Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2016 Public Subjects: Wayne State, Institutional Texts, And Public Rhetoric Michael Mcginnis Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Other Communication Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Mcginnis, Michael, "Public Subjects: Wayne State, Institutional Texts, And Public Rhetoric" (2016). Wayne State University Dissertations. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState.
PUBLIC SUBJECTS: WAYNE STATE, INSTITUTIONAL TEXTS, AND PUBLIC RHETORIC by MICHAEL MCGINNIS DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2015 ENGLISH Approved By: Advisor Date © COPYRIGHT BY MICHAEL MCGINNIS 2015 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of two people who I wish could have seen its completion and defense. First, to my grandfather Richard Linville, whose eclectic habits as reader (and hoarder) of books I have inherited, and whose self-evident love of writing and the written word has been and continues to be a model to which I aspire. Second, to my dear friend Ryan Hagerman, whose ravenous appetite and capacity for language I can never hope to match. This work is for the both of them.
Excelsior! ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are obviously far too many people to properly thank (and this dissertation is long enough already), so first let me promise that for every person acknowledged here I am likely forgetting at least a half-dozen others. So to the unduly forgotten and unfairly overlooked, my thanks, and my apologies. My first proper thanks go to Ellen Barton, the director of my dissertation committee. Without Ellen’s confidence in me, this dissertation would not have been finished; without her rigorous and careful reading, it would not have been as strong as it is; without her guidance and direction, it would not have been as rich a learning experience.
I thank also the other members of my committee, Richard Marback, Jeff Pruchnic, and Sue Wells. Richard and Jeff both deserve my thanks for their patience (having served on my earlier dissertation committee) as much as for their thoughtful and productive comments on the project. Sue, who joined the committee late in the day, has nevertheless offered careful and attentive readings of this material that have consistently pointed to ways to improve my arguments, and for this she has my ardent gratitude. I would also thank Jenny Rice; although she ultimately had to withdraw from the committee, I am grateful that she volunteered to serve on the committee for as long as she did.
These acknowledgements would be incomplete without thanks to the other members of the fascinating and wonderful collection of people in the Wayne State English Department— some who still call Wayne State their institutional home, and some who do not. I’d like to thank the following members of the English Department faculty: Jeff Rice, for making rhetoric and composition enticing in the first place; Jonathan Flatley, for serving on my qualifying exam and prospectus committees; Ruth Ray, for modeling the kind of teacher I hope someday to become; Gwen Gorzelsky and Francie Ranney, for their informed and engaging comments on my iii teaching; Caroline Maun, who as graduate director has made navigating the bureaucratic niceties of completing my degree transparent and graceful; and Richard Marback and Jeff Pruchnic (again!) for many happy hours spent in seminar. I am thankful as well for English Department staff, including Kay Stone and Alisia Taylor, without whom life as a graduate student would have been more confusing than it already is; and Royanne Smith, who knew even when I was an undergraduate that I’d end up here someday. My immense thanks, affection, and gratitude go also to the many friends and comrades I’ve made among Wayne State graduate students and GTAs past and present: Jill Morris, Ellen Donaghy, Jared Grogan, Mark Brown, Kim Lacey, Conor Shaw-Draves, Whitney Hardin, Adrienne Jankens, Derek Risse, Mike Ristich, Clay Walker, Wendy Duprey, Jessica Rivait, and Donora Hillard—all of whom have been welcome companions and colleagues.
I would like too to thank a number of friends and associates outside my academic life. I need not specify their contributions, but these individuals all deserve my thanks: Michelle Dunaj, Brian Piscopink, Edward Anderson, Dani Cox, Jennifer Bint, and Devon Hagerman. I want to thank my many acquaintances and friends on Twitter as well. Some of these know me as an academic (Andrew Pilsch, Eric Detweiler, Ryan Milner, and Jonathon Maricle among them) but most know me as either a Muppet or a ghost with a fondness for bad puns and teasing banter.
To the #MildSauceCrew, much thanks for their support and camaraderie (Weird Twitter is about the Community!); I especially want to thank Mike (@MrMichaelRose), Vic (@TheVictasticK), Tim (@rappingskeleton), Glenn (@justabloodygame), Rebecca (@somecleverthing), Willow (@angrymolar), Travis (@Prof_Hinkley), Sean (@seandunn76), and Joel (@omically) for their contributions to my online canon. iv Finally, and most especially, my thanks go to my family: my aunts, Kathleen Linville and Barbara St. John, for their love, support, and devotion; and my uncle, Michael St. John, for his love and for many holidays spent in spirited debate.
Above all, thanks go to my mother, Deborah McGinnis, without whose love, care, and support both material and emotional none of this could have been possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION. III LIST OF FIGURES. VII CHAPTER ONE: "'ABOUT US:' WAYNE STATE AND ITS PUBLICS".
1 CHAPTER TWO: “‘A WHOLLY NEW TYPE OF UNIVERSITY:’ WAYNE STATE’S FIRST CENTURY”. 49 CHAPTER THREE: “‘SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS:’ WILLIAM REA KEAST, WAYNE STATE, AND THE URBAN UNIVERSITY IDEAL”. 117 CHAPTER FOUR: "'A UNIVERSITY OF OPPORTUNITY:' WAYNE STATE, TECHTOWN, AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY". 177 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION: THEORY AND METHOD.
