I. Prehistory to 1977
The history of the New York College English Association—though not ancient—is somewhat hazy; no doubt this is true in part to several name changes that have occurred. Until 1975 it was known as Upstate New York CEA; since then it has been called Northern New York, Upper New York, and, finally, simply New York CEA.

However, that is only part of the haziness, for the New York territorial designation [prior to 1975] was shared with another organization, the Greater New York CEA, which included New Jersey. Although his geographic division had theoretic merit, it was never entirely satisfactory; the New Jersey members of the GNY-CEA—a dynamic group—began to entertain thoughts of becoming a state regional.

Meanwhile, the Upstate New York group — also called the New York State CEA—began to lose its cohesion. In 1975, Barbara Hardy (SUC at Oswego) was named as liaison to other professional groups. Determined not to let the organization collapse, Barbara organized a session on American literature which was presented as part of the Fall 1975 NYSEC conference in Buffalo. During this meeting, a number of individuals from upstate colleges and universities adopted a constitution and a rejuvenated organization emerged with Barbara as president.

Barbara acquired a valuable ally whose talents for organization provided great support when Elizabeth Turpin (Clarkson College) became vice president. Despite the fact that membership was at only fourteen, the two initiated the NYCEA Newsletter (underwritten by the Clarkson Department of Humanities) in an effort to publicize plans of the organization. Another joint session with NYSEC was undertaken in Fall 1976 at Lake Kiamesha. But both Barbara and Betty realized that growth was somehow hampered by the existence of two regionals within New York State. It was Betty who proposed the solution— the separation of the New Jersey constituency to form its own regional, and formation of a New York CEA combining both upstate and downstate constituencies.

The initial occasion for discussion of this proposal was the 1977 Spring meeting at Cooper Union College, when representatives of both the New York and New Jersey groups agreed that separation was not only logical but feasible. It remained only to present the reorganization to the national CEA Board of Directors. As a newly elected member of the national board, Barbara was able to present the plan at the national's annual meeting in San Antonio that spring. Authorization for the formation of a new affiliate, the New Jersey College English Association, also cleared the way for establishing a unified New York affiliate. Now, a year later, both groups are thriving; the separation has proved to be a happy solution for NYCEA and NJCEA.

In a real sense, Barbara Hardy and Elizabeth Turpin made it all possible.

Frances F. Dean
Rhode Island College

The success that NYCEA—and its founders, Barbara Hardy and Elizabeth Turpin—was to enjoy became evident in Fall 1977 when the organization held its first conference at Clarkson College’s Woodstock Lodge. About sixty people attended. Papers and workshops were presented by individuals, not only from the New York City and upstate areas, but from Pennsylvania (Temple University and Kutztown State College) and Rhode Island. The keynote speech was delivered by H. Alan Wycherley, past president of CEA, who spoke on declining standards in the schools. Robert Hacke, the executive secretary of CEA, addressed the association members during the all-conference luncheon.

A new slate of officers was named to continue the work of NYCEA at the Clarkson meeting, one which attested to the geographic range and varied institutions from which the association was now drawing members—Frances Dean of Rhode Island College became president; John Joyce of Nazareth College of Rochester, vice president and newsletter editor; Ralph H. Jackson, Bronx Community College, secretary-treasurer; Barbara Hardy, SUC at Oswego, liaison to the national CEA; and as Membership committee members—Cortland Auser of Bronx Community College, John Mulryan of St. Bonaventure University, Shirley Mulligan of Rhode Island College, and Ted Steinberg of State University at Fredonia.

The first of the NYCEA newsletters under the new editor was published during the 1977-78 winter. Much of what is to come in future articles in presenting the history of the early years of our organization is based not only on the memories and notes of a number of different individuals who participated in events of these years, but also on three or four issues per year of the NYCEA Newsletter which were to follow over the period 1977-1984. In researching the activities of these years (and indeed of the years to follow from 1984 to the present), we must be impressed by the vigor and relevance of NYCEA, as well as the contributions of its members to the debates and development of our profession. Moreover, the wisdom of establishing a state identity for tie organization, including both upstate and downstate members, has been proven through two decades of successful meetings— Fall at upstate institutions and Spring in and around New York City.

II. The Growing Years 1977 to 1980
In the first years after the New York College English Association became a specifically New York State entity, its officers moved to provide a well-defined mission for the organization. President Frances Dean and her colleagues during 1978 set about to follow the lead of the national College English Association in encouraging professors from both private and public institutions, community colleges, four year undergraduate colleges, and research universities to find in NYCEA a professional group whose aim was to value teaching and research. How other scholarly activities contributed to classroom excellence became the primary raison d’etre for the Association.

