Mina P. Shaughnessy - Transition Into Higher Education

Transition Into Higher Education

In 1956, Mina and Don returned from Italy. She applied for dozens of teaching positions at the collegiate level without success. Instead, she accepted a position at McGraw Hill as an editor. She would work at McGraw until 1961 and be responsible for editing major books and supervising other editors. Shaughnessy’s time at McGraw would be invaluable to her at City College. "For five years, she edited the writing of some of the most prominent scientists and engineers in their respective fields. If they could not write well after having attended the best universities in the country, why should students who had just graduated from some of the worst high schools in the country be expected to have adequate writing skills upon entering college" (70-71).

In 1961, Shaughnessy resigned from McGraw Hill and enlisted to teach night courses in composition and literature at Hunter College. She would teach these night classes at Hunter for five years. In 1962, she assisted Raymond Fosdick again in researching educational trends and policies in the South. In 1964, Shaughnessy accepted a full-time position at Hofstra, where she would teach until 1967, a full-time day position in an English department. At Hofstra, Shaughnessy taught freshman composition, and advanced writing and grammar courses. During this time, she met many other faculty members who would support her in open admissions, such as Alice Stewart Trillin and Marilyn French.

In 1967, both Alice and Mina were offered positions to teach at City College of New York as part of the Pre-Baccalaureate Program. This program sought to increase the chances of higher education for those traditionally barred from entering colleges and universities because of their grades or lack of money. The program offered counseling, stipends, and remedial classes to help these students gain the skills they would need to succeed in college. Leslie Berger, a City College psychology professor who would become involved in City’s remedial writing program, saw Alice and Mina’s practical experience as vital in educating the remedial writers that would flood City. The Pre-Baccalaureate Program would be renamed SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) and continued to grow. As Shaughnessy was beginning to teach at City, Anthony Penale suffered a heart attack, and Shaughnessy was quickly recommended to replace him as the director of the program.

Director of English Program of the SEEK Program at City College ==

As Shaughnessy began her directorship of the SEEK program at City College, she established several priority goals to create an awareness of the program’s importance and raise its status and the status of those that worked for it. She encountered much resistance to the SEEK program. Faculty across City College, especially within the English department, felt that by allowing these non-traditional students into the College, the standards of learning would be lowered and this would cause the downfall of higher education in America. Many of the teachers who worked for the SEEK program were accused of incompetence and being underqualified to teach at a higher institutions; they frequently cited Mina’s lack of a PhD as reason enough, despite her extensive experience, to deny her promotions and credibility. The SEEK staff felt ostracized by the English department and were not given office space to help the students who most needed the help of professors.

One way Shaughnessy worked to elevate the status of the SEEK program was to treat basic writing as a field of academic scholarship. Her colleagues remember that she was the first one most of them had met that “was making a formal, scholarly inquiry into the teaching of ‘basic’ writing” (97). In order to do this she studied the theories and concepts of sociolinguistics, grammar, and sociology. She also hired talented people and relied on their input as well. She refused to lower the standards, but sought to create a pedagogy that would bring these disadvantaged students up to the standards (99). Several of the material results from these staff meetings, her research, and observing the needs of the SEEK students were the creation of a Writing Center, a summer language workshop, a curriculum and textbooks for teaching basic writing that required among other things weekly one-on-one teacher-student conferences, and the concept of writing across curriculum (138).

Shaughnessy’s approach to teaching basic writing is outlined in the advice she gave to someone who was starting a basic writing program: 1) work harder than you have ever worked before, 2) develop a camaraderie among the teachers of basic writing, 3) recruit senior faculty, and 4) look like you are having fun (96). Mina was known to students, faculty, and friends as someone who continually carried exam blue books, went to work early and came home late. No one denied that she worked hard. She worked to develop faculty camaraderie through holding frequent staff meetings where the teachers could become acquainted and share their experiences. She also felt that by having senior faculty in the basic writing program, they could lend not only their experience but also their influence and support to the program to elevate its status.

While there were many protests across the nation and on City College campus to grant admittance to increased numbers of non-traditional students, Shaughnessy fought solely in the classroom. She preferred to give her students the tools of reading and writing as a way to give them power (114). She felt this would enable them to prove their capability and competency when given the opportunities denied them by the educational system. None of the SEEK students were ignorant of her vigorous efforts to get them higher education and many greatly appreciated her help.