mercy.edu to receive the zoom link.  If you plan to attend in either capacity please complete the rsvp form linked here.

STUDENT+ALUMNI FEEDBACK; AND ZOOM MEETUP WITH AN EXTERNAL REVIEWER ASSESSING OUR PROGRAM

As shared recently in another post on this blog, the MA program is undergoing its five-year self-study. Part of that process involves us gathering student and alumni feedback to learn about what seems to be working, and what needs improving, in the MA program. If you haven’t already done so please offer your own feedback by completing the survey linked here. Another part of this process involves an external reviewer (usually a program director from an MA or PhD program at a different college) reviewing and assessing our MA program. Usually the external reviewer will want to meet with students and alumni to hear whatever you have to say about the MA program and your experiences in it. So if you’re interested in being a part of a zoom meeting with that external reviewer sometime in September or October (tbd), please write to cloots@mercy.edu letting me know.

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

In recent years I’ve taken to sharing here in the annual welcome the assessment rubric that we apply to the ENGL 599 thesis papers, because the criteria in the rubric correspond to the program’s recently-updated “learning outcomes,” which are the big-picture things we hope you are developing throughout your time the program. The learning outcomes and criteria on the rubric are also just the basic things all English literature students should be working to address and improve in all of their scholarly papers, not just their final thesis paper. So I encourage everyone to download and look over the 599 rubric to see the sorts of things that we look for and measure through it. The rubric and the outcomes and our 599 assessment practices are, if you’re curious, requirements for our college’s accreditation.

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. The PACT advisor for every graduate English student is currently Griffin Shiland at gshiland@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 College’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.

STUDENT ID CARDS

Grad English students can and should secure student ID cards. They can get you discounts at various stores, and they can get you access to most college and university libraries in your area, in order to do research. Students near a Mercy campus can stop in and get your ID card made in Person, if you like. Any student can secure an ID card through the mail by following these instructions:

Using your @mercy.edu email account, send a photo of your face along with your full first name, last name, and college ID number (your eight-digit CWID number) to Amanda McKenzie at: amckenzie9@mercy.edu. Full photo guidelines are:

  • Submit a color photo of just your face taken in last 6 months
  • Have someone else take your photo – no selfies
  • Submit a high-resolution photo that is not blurry, grainy, or pixilated
  • Use a clear and unedited image of your face; do not use filters such as those commonly used on social media
  • Face the camera directly with full face in view
  • Have a neutral facial expression or a natural smile, with both eyes open
  • Use a plain white or off-white background

Let Amanda know in your email that you are a distance-learning graduate student in the MA English Lit program and that you would like a student ID card. She will explain anything else that you need to know about how to secure your card.

SPRING 2023 COURSE OFFERINGS

This info was shared earlier on this blog, and no changes have happened since that post, so this repeats that earlier info for those who may have missed it: Registration for the spring semester will open relatively soon, likely in October at the current pace of things. There isn’t a date yet set for when it will open, but I always post the registration-opening date here on the blog as soon as I learn it. For this and other reasons, grad students should check the blog regularly throughout their time in the program. Registering promptly, first thing in the morning on the day that registration opens, is the only way to ensure you get a seat in your preferred courses. Some courses fill up quickly, sometimes even within just a few hours. We’re running seven different courses in spring 2023. They are:

  • ENGL 505 Transformations of the Epic (Dr. Sax)
  • ENGL 515 Latino Literature (Dr. Reissig-Vasile)
  • ENGL 521 Themes & Genres of Medieval Lit (Dr. Fritz)
  • ENGL 525 Victorian Age in Literature (Dr. Dugan)
  • ENGL 540 Philosophy of Literature (Dr. Fisher)
  • ENGL 544 Cyberpunk & Technoculture (Dr. Loots)
  • ENGL 560 Black Theatre, Art, and Power in the Digital Age (Dr. Morales)

We as well have two courses penciled in so far for summer 2023:

  • ENGL 540 Fairy Tales (Dr. Sax)
  • ENGL 560 Murder, Mystery, & Suspense (Dr. Dugan)

Each course will have 15 seats available. Descriptions for these spring courses will be provided in a blog post in the near future.

Okay, that’s it for the welcome post! Thank you, active grad students and faculty, for all of your work and effort, for your energies and insights; and thank you alumni for all that you brought to the program when you were active in it. As always, if anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know at cloots@mercy.edu. Once again, welcome, everyone, to the 2022-23 academic year here in the Mercy College MA in English Lit program. Onward we go, together.