To this end a series of conferences were envisioned one to be held in the fall to meet somewhere upstate and one in the spring to meet in the New York City area. In addition, a newsletter was to be published three to four times a year whose functions were to promote the activities of these biannual conferences, to provide a forum for NYCEA members to voice their opinions and print pieces dealing with their teaching and research, and to bring the news of the association and its members to readers.

A Spring 1978 conference with the theme “New Dimensions in Literary Experience” was coordinated by Ralph Jackson and held at Bronx Community College on Saturday, March 18. The principal speakers were Gregory Rabassa of Queens College, who had won the 1967 National Book Award for translation, and poet and fiction writer Joseph Bruchac of Skidmore College.

Then a fall conference, coordinated by Jack Joyce, was held at Nazareth College of Rochester on October 13-14. Richard Wordsworth, great-great grandson of William Wordsworth, spoke about the recently discovered cache of Wordsworth and Coleridge letters which are now housed at the Dove Cottage Museum in England’s Lake Country. A short Chekhov play was performed for conferees with the well-known cinema, theater, and television character actor Frederick O’Brady starring. Katherine Koller, past CEA president and emerita professor of the University of Rochester, was the all-conference embarkation speaker. As was the case with the spring semester, the host institution’s English Department provided substantial personnel and financial support.

The 1978 Spring and Fall NYCEA conferences set the tone for future years. As was hoped by the organization’s founding group, these meetings attracted ample registrations, enjoyed enthusiastic involvement by individuals from a range of New York colleges and universities, and attracted new blood to the organization, some who came forward to volunteer their institutions as sites for future conferences.

Moreover, the NYCEA Newsletter, in addition to its promotional and news content, began publishing pieces by members and printed abstracts of each presentation at our conferences. Photographs became a regular part of each conference coverage.

The first articles appearing in the newsletter included “Order and Chaos in Modem Greek Literature” byAliiki Balopoulou-Halls of Athens, Greece, who had been associated with SUNY-Binghamton while doing graduate study in the United States; “A Prescription for the Writing Course Grading Problem,” by Carol B. Gartner of Oasce University-White Plains; “Saying Goodbye,” a translation and reading of a lyric by the medieval Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwelyn written by Richard Loomis of Nazareth College; and “Before/After: Students Measure Their Writing Skills,” by Elaine P Feldstein of York College-CUNY. A review of Susan B. Weston’s Wallace Stevens: An Introduction to the Poetry, by John N. Serio of Clarkson College also appeared in an early issue.

Individuals who worked as officers or conference coordinators in these early years included David Lynch, chair of English at LaGuardia Community College; John Mulryan of St. Bonaventure University, an individual who was to become a dominant force in NYCEA activities during the 1980’s; Jon Ramsey, Skidmore College; Katharyn Crabbe, SUNY Geneseo; Cortland Auser of Bronx Community College; and Marion Folsom, Nazareth College, who became a pivotal behind-the-scenes person in both helping to publish the newsletter and assisting in various Association management activities.

A striking characteristic of NYCEA became the mix of collegiality and professional respect shared by conferees at its meetings. Very often light humor became a part of conference luncheons and dinners — as was the case when meeting coordinator Dan Lynch, at the Spring 1980 conference, playfully introduced his pre-high school young son during formal comments as “NYCEA’s Vice President of Photographic Operations.” The young man had been photographing the meeting’s events with great seriousness — and as we later discovered once the pictures were developed — with great effectiveness as well.

Of course, the bi-annual meetings of these years provided wholesome grain and hearty meat for conferees with presentations featuring speakers such as Richard Larson, editor of College Composition and Communication; poet and columnist for the Village Voice Joel Oppenheimer; cultural historian Robert C. Schweik, Distinguished Teaching Professor of SUNY; writing guru Donald McQuade; Browning critic Boyd Litzinger and publisher Harry Barba of Balston Spa. Conferences also provided a ready forum for presentation of members’ teaching methodologies as well as papers on criticism and theory.

The mix of intellectual stimulation, a collegial atmosphere, and the purposeful professional enterprise of participants at the fall and spring meetings of these early NYCEA years rapidly established the organization as a productive contributor to higher education in the region.

It was the hope of those who worked in these early years that the organization would survive, prove its value, and prosper. A fledgling organization, even one off to a promising start, could very well falter and fail without constant infusion of new leaders and a loyal membership base. An account of the years to follow, 1981-1984, details how the officers of the Association met such challenges.

