College Sues Saying its Poetry Program was Stolen

Poetry, if anything, definitely depends on the concept of the "single author" in order to remain legitimate. So it makes sense to me, that if any program were to allege that it has been stolen by another institution, it would be a poetry program. I just can't imagine something like this happening with a "digital rhetoric" program, for example, although I suppose it's possible.

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education contains a headline: "In Lawsuit, New England College Says its Poetry Program was Stolen." The article reports: "New England College has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the former director of its master’s-degree program in poetry stole faculty members and students from the New Hampshire institution and re-created the program at Drew University, in New Jersey." The full article is here: http://chronicle.com/jobs/blogs/onhiring/794

The Concord Monitor article is located here: http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081123/FRONTPAGE/811230350

The Monitor article quotes Peter Callaghan, "a Concord employment lawyer who regularly litigates cases in federal court," and hasn't worked on the case but has read the files, as stating: "if the facts are as New England College has alleged, the court will have to decide whether Macari was working for Drew University while she was being paid by NEC." He points out that employees are supposed to be working exclusively for their employers.

The problem as I see it, is the instructor involved, based on my reading of these news articles and not the case files at this point, was an adjunct. The news articles are unclear, but it appears that she was an adjunct at least part of the time when the events of the case unfolded. Adjuncts by nature often work at multiple institutions simultaneously. When I did this, it was common practice to use the same teaching materials at various institutions in order to work as efficiently as possible. It seems to me, by the nature of the beast, adjuncts always already work for "competing" employers simultaneously.

Apparently, at least according to the Monitor, "In a letter to the Drew University president, NEC President Michelle Perkins expressed concern that Macari had also made off with NEC's proprietary information like inquiry lists for recruiting future students."

What an interesting situation. A case like this should leave no doubt in any one's mind that the educational institution is indeed a business, in the most material way, and that evidence of its business nature can even been seen in the poetry department.