Course Information, Course Schedules

Spring and Summer 2023 Course Schedule Preview

The spring and summer 2023 schedules are coming into focus. Full descriptions for these will be provided here on the blog in good time, as will registration info (date, time). For spring we have these seven courses planned:

  • ENGL 505 Transformations of the Epic (Dr. Sax)
  • ENGL 515 Latino Literature (Dr. Reissig-Vasile)
  • ENGL 521 Themes & Genres of Medieval Lit (Dr. Fritz)
  • ENGL 525 Victorian Age in Literature (Dr. Dugan)
  • ENGL 540 Philosophy of Literature (Dr. Fisher)
  • ENGL 544 Cyberpunk & Technoculture (Dr. Loots)
  • ENGL 560 Black Theatre, Art, and Power in the Digital Age (Dr. Morales)

We as well have two courses penciled in so far for summer 2023:

  • ENGL 540 Fairy Tales (Dr. Sax)
  • ENGL 560 Murder, Mystery, & Suspense (Dr. Dugan)

Typically we run four summer courses (that is the amount that student demand has warranted, in recent years). So a few more summer courses will be added to that list. Courses typically have 15 seats available and they’re available on a first-come first-serve basis; so if you see courses of particular interest then be sure to register promptly as soon as registration opens. As to how any of these course will work for your degree, refer to the outline below, which is copied from page 5 of the Graduate Student Handbook available here on the blog, link in the left-hand column.

Course Information

Book Info For Fall 2022 (So Far)

Below are some details about book orders for fall 2022 courses. This will be updated as further details are provided by professors. For now consider these lists as in-progress.

ENGL 500 Theory

  • Leitch, Vincent B., et al, eds.  The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.  3rd ed. Norton, 2018. ISBN: 978-0393602951.

ENGL 508 History of Drama

  • The Norton Anthology of Drama, Shorter Third Edition, ISBN: 9780393283501.

ENGL 514 Ulysses

  • Joyce, James. Ulysses (The Gabler Edition). Penguin Random House, 1986. ISBN: 9780394743127.

There are different versions of Ulysses in print, and some you can find for free since the book is in the public domain in some countries (not all). The fact of multiple versions of the book existing in print is part of the strangeness of Ulysses and is something we’ll discuss in class. The version I’ll be referring to throughout the semester is what’s called the Gabler edition, and I’ll explain what that is, and why it’s called that, when the semester begins.

Recommended; might want to wait until the semester starts to decide on these:

  • Gifford, Don. Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce’s Ulysses, 20th Anniversary Edition. ISBN:  9780520253971.
  • Hastings, Patrick. The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses. ISBN: 9781421443492.
  • Homer, The Odyssey. Translated by Fagles. ISBN: 9780140268867.

ENGL 515 Magical Realism

TBD

ENGL 540 Shakespeare

No required book purchases. Public domain and open-education resources will used. Students will be able to use what versions of assigned works they might already possess. Details will be provided in the class.

ENGL 546 Working Women in the USA 1865 – Present

Many readings will be provided in the class. Students should secure a copy of:

  • Oates, Joyce Carol. Marya: A Life. ISBN 9780062269218

ENGL 560 Literature of the Black Atlantic World

  • Cole, Teju. Open City. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2012. ISBN: 978081298009.
  • Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker.‎ Knopf, 2004. ISBN: 9781400041145.
  • Marquez, Gabriel Garcia, Of Love and Other Demons.1994. Vintage, 2008. ISBN: 9781400034925.
  • Walcott, Derek. Omeros. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992. ISBN: 9780374523503.
  • Williams, Roy. Sing Yer hearts Out for Lads. 2002.  Methuen Drama, 2008. ISBN: 9780413774262.
Course Information, Student News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Attention students and alumni: please complete this program survey!

Every five years, as a part of Mercy College’s accreditation, the MA English Lit program is required to perform a “program self-study.” This involves the Program Director gathering together data and other info, including student & alumni feedback, and then reflecting with the MA faculty and college administrators on what these elements reveal. The goal is to identify where the program is succeeding, and where it needs improvement, based on what we learn from the “self study.”

Few things are as meaningful and as valuable for these purposes as student feedback, so please, if you’re an incoming student, active student, or alum, take some time and complete the survey linked here. Complete as much of it as makes sense (you don’t need to answer every question) and then click the submit button down at the bottom. Your voice is so important and so I hope that each of you will raise your voice and express yourself through the survey.

Survey responses are anonymous.

The direct link to the survey form, in case your browser is blocking the embedded link above is: https://forms.gle/poVC759f93VWpgef8

Any questions about the survey? Please write to cloots@mercy.edu.