III. Maturity Attained 1981 to 1984
By 1981, six years after its birth in 1975, the New York College English Association had established itself as a stable organization, one which had attracted the active support of a number of individuals and their institutions. Over this period the founding officers and their successors sustained the arduous schedule of sponsoring two conferences each year for their widespread constituents and publishing a quarterly newsletter. The professional successes and membership growth which accrued during this period earned for NYCEA a substantial, regional reputation and produced volunteers with whom to staff an organizational infra-structure that would nurture and sustain the organization during the decade of the 1980s.

Annual dues remained at $3.00, as some of each conference’s costs were met through generous support of host institutions and their English departments. Attendance at these meetings was sufficiently strong (from 40 – 70 on average) to meet the remaining expense of promotion, speakers’ honoraria, and catering fees. Newsletter printing and postage expenses were covered by a generous $1,000 annual grant from Nazareth College of Rochester. Inevitably, the treasurer was able to report a modest surplus at each fiscal year’s conclusion. Of course, the officers shouldered a substantial burden in carrying on the various projects of the association, all on a volunteer basis.

Undoubtedly, most gratifying to both members and officers was how the NYCEA in its activities met the exciting, yet radical challenges of the turbulent early 1980s. The electronic communications revolution that was influencing classroom pedagogy and the influence of new critical philosophies demanded forums through which conflicting voices could be heard, and at which colleagues could both contribute to the discourse and remain current on the seemingly ever expanding directions which the teaching of literature and language at the college level was moving.

NYCEA provided in its twice a year format both a ready and travel convenient set of meetings for instructors from two year, four year, and graduate school faculties at which they could remain current on new directions in which the profession was moving and were invited to contribute to the variegated dialogue which had overtaken our profession. By policy, the choice of conference themes was at the discretion of the individuals who volunteered to coordinate meetings at their institutions in consultation with NYCEA’s president. This practice proved a decided strength as an apt variety of themes reflected the current concerns of our members. In 1981, conferences at St. Bonaventure University, “The Writer and the Sense of History” coordinated by John Mulryan, and at Iona College “Writing in New York” coordinated by James Brophy, offered sessions on such topics as “The Harlem Renaissance Writers” and “From Literature to Political Action.”

In the three succeeding years (from 1982-1984), conference themes focused upon such subjects as “Computers, Language and Literature in Today’s College English Class” at State University College at Brockport; “The Literary Canon” at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY); “Developmental English Learning, Literature and Creative Writing” at Erie Community College in Buffalo; “The Rational and the Absurd” at St. John’s University-Staten Island; “Literature, Language and the Law” at The College of White Plains of Pace University; and “Free Will and Determinism in Literature” at LeMoyne College.

Keynote speakers at these conferences included distinguished figures such as Angus Fletcher of the City University of New York; Phyllis Franklin of the Modern Language Association; Carl Emil Schorske of Princeton University; William Melczer of Syracuse University; and Richard Weisberg of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Each was chosen for expertise and background appropriate to the theme and sessions which made up the program of these meetings.

The NYCEA newsletter printed abstracts of papers presented at the meetings. In addition, it also regularly published articles on such subjects as “Computer Assisted Instruction” by Herbert Shapiro of New York’s Empire State College, and both “Teaching Renaissance Literature” and “A Dissenting Opinion” by O. B. Hardison, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Beginning with the Fall issue of 1981, pictures of conference speakers and participants became a standard feature of the newsletter. Nonetheless, in 1983 the strains on budgets and upon editors Marion Folsom and Jack Joyce necessitated a change from a quarterly to a three issues per year schedule.

As the early 1980s progressed, a number of highly talented individuals came forth to provide indispensable service as officers of NYCEA. Notably among these were John Mulryan of St. Bonaventure University; Gertrude Hamilton of Marymount College; Daniel Lynch of LaGuardia Community College; Katharyn Crabbe of SUC at Geneseo; John Mahon of Iona College; Penelope Prentice of D’Youville College; Earl Ingersoll and Vincent Tollers of the State University College at Brockport; Phyllis Edelson of the College of White Plains of Pace University; and William Shaw of LeMoyne College. Each of these individuals was destined to become an important figure in the activities of NYCEA. These individuals inevitably first became acquainted with the organization when presenting papers at one of NYCEA’s biannual conferences.

