By Jaci Schneider, Opinion Editor
Dr. Jonathan Wade, assistant professor of English and assistant director of honors studies, announced his resignation from the university Monday.
He will complete the fall semester and move to Cullowhee, N.C., in December, where he will take the position of center fellow at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
“I’m not leaving ACU because I dislike it or have any hard feelings,” Wade said.
He said that the overwhelming reason for his decision is that the center is five minutes away from his wife’s parents’ home. He said he wants his two children, ages three and six, to grow up with their grandparents.
Wade was scheduled to teach one honors Bible class and two English courses next spring.
“It really just came up in the last two or three weeks,” he said. “It was a now-or-never sort of thing.”
The center where Wade will work is part of the University of North Carolina system. He will teach about 12 renewal seminars a year for public school teachers.
After four years of teaching at ACU, Wade’s absence will be noticed in the English and Honors departments next semester.
Dr. Chris Willerton, director of the Honors Program and professor of English, said he is trying to arrange for a different teacher to take over the Honors Bible class Wade was supposed to teach.
“Long-term, I don’t know what will happen,” Willerton said. “I don’t know how we’ll fill his position. We’re going to redistribute his duties for one year at least.”
Aside from scrambling to reschedule Wade’s classes, the departments must deal with the loss of a popular teacher.
“It’s a loss, no doubt about that,” Willerton said. “He’s popular with his students and a very affective teacher.”
Dr. Nancy Shankle, chair of the Department of English, said she is also working to reschedule classes next semester.
“I’m looking for a part-time teacher,” she said. “We may wait to offer the classes next fall so we can find a teacher with matching qualification to Dr. Wade.”
She said she has been looking at students’ schedules, and the rescheduling shouldn’t affect any graduating this May. She also said that she will ask the Dr. Colleen Durrington, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, for permission to hire someone on a tenure track to replace Wade.
“We’re very sorry to lose him,” Shankle said. “He is a wonderful member of the English Department.”
Although Willerton and Shankle will feel the loss of Wade in their departments, they said they appreciate Wade’s contribution to campus.
“It’s better to have a brilliant teacher for a few years than to never have had him at all,” Willerton said.