Useful Program Info & Tips

MA English Lit program learning goals and learning outcomes, updated 2022

As a part of Mercy College’s accreditation, the MA English Literature program (like every program at Mercy College) is required to maintain and occasionally share among our graduate student community what our accreditors refer to as “program learning goals” and “student learning outcomes.” These things have very particular meanings in accrediting parlance, and those meanings don’t always translate to or encompass the spirit of humanities disciplines such as graduate English literature, a spirit which by its nature involves complexities, nuances, shadows, and wonderworkings which to some degree resist reductionist measurement and assessment (and since reductionist measurement and assessment form the basis of all 21st-century college accreditation, this puts English literary studies in a strange situation).

The MA program has necessarily, then, developed program learning goals and student learning outcomes which work to speak true to our curriculum and to the needs of our accreditation requirements, while also remaining flexible and generic enough so as to not betray the more nebulous spirit and explorations of graduate English literature study.

Below are the MA in English Literature program’s current program learning goals:

  • Students will develop their knowledge and comprehension of a variety of literary texts (Program Learning Goal 1)
  • Students will develop their knowledge and comprehension of critical approaches and literary concepts (Program Learning Goal 2)
  • Students will develop their critical and creative thinking, and their research and writing skills, toward the aim of developing a professional-level proficiency in these areas (Program Learning Goal 3)

Below are the program’s four student learning outcomes. Such outcomes require an even more particular phrasing: they must signal something that a student is expected to be able to do at the end of coursework, as a result of coursework, that they could not do, or could not do as well, at the start of coursework. So: By the end of the MA English Literature program, students are expected to be able to:

  • Analyze and interpret literary texts (Student Learning Outcome 1)
  • Apply critical approaches and concepts to the analysis and interpretation of literary texts (Student Learning Outcome 2)
  • Conduct research relevant to the field, and evaluate source quality (Student Learning Outcome 3)
  • Create original research topics and produce writings on those topics which demonstrate clear writing and accurate documentation style (Student Learning Outcome 4)

In one way or another those goals and outcomes undergird all of the curriculum in the MA English Literature program. If anyone has any questions about any of this, feel free to contact the Program Director at cloots@mercy.edu. Thank you.

Career Advice, English Learning Assistants (formerly Teaching Assistants), Student News

Call for Applications: FALL 2022 English Learning Assistants (formerly known as Teaching Assistants)

We are now accepting applications for fall 2022 online English Learning Assistants (ELAs). This is the next-step in the evolution of our graduate teaching-assistantship program.

The deadline for submitting the required materials is: July 1, 2022.

Details about the ELA position’s responsibilities and requirements, and pay, as well as detailed instructions for applying, are in the PDF linked here.

All questions regarding the ELA position and application process should be directed to Emily Cunningham, Assistant Program Director of IREPO, at: ecunningham3@mercy.edu

Experience as an ELA can be a valuable line-item in a curriculum vitae. And assisting in a classroom will provide a first-hand look at, and real-time experience with, how an actual college composition course unfolds over a semester. We strongly encourage anyone in the MA program who hopes to pursue a PhD, or to teach at all in the future, to apply.

ELA positions are limited.

Annual Grad Student Symposium, Student News

Year-End Events and Honors: Symposium, Student Awards, and Commencement

It’s the end of the academic year, which means it’s time to celebrate! One way we celebrate, as a graduate community, is with the annual graduate student symposium, which this year was held live-online at the end of April. Eight grad students presented a variety of scholarly and creative work. Four graduate faculty members moderated the different sessions. Other program faculty, and an Associate Provost of the college, were in attendance, as were a number of other active MA students and alumni. It was an interesting, idea-filled, and collegial event. Click the banner below to see the program for the event, and to get a look at the topics on which students presented:

Another way we celebrate the end of the academic year is by awarding four different program distinctions. The first of these is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie who established and long chaired Mercy College’s English Program. The award, determined by the collective graduate faculty, recognizes one graduating student for their consistent academic excellence and classroom performance throughout their time in the graduate program, their other contributions to the program’s scholarly learning community, and their relevant accomplishments beyond the program.

  • The winner of the 2022 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Cera Bryant Fornataro 

Next is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, a long-time and highly-esteemed professor of English at Mercy College who (among many other things) taught Shakespeare and Science Fiction, and advocated that the latter could be as meaningful an area of study, could be as “literary” and as significant, as the former. This award recognizes a thesis that does one or some of the following: approaches literary analysis in a unique, unexpected, or unusual way; reconsiders and otherwise treats with dignity genre fiction; or involves interdisciplinary studies.

