Last semester, it came to light that Andrea MacPherson, long-time creative writing professor, faculty advisor of the Louden Singletree, and artistic director of the Fraser Valley Literary Festival, is no longer employed at UFV.
In the weeks following her unannounced and strangely timed disappearance from UFV halls, a Change.org petition, demanding her reinstatement, and a Kudoboard filled with messages of thanks and gratitude, emerged.
Professor MacPherson’s UFV email account has been disabled, leaving students with no way of contacting her. On April 12, I reached out to professor MacPherson via Instagram direct messages, and received no response. The same day, I received a reply to the inquiry I had sent to John Pitcher, associate professor and English department head, which said that, “Mrs. MacPherson resigned her employment at the end of March,” and went on to say that delivery of the creative writing program, including the Fraser Valley Literary Festival, Writer in Residence program, and the Louden Singletree literary magazine, will continue as planned.
Dr. Michelle Superle, associate professor in UFV’s English department, and a close colleague of MacPherson, voiced her concerns about the situation in an email sent to several creative writing students, including myself, on April 13. She said that the statement that professor MacPherson resigned from UFV made her “uncomfortable on several levels,” pointing out that MacPherson “is extremely dedicated to her students and committed to her work at UFV,” that she had “no plans to retire or resign,” and that even if she had chosen to retire or resign, “it seems unlikely that she would do so in the middle of the semester without communicating with any students or colleagues.” Dr. Superle also stated that she reached out to MacPherson, who was able to confirm that neither her or her daughter are terminally ill. UFV administrators have refused to provide Dr. Superle with “any information about Andrea’s departure from UFV.”
On May 25, I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Superle and hear more of her thoughts on the situation. She reiterated what she had said in her prior email; that it doesn’t make any sense why professor MacPherson would resign, but that that’s the version of the truth that UFV is providing, adding that she finds the situation to be “very puzzling and disturbing.” She told me that she has worked closely with professor MacPherson for 18 years, and although they’re not technically teaching partners, they function as if they are. She went on to say that although MacPherson is “not allowed” to provide any additional information, she has said that she loves her job, and loves and misses her students.
“I feel like it’s also incredibly strange, and she definitely seemed sad to me … She was definitely not like, “Yeah, I’m doing this great new project. We’re happy to be moving on.” That was not the vibe I was getting.” Dr. Superle is considering hiring a private investigator to look into the situation, because it’s just “so strange.” She offered some insight about what has to happen for a professor’s position to be terminated, “for a professor to get hired, and for a professor to get tenured at UFV. It involves many, many, many people … it’s a process with many, many steps. That goes on for a long, long time, like months … And so by the time somebody has been hired that’s been approved by many administrators, many colleagues and so on, which is as it should be.”
While many people have to approve a professor being hired, it only takes two people for a professor’s position to be terminated. “There is a line in our contract in the collective agreement that says that any faculty member can be dismissed at any time for anything that is considered “breach of trust” … but breach of trust is not defined. So it’s open to [the] interpretation of these two people.” Dr. Superle went on to say that one of the two people currently in charge of making these decisions used to work for a Christian organization, and pointed out that MacPherson is very outspoken about things that could be controversial in the Bible Belt, including diversity, feminism, and sex positivity.
When I asked Dr. Superle if she was concerned about losing her own position, she said that MacPherson “has the respect and trust and buy-in of her students. She’s an excellent, excellent, excellent professor. Excellent writer. Excellent colleague. Impeccable credentials and track record. Like you couldn’t find anything on her if you try. So I am also a good instructor, a good colleague. All of those things. Could somebody come along and say something I did could be breach of trust, is doing this interview breach of trust? I have no idea because it’s not defined.” She said that while she is concerned about her position, she wants “this information to be publicly available to students and anyone and everyone else in the community … I love my job and I don’t want to leave my job. But … I’m very uncomfortable working for and being affiliated with an institution where this kind of thing is happening … I’m being told that my colleague has resigned. My colleague is telling me she can’t give me any information about this. She seems sad. She loves her job. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Dr. Superle also reflected on how this situation has affected her personally, “I’m literally grieving. I say to people like I actually basically lost two weeks of productive work time because I was so distraught about it. And I would say to people, “I’m sorry, I’m not functioning very well right now because I’ve lost a colleague. She was my teaching partner of 18 years,” and they’d be like, “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.” I would say, “well, she actually, she didn’t pass away. She’s still alive but she has left the institution and I don’t understand why or how.””
While UFV administrators have failed to provide adequate information about the situation, and while they insist that their band-aid solution will fix the gaping wound in the English department, a feeling of unease settles over students and colleagues of professor MacPherson’s. What happened to our beloved professor? And why are we being left in the dark?
Aasha is a BA student, working her way slowly and steadily towards graduating with a major in English concentrating in creative writing and a minor in philosophy. When she’s not busy with her studies, she’s hanging out with her dog, Hendrix, and spending as much time outdoors as possible.