During the early 1980s, some NYCEA officers and members moved to be involved in the activities of the parent organization, the College English Association. Good numbers of our members began to participate in CEA’s annual meetings in such far-reaching locales as Savannah, Georgia; Clearwater, Florida; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1982 and 1983 the editors of the NYCEA Newsletter published The CEA Regionalist, a newsletter which went to CEA’s membership, publicizing the National’s annual conferences of these years. A number of NYCEA members went on to be elected to the Board of Directors of CEA or to serve on committees of that organization.

The net result of NYCEA activities in the organization’s early years was an enriching effect upon the classroom teaching and research work of many colleagues in the New York State region. NYCEA members of this era have continued to contribute to the profession in quite substantial ways in the decade or so since. But perhaps the overriding memory which most NYCEAers of the late 1970s and early 1980s retain is the sense of collegial support and professional enrichment which those early years of NYCEA offered them.
John J. Joyce
Nazareth College of Rochester

IV. The Growth Continues 1985 to 1992
Just before I assumed the Presidency of NYCEA in the Fall of 1985, the organization was at its lowest point in history. There was a grand total of $85.41 in the Treasury. Jack Joyce, after many years of devoted service, had resigned as editor of the NYCEA Newsletter. There was no Vice President to succeed me, and the office of Secretary-Treasurer, which I had left to assume the Presidency, was also vacant. In effect, I was operating under wartime conditions. Without officers, NYCEA would surely pass out of existence; without a Vice President to succeed me, I could never leave office without destroying the organization. Without a healthy treasury, the organization could not support conferences and would fail. I set myself four goals: 1) to maintain the flow of conferences; 2) to turn a profit on some conferences so that the treasury could be built up; 3) to solicit new and dedicated officers for the organization; 4) to amend the constitution so that the Vice President would automatically succeed to the Presidency, thus making a commitment to the Presidency a condition for accepting the Vice Presidency. There was no point in initiating a membership drive until the organization became whole again, but I had hopes that successful conferences would draw new members to the organization.

Fortunately, help was on the way. Earl Ingersoll of SUNY Brockport agreed to become the new editor of the NYCEA Newsletter, and Mary Ann K. Davis of St. John Fisher College kindly took on the office of Secretary-Treasurer (her death of cancer in 1989 was a great blow to us all). Penelope Prentice of D’ Youville College became a member of the Board and hosted the first conference (at D’Youville) under my Presidency: “Critical Thinking and Critical Writing”—Fall 1985. 1 failed to arrange a conference for the Spring of 1986, but in the Fall of 1986, Mary Ann K. Davis not only hosted a conference at St. John Fisher College (“Literature and the Arts”), but she also managed to turn a handsome profit of $665. St. Bonaventure University, which had already hosted two NYCEA conferences (Fall 1979— “The Writers’ Audience” and Fall 1981— “The Writer and the Sense of History”), hosted three more during my Presidency: Spring 1989 (“Persona and Personae in Literature”), Fall 1991 (“Epic and Romance”), Spring 1991 (“The Narrative Art”). All of these conferences turned a modest profit. Jack Joyce, now Executive Director of the College English Association, provided us with modest sums to fund the Newsletter and develop honorariums for guest speakers. We were back on the road to solvency!

Traditionally, in the spring, NYCEA holds one conference “downstate,” loosely defined as the New York City metropolitan area, and a second. Fall conference, “upstate,” a vague reference to anywhere else in New York. But because it was difficult to obtain conference sites and directors, I allowed my first priority (“maintain the flow of conferences”) to override this tradition. We did manage to hold two Spring conferences “downstate”: in 1987, under the able direction of Gertrude Hamilton, NYCEA met at Marymount College and discussed “Classics in the 80’s” and in 1988, with the generous assistance of the Hispanist Roberto Piccioto, at Queens College to discuss “Translation and Tradition.” (A third “downstate” conference had been scheduled for Spring 1992, but after the organizers refused to allow NYCEA members to participate, NYCEA was forced to withdraw its support).