327 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Wayne State “About Us” Webpage (January 2014). 3 Figure 2: Wayne State’s main campus is represented by the shaded area above. 5 Figure 3: Wayne State “About Us” Page (October 2013). 8 Figure 4: Wayne State and its Publics.
38 Figure 5: Wayne State “History” Webpage (July 2014). 57 Figure 6: Wayne State’s main campus, circa 1936 (Hanawalt 229). 76 Figure 7: Table of Contents, Wayne State Undergraduate University Bulletin 1997-1999. 94 Figure 8: Table of Contents (continued), Wayne State Undergraduate University Bulletin 1997- 1999.
95 Figure 9: TechTown Detroit Webpage (April 2015). 180 Figure 10: TechTown Detroit and Wayne State University. 194 Figure 11: Tech One, TechTown’s main office and the former site of GM’s Chevy Creative Services. 229 Figure 12: TechTown WSU splash page, circa 2003, via the Internet Archive (April 2015).
232 Figure 13: TechTown WSU website, circa 2004, via the Internet Archive (June 2015). 243 Figure 14: TechTown WSU website, circa 2005, via the Internet Archive (June 2015). 245 Figure 15: TechTown WSU website, circa 2010-12, via the Internet Archive (June 2015). 249 Figure 16: TechTown Detroit website, circa 2012, via the Internet Archive (June 2015).
251 Figure 17: SWOT City engagement cycle (“TechTown Overview [10 Jan. 266 vii 1 CHAPTER ONE: “‘ABOUT US:’ WAYNE STATE AND ITS PUBLICS” We have been deeply connected to Detroit since our founding, when those wounded Civil War veterans watched the carpenters working on a hot summer day in 1868. Today, we find ourselves connected during an unprecedented time in history: a time when a once great American city went into decline; a time when the city had to confront difficult truths and enter into deep self-reflection; a time of renewed commitment and of optimism for re-emergence; a time of immense opportunity to do the right things and make a difference. Wayne State will remain fully engaged in making a positive difference for Detroit.
This is a part of our local mission, and our impact in this regard is tangible. But our impact extends far beyond. Roy Wilson, Inaugural Address, April 2014 Introduction Like many university websites, Wayne State University’s site is at once both marketing device and a rhetorically strategic representation of the ideals and goals claimed by the university. Many of the features available on Wayne State’s website are what you would expect from a university’s site: information for prospective and current students (and their parents); links to virtual campus tours; access to the more than 370 academic programs offered by the university; news and announcements about campus events and notable achievements by members of the university community.
These links present the university and its programs in predictably appealing, attractive (if maybe idealized) terms—students walking across campus on a sunny fall day; researchers at work in their labs; fans rallying at a Division II football game. Browsing a little further into the website, though, reveals much more interesting depictions of the work and character of the university. Following a link to the university’s “About Us” page (http://wayne.edu/about/), users encounter a snapshot description of the university’s history, enrollment figures, and campuses and extension centers (as seen in Figure 1 below). Immediately following these descriptions, the “About Us” page presents readers with the 2 University’s “Urban mission,” which claims that “As a nationally recognized urban public research university, Wayne State's mission is to create knowledge and prepare a diverse body of students to excel in an increasingly complex and global society” (“About Us”).
Surely, this finely wrought description is no accident. It marks Wayne State out among other universities by accreting categories upon one another. Repeatedly, the “About Us” page depicts Wayne State not just as a public university, or even as a public research university, but very specifically as a public urban research university. Yet among these categories, it is urban that seems to be most determinant of the university’s mission as described here, the most weighted descriptor of the kind of university Wayne State envisions itself to be.
For example, this page describes the university’s vision of becoming “the model public research university engaged in the urban community” [emphasis mine]; the university pledges itself to five overarching goals in service of this vision: —Promote an exceptional learning experience. —Improve the university’s stature as a nationally-ranked research institution. —Nurture a strong and dynamic campus community. —Sustain our role as an engaged university in an urban environment.
—Diversify and broaden the university’s funding base. Taken together, these goals articulate the university administration’s ambition to “remain one of the nation’s most respected public research universities.” However, the mission statement continues, clarifying that national recognition is not an end in itself. Rather, “what matters most is how Wayne State’s progress as shaped by these goals will position the university to benefit its students and, ultimately, its city, state, nation and the world.” 3 Figure 1: Wayne State “About Us” Webpage (January 2014) It would be easy to read this statement of mission and be skeptical of its ambition and optimism. Admittedly, my own long affiliation with Wayne State as student and instructor prompts me to do so; like any large institution, Wayne State embraces change only slowly, and Wayne State’s funding and prestige problems have their own long and complex histories.
However, I’m interested in this document not in order to have fun at its (or the university’s) expense, but instead because I intend to argue that this document, like others to be considered later in this dissertation, situates the university as a public subject. Within these terms, describing an institution like Wayne State as a public subject is meant to invite analysis of the ways an institution engages matters of public concern and responds to other subjects within the publics it inhabits.