Ivy Tech, as an institution, has been around for more than 50 years, and Ivy Tech Northeast has been around for nearly that long (we’re five years behind). In that amount of time, it’s only natural for the community to develop a certain viewpoint or opinion of the College: that of a technical or vocational school.
And why not? The College did start out as Indiana Vocational Technical College. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for foreign language and writing classes. Its name didn’t change until 1995, to Ivy Tech State College, then to “Community College” in 2000. Institutional memory is long, and Fort Wayne’s lifers will continue to hear the “tech” in “Ivy Tech” long after this blog post.
Which may make it surprising to some that the College employs a number of published authors. Because community colleges don’t grant tenure, there’s no pressure for its faculty to publish; but, as English instructor Paula Ashe points out, when you teach writing and/or literature, publishing is sort of what you do.
She shares a story of one student who googled her before the first day of class and found her Amazon author page.
“‘You have a book.’ His face was shocked,” she says, and she told him, “Yes, I do. Lots of faculty here have books because we write.”
While this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the published work of Ivy Tech faculty, here are some pieces for your reading pleasure:
- “Served Cold: Tales of Revenge and Redemption,” by Gloria Diaz, adjunct faculty in academic skills advancement (A collection of short stories)
- “Resuscitivity,” by Troy Bigelow, English assistant professor (A book of original poems)
- “Four Ghosts” (A compilation of four novellas, including Ashe’s “Mater Nihil”; watch her read an excerpt below)
- “The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World,” by John Morrow, foreign languages professor (a nonfiction work about covenants Muhammad made with Christian communities)
Inside Ivy Tech 