Another concern was that almost all of our conferences were being held at private Catholic colleges and universities, and very few at public institutions. Since most of the board members taught at these Catholic schools (Jack Joyce, Penelope Prentice, Mary Ann K. Davis, Dia Lawrence, Gertrude Hamilton, Joe Pestino, Lauren de la Vars, and myself), this was regrettable but inevitable. Of the thirteen conferences that convened during my presidency, eight of them took place at Catholic institutions: two at D’Youville, one at St. John Fisher, one at Marymount, three at St. Bonaventure, one at Nazareth; a ninth, our joint meeting with CEA in Buffalo, was co-hosted by St. Bonaventure University and D’Youville College. Thanks to an old friend and former teacher of mine, Robert Schweik, we did manage to have one conference at a state college, SUNY Fredonia, on the topic of interpreting literary texts in cultural contexts” (Fall 1987). The Queens College conference referred to earlier came about because I had met Roberto Piccioto at a translation institute the year before and we both considered translation to be a neglected topic at humanities conferences. I also managed to arrange a conference at Syracuse University, a semiprivate institution of higher learning, by engaging in some libidinous browbeating. While I was attending a Milton conference in Vallombrosa, Italy, I was invited to assist the conference directors in consuming the remainder of the liquor supply. When Professor Bill Readings of Syracuse was sufficiently in his cups, I sprang my request on him and received a hearty affirmative. Of course I followed up this request with a reminder letter as soon as I arrived home! Finally, we welcomed the community college contingent of higher education when we met in Fall 1992 at Jamestown Community College, under the efficient direction of the always helpful Bill White (now President-Elect of NYCEA) and Marsula Guarino. As I handed over the reins of NYCEA to Penelope Prentice after a madcap seven years of crisis management, it occurred to me it was perhaps more than a coincidence that the topic at Jamestown was “Madness and Insanity in Literature!”

We have also been fortunate in our guest speakers. The redoubtable Ted Tayler, holder of three teaching prizes from Columbia University, moved us deeply with his eloquent discourse on the Columbia riots, which he delivered at the Marymount conference in Spring 1987. Gregory Rabassa, internationally renowned translator and literary theorist, spoke to us at Queens College (Spring 1988) on the subject 0f translation and tradition. Winthrop Wetherbee, Chaucerian and medievalist from Cornell University, placed Vergil and Dante in the epic and romance traditions for the assembled conferees at St. Bonaventure in Fall 1991. The late and deeply lamented William Melczer, multilingual ubermensch from Syracuse discussed the narrative art with the conferees at St. Bonaventure in Spring 1991, ably assisted by the great Victorian scholar and Hardy specialist, Robert Schweik. Stanley Stewart, literary theorist and Renaissance specialist from the University of California, Riverside, made the trip to the enchanted mountains in Spring 1989 to address yet another Bonaventure conference, this time on the subject of “interpreting the interpreters.” Our most trendy speaker was Wlad Godzich, one of the founders of postmodernism, who spoke on that very subject at a NYCEA conference on postmodernism held at Syracuse University in Fall 1988. George Dennis O’Brien, then President of the University of Rochester, laid us in the aisles with his witty deconstructive talk on Chaucer’s trousers, the keynote speech delivered at the CEA-NYCEA meeting in Spring 1990. We were also treated to speakers outside the field of literature. Professors George Hole and Paul Kuller spoke on critical thinking at D’Youville in Fall 1985; the antiquarian Michael Basiniski and the psychoanalyst Paul Kuller enlightened us about madness in literature at Jamestown Community College in Fall 1992. Catherine Shaw, a Jungian analyst, spoke to the issue of women, love, and power at the D’Youville conference in Fall 1989. Madeline R. Grunet, Dean of the College of Education at Brooklyn College, spoke of “Ceremonies of Interpretation” at the Fall 1990 conference at Nazareth, on extrinsic approaches to literature. Finally, after years of working behind the scenes, Jack Joyce was rediscovered by Robert Schweik and invited to address the Fredonia conference (Fall 1987) on “interpreting literary texts in cultural contexts.”

Obviously, I was very successful in any carrying out my third objective, to “solicit new and dedicated officers for the organization.” Lauren de la Vars followed Earl Ingersoll as editor of the NYCEA Newsletter, to be followed into later Presidencies by Charles Ernst (Hilbert College) and Joe Pestino (Nazareth College). Dia Lawrence followed Mary Ann K. Davis as Secretary-Treasurer and was succeeded by the omnipresent Bill White, who went on to become Vice President of NYCEA. Charles Ernst also became a member of the board in my last year as President, and has since become a major force in NYCEA, along with the aforementioned Earl Ingersoll. Penelope Prentice, now Executive Director NYCEA, was at my side during the whole of my presidency, and never wavered in her support. Jack Joyce, my mentor since my days as Secretary-Treasurer, stayed on as a member of the board and was equally generous with his time and expertise.

