The English Department’s Internal War

This flow tracks the department’s chronic rivalries as they surface through hiring, grievances, shifting alliances, and a bitter recall vote.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Search Without Candidates

A Chair Search Stalls Institutional Delay The English Department receives permission to search for a new chair, then encounters missing funding, a hiring freeze, and shrinking administrative support. Most applicants withdraw, leaving only three candidates from an original field of two hundred. Conflict in Place of Choice The remaining candidates are judged partly through departmental anxieties about fields, status, gender, and competition. The search gives a divided faculty another arena in which to rehearse its distrust.

Gracie’s Grievance

Professional Turf An Apology with Conditions Gracie visits Hank after injuring him and says she wants to separate personal conflict from professional matters. She apologizes, then announces that she will file a grievance against him. A Departmental Threat Her grievance reflects insecurity about hiring a potential rival and fear that her work will be pushed aside. She also warns Hank that Finny is exploring a recall, making professional resentment part of an organized campaign.

Orshee’s Moral Reversal

Tenure and Principle A Young Colleague Reconsiders Orshee worries that his earlier call to exclude male candidates and vote against his own tenure may have been misunderstood. He wants tenure while remaining uneasy about whether he deserves it. Choices Become Political He faces pressure over whether to support Hank or join the recall effort, with a house purchase and his professional future in the balance. The episode shows how quickly abstract principles become personal stakes.

Rules Decide the Recall

Procedure as Power A Miscounted Threshold Finny and other colleagues believe a two-thirds majority is enough to recall Hank. Rachel discovers in the English Department’s operating paper that the required threshold is three-fourths. A Vote Against Hank Despite the procedural distinction, the department holds its vote and recalls him by eighteen to nine. The rule exposes the importance of institutional memory, but it does not repair the distrust that brought the vote about.

The Department Keeps Going

A Temporary Settlement New Assignments The university’s restructuring sends Orshee toward a new job, gives Finny time to finish his dissertation, and offers Billy Quigley another position. Teddy wins a later election to become chair. No Final Reconciliation The changes rearrange responsibilities without transforming the department’s habits. Old alliances remain fragile, and colleagues still depend on grievance, gossip, and uneasy humor to manage their shared institution.

from September through early April

early in the novel, after the personnel meeting

the afternoon before the recall meeting

the day of the English Department meeting

the summer after Hank’s removal