Bring Dr. PD Back to Auburn University
- by: Kat Privett-Duren
- recipient: The College of Liberal Arts of Auburn University
After serving as a teacher of record (including time as a Graduate Student) for almost thirteen years, Dr. Katharyn Privett-Duren has been terminated without cause from Auburn University's English Department. Dr. PD, as she is known to her students, has won Instructor of the Year twice (2006 and 2014) and is honored by a Facebook fan club in her name. Named often in school periodicals and newspapers as one of the "Best Teachers at Auburn," Dr. PD (an alumni, herself) has served Auburn's student body as a teacher of Composition and Literature.
The decision to terminate her injures both the teaching faculty base of her department as well as the student body, as a whole. Let's not let her go down without protest, Auburn! Stand with Dr. PD and let the College of Liberal Arts hear your voices!
Signed,
One Grateful English Major
Send individual letters of petition to:
Dean Joe Aistrup
College of Liberal Arts
Phone: (334) 844-2183 Email: jaa0025@auburn.edu Office: 331 Tichenor Hall Mailing Address: 302 Tichenor Hall | Auburn University, AL 36849-5203
Dear College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University:
It has come to our attention that our beloved teacher, Dr. Katharyn Privett-Duren, has been terminated from the English Department after years of dedicated service to her students and the university as a whole. Such an act impacts more than Dr. Privett-Duren.
There are very few teachers--especially ones with limited incomes and contingent faculty status--who work to assure that students are fully engaged with their education. Dr. P.D., as we call her, is one such teacher. She has inspired countless students to continue at Auburn University, as well as to go on to apply for graduate degrees and successfully engage in worthy careers. Students are changed in her classes. Rather than simply teaching toward bare minimum requirements, Dr. P.D. reaches further in an effort to push her students and their learning to a higher realm. We walk out of her semester loving texts again, possessing writing tools and written voices that otherwise may have never surfaced in another course.
Simply put, many of us credit her with our current successes in our lives. Dr. P.D., more than many other teachers, cares deeply for her classes and it shows. In terminating Dr. Katharyn Privett-Duren, you are terminating a serious cog in the wheel of our education at Auburn University. Such dedication and inspiration should be rewarded rather than discarded and is in direct affront to our creed:
THE AUBURN CREED I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work. I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully. I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men. I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities. I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all. I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all. I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God." And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it. -George Petrie (1945)
Please consider the body of evidence of her work, her evaluations and her greatest proof of fine teaching: the opinion of her students and colleagues. We write in defense of Dr. Privett-Duren, but also in support of the teacher who has changed the lives of so many and asked for so little in return.
War Eagle,
Auburn University Alumni, Students, Friends and Supporters for
Dr. Katharyn Privett-Duren
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