  • The winner of the 2022 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is John Alleman for his study “Revision and Women in a Selection of Alan Moore’s Comics”

Next we have the Thesis Award for English Studies. “English Studies” is an encompassing term that includes literary study and traditional literary pursuits but also enfolds wider practices in the field of English such as: theory, linguistics, writing, and rhetoric; inquiring into research practices, into English curriculum and canon, and into the teaching of English; exploring aspects of digital literacy; and more. This thesis award therefore recognizes an exceptional thesis that tends to the intra-disciplinary thresholds within the field of English.

  • The winner of the 2022 Thesis Award for English Studies is Melissa Lizotte for her study “Empowering Student Writers: A Genre Approach to Teaching the College Admissions Essay”

Lastly we have the overall Thesis of the Year Award. Selecting one study for this award, as much as for any of the thesis awards, is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program regularly create excellent studies that are each worthy in their own right. The paper receiving this distinction stood out in all respects.

  • The winner of the 2022 Thesis of the Year Award is Cera Bryant Fornataro for her study “Intersectional Mysticism: Tarot, Hoodoo, Folk Magic, and the Working Conjure Woman in Select Works by Sandra Cisneros and Zora Neale Hurston.”

It is always a strange thing to announce such distinctions as when doing so one can’t help but think of the marvelous students and studies that are not the ones named. Again, it is extraordinarily difficult for faculty judges to locate any single person to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each year from our program and the college overall. So as we recognize these honorees let us please also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2021-22 for their hard work and dedication that has gotten them to this moment of completing their MA degree in English Literature.

One final way we celebrate the end of the academic year is with commencement. Mercy College held five different commencements over the course of the past week, one for each of Mercy’s five schools (Liberal Arts, Health & Natural Sciences, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Education, and Business). The School of Liberal Arts, in which our MA program is housed, held commencement this past Wednesday. A good number of graduate English students were in attendance and walked in the procession. Below is a shot of the 100-yard tent on the western athletic field under which the event was held, this taken a few hours prior to the ceremony.

Cheers to everyone in the MA English Literature program, to our alumni, and to all of your family and friends. Congratulations to our graduating class of 2021-22. I hope that everyone will do something special, something nice for yourselves, to celebrate in your own way the end of the academic year, and the start of the summer. Onward!

Student News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Info about the SLA Graduation (Commencement) Ceremony on 5/18

This Wednesday, 5/18, the School of Liberal Arts (SLA) will hold its graduation commencement ceremony on the Dobbs Ferry campus. Below you can see the tent being set up for the event on the western athletic field.

For any graduating students traveling to campus to attend here are a few things you should know:

First, the SLA event runs from 2pm to 4pm. Earlier that day, from 10am to noon, is the School of Business’s (SBUS) commencement ceremony. No one knows if the two hour window between the two events will be adequate for the SBUS attendees to exit the campus to clear the venue and parking spots for the SLA attendees arriving. This is the first time the college is holding commencement at the Dobbs Ferry campus so there are a lot of unknowns. The college’s other schools are holding their commencement ceremonies on other days this week.

Anyone who has registered for commencement should have received a temporary parking permit. You must have a parking permit to drive onto the campus. Security will turn you around at the campus entrance otherwise. If you have registered for the event but have not received a temp parking permit, contact cloots@mercy.edu immediately. FYI the Ardsley on Hudson Metro North station, on the MTA Hudson River Line, is just through those trees on the right side of the above image.

There will be coffee, water, snacks, bathrooms, and a place for our graduating MA English students (and other SLA students) and their families to sit prior to the event in the Gratia Maher Hall conference room. The room will be open from about 11:45am until about 1:30pm. Faculty will be moving in and out of the building that day in preparation for the ceremony, but you might see a few familiar faces in passing if you’re sitting in Maher Hall that afternoon.

Of course you don’t need to attend commencement to actually graduate. Commencement is a purely ceremonial event. Everyone who has met all of the requirements for the MA degree will be conferred their degree this month. Your physical diploma will be mailed out later, over the summer, but you will officially hold the MA degree once it has been conferred by the Registrar of the college. Any questions write to cloots@mercy.edu.

This is the director's blog for the Mercy College MA in English Literature Program. This is not the official College site. The purpose of this is to share news and other information to help MA graduate students stay current with the state of the program and navigate the MA degree. Students in the program should check here regularly to learn about upcoming registration periods, course schedules, and other news.