We are members, alumni and supporters of the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago where, for over forty years, students have learned to give their voices in story. Today we write to protest and question the college administration’s abrupt decision to refuse renewal of the contract of Randall Albers, Fiction Department Chair, after over 16 years of exemplary service.

This announcement was sent to Fiction Department faculty and staff via email at 6 p.m. Friday evening, February 24th by Eliza Nichols, Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts.  In the letter, Dean Nichols certainly had nothing but praise for Randy’s many accomplishments as Department Chair. He is—and this is inarguable even by Dean Nichols’s letter—an excellent writer, an inspiring teacher, a visionary, and a savvy businessperson. He is a force for positive creative energy. Anyone who has ever had a literary discussion with him, seen him striding down the hall, or spoken with him at one of the many literary events around town will testify to this. To his staff he upholds a commitment to excellence in both the art and craft of writing, as well as the teaching of writing. As many administrators and faculty throughout the college can attest, he is a fair, compassionate, and experienced negotiator. We are uniformly thankful for his ability to inspire and delight students, faculty, and visitors, and to create an amazing community in which to produce art.

During his 16 years as the Department Chair, Randy developed the Fiction Writing Department into one of the largest graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs in the country. We do not exaggerate when we say it is an extraordinary and special place. Randy has been a dedicated teacher since the 1970s. He earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago and served as the Fiction Writing Department’s Director of Faculty Development before his post as Chair began in 1996. One of his first achievements as Department Chair was the founding of the Story Week Festival of Writers which has grown into a nationally renowned event showcasing such writers and guests as Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, Junot Diaz, Sherman Alexie, Donna Seaman, Irvine Welsh, Francine Prose, ZZ Packer, Jennifer Egan, Stuart Dybek, Dennis Lehane, the late Hubert Selby Jr. and Studs Terkel, and countless others.  Randy has also helped establish Columbia College Chicago’s international presence by developing the Bath Spa International Student Exchange Program and the Prague Study Abroad Program. He has guided the development of countless students, respected authors and teachers.

The Fiction Writing Department embraces a number of teaching styles and approaches.  In addition to the Story Workshop approach which is used in five core classes, we offer specialty writing and genre courses, seminars and critical reading and writing courses, many of which are taught by talented writing and editing professionals who offer diverse methodologies and pedagogies integrated in a supportive and collegial writing community.  Our faculty has some of the highest evaluations and student retention rates in the College and this is a testament to Randy’s commitment to teaching excellence.

As Eliza Nichols herself noted in Friday’s letter, his credits and accomplishments are “beyond counting.” So the question remains: why wouldn’t Randall Albers, Teacher of the Year Award recipient, and repeat top ten finalist (this year #6) on New City’s “50 Most Influential Chicago Literary Figures” not be rehired as Chair?

This decision, one that was announced days before the Provost’s provisional recommendations regarding Department changes, has not been explained. We are forced to draw the conclusion that this comes down to two issues. One is the unfortunate fact that more and more institutions of learning—from grade schools to colleges—are focused on business rather than education. These decisions have been made despite the fact that CCC has, like many colleges, found resources to hire additional administrators while part-timers, 77% of CCC’s teaching faculty, work without a contract, health insurance and many benefits.

During the past year, while Randy Albers was on sabbatical, CCC was evaluated by Bob Dickeson’s consulting firm Academic Strategy Partners under the title “Blueprint Prioritization.”  During the process of this evaluation many things came to light.  First, Academic Strategy Partners has a history of “prioritizing” many faculty members out of jobs. Second, Bob Dickeson’s philosophy is business-based, and often sees things only in terms of dollars spent rather than value earned. For instance, his treatise on high college tuition rates suggests that tenured faculty are “costly” and “difficult for college administrators to remove,” but makes no mention of considering the value of someone with such experience.

This evaluation suggested a departmental restructuring.  The Fiction Department faculty welcomes that initiative.  We very much welcome the chance to collaborate with other teachers with whom we rarely get the opportunity to interact. In fact, Randy has long supported restructuring a new Creative Writing Department. He has a proven record of leading the Department through significant change and renewal while continually innovating and broadening the Department’s scope by adding classes and pedagogies including genre and other specialty writing courses, diverse Critical Reading and Writing courses, and the creation of the interdisciplinary Playwriting major. He has worked to create fruitful collaborations with the Journalism and English Departments to promote Creative Nonfiction Week and invited the English Department to be part of this year’s Story Week Festival. In short, Randy is integral to the forming of this new department.

So what does it mean when a visionary leader of Randy’s caliber is not rehired?  That a leader so integral to the largest student writing population in the school is left completely out of a departmental restructuring to create a new Creative Writing Department? That he is essentially demoted after 16 years of bringing his department national renown? It would certainly suggest an agenda to dissolve the Fiction Writing Department, and a move towards not rehiring a large group of part-time faculty members who have been teaching long enough to be deemed expensive, but not valuable.  We cannot ignore the recent troubles other colleges have experienced due to “managerial myopia.”

And we, the faculty who have been part of the family Randy has helped create in the Fiction Writing Department, will not allow this decision to go unaddressed.

How did the administration arrive at this decision? Why is the administration outpacing the phases of the process as initially presented? We request a Listening Forum, dedicated solely to all full- and part-time faculty and staff of Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and the Fiction Writing Department. We request that Dean Nichols, Acting Provost Louise Love, and at least one Board member be present at this forum.

The Columbia College motto esse quam videri means “to be, rather than to seem.” And we, the faculty, take that seriously. We will not accept a cheap and shoddy remixing of a Creative Writing Department that feigns inclusiveness and pretends to accept diversity, when it excludes one of the predominant pedagogies that has been a foundation for success.  We do not pretend that any restructuring of a Creative Writing Department can successfully happen without the input of one of the most visionary, talented, fair, and influential members of the Chicago writing community. We will not pretend that the administration has the students’ best interests at heart when decisions are being made to quell, without consulting faculty, a largely imagined “conflict” and cut costs in a department that has consistently expanded its student base. We will not pretend that this decision considers what is best for the future of all CCC writing majors, and we firmly believe it will undermine the reputation and mission of Columbia College Chicago.

We support CCC’s heritage and mission. This school was founded in 1890 with a grand tradition as the Columbia School of Oratory, where students developed communication skills through courses in elocution, voice culture, visible speech, literature and English—all of which are in some way alive and well in the Fiction Writing Department. It is possible to combine departments and create change in line with the college’s mission statement, without devaluing the very people who have helped build this institution. Moreover, in pursuit of this goal, it is short-sighted to devalue the Fiction Writing major and degree that employers across all industries highly regard and that our students and alumni have worked hard to earn (and for which they’ve paid considerable, ever-increasing tuition).

Columbia students are urged to “author the culture of their times.” We call upon the administration to make an effort to be inclusive, fair, and represent the type of communication to which we ask our students to aspire.  We ask students, parents, and alumni, the Chicago and national literary community, and all who value the written word and who believe in the power of a great story to recognize that there is a time to stand up and fight for our students and for the future of education.

We fight for Randall Albers.

To add your name to this petition, or to add a written, video or audio testimonial to this site, contact us or email albersforchair (at) gmail.com.