After carrying out my fourth objective, to amend the constitution so that someone could succeed me, it was time to move aside and give the organization a new perspective. NYCEA would no longer be “the one-man band” it had been for seven years (the phrase belongs to Penelope Prentice, my immediate successor). Later Presidents would formalize some of the practices I had adopted, move the organization in new and interesting directions, keep it on a sound financial footing, and make dynamic, ambitious plans for the next millennium. I am grateful for having had the privilege of serving this great organization for an exciting period of seven years and I wish to extend my best wishes to my distinguished successors, both past and present, in this great office.

John Mulryan
St. Bonaventure

V. Penelope Prentice Leads with Energy and Passion 1993 to 1999

When John Mulryan handed over the Presidency of the NYCEA October 1992, at the fall conference at Jamestown Community College on Madness & Insanity in Literature coordinated by William White and Marcy Guaniro, John was running the show as a one-man band with his indefatigable reserves of energy and great good cheer. I had only three aims: to insure we had two conferences a year, one Fall, one Spring, alternating between the eastern New York City area and Western New York; to increase our membership and base; and to encourage and include student participation, both undergraduate and graduate at conferences. JCC had featured one of their most promising students, and I had brought one of ours. We have continued to serve students, have had two conferences a year, yet while participation in conferences is burgeoning, the base working membership remains clustered in the Board.

To serve as President of the NYCEA is to have the privilege of knowing a great many able colleagues and to have the pleasure of thanking them for their hard work and inspiration.
My first and deepest thanks go to Prof. John Mulryan of St. Bonaventure University, first Chair of the Board of the NYCEA, editor of Cithara and most recently honored with a chair by St. Bonaventure University, the Trustee’s Chair, in the Department of English. He has been a mentor, an esteemed and admired peer and a friend.

First met John Mulryan 8 October 1983 at a New York College English Association Fall conference on writing and creative writing at Erie County Community College. He spoke on John Gardner’s teaching techniques while I argued that creative writing can be taught. Though his work was in the Renaissance and mine in the 20th century, we discovered we shared a love for medieval literature. Later, I realized that session would mark the beginning of a life long work that carried over to the National CEA where I was given the opportunity to head the Playwriting contingent of the Creative Writing Committee, shared with a poet and fiction writer. That work on creative writing would most recently find a fitting home in another collaboration with Professor Mulryan at Cithara, in the December 1998 publishing of a short, academic version of my book: Just Love: The Promise of Writing in the Quantum Weirdness of the 21st Century. At that first conference was Sr. Monica Weis of Nazareth who delivered a paper on the important and positive correlation between play (having fun), and dendrite production in the brain. That paper stuck as a hallmark of NYCEA, what our teaching might aim for: dulce as well as utile.

When John Mulryan and I next met, he was admirably running the NYCEA single-handedly with his amazing spirit, his tornado of energizing energy, and that generosity that is his uniquely. When he asked if D’Youville College where I teach might wish to host a conference, it was impossible not to accept. Consequently, when his letter of invitation arrived, I took it straight to our President and Dean who were visiting at the hospital bed of my most beloved colleague, Sr. Virginia Carley. Despite her serious illness, she kept our spirits up and enthusiastically spoke in favor of hosting the conference. Both the Dean and President concurred by giving their approval. I have remained grateful for the college’s timesaving, efficient lack of bureaucratic tape, and at some level have continued to dedicate my work in NYCEA to the memory of Sr. Carley.

Our first conference was on Critical Thinking, with our keynote speaker George Hole, from the SUNY college at Buffalo Department of Philosophy, our second, on Women, Love and Power, featured several prominent local Jungian analysts.

What brought me to the NYCEA and has kept me here is the balance between scholarship and pedagogy stated in the CEA’s aims and in the warmth and encouraging spirit of the NYCEA colleagues I‘ve come to cherish. The NYCEA has allowed me to balance scholarship, creative writing and teaching along with juggling a writing career that has taken my plays to New York, Australia and Ireland. NYCEA’s support together with D’Youville College’s have provided a sanctuary for me during what can be a brutally demanding parallel career. When John invited me to serve on the Board, I was pleased to accept, and when he encouraged me to run for office as his Vice President, I was honored to say, Yes. NYCEA allows anyone who wishes the opportunity to grow in office. I know of almost no one in NYCEA who has served in office who has not done so. Above all, I admire and look forward to NYCEA conferences and sessions which are delightful, comfortable, intellectually on par with the best anywhere nationally and regionally, and they only get better because the spirit of good cheer always dominates to lift the spirits of all those who participate.

When I agreed to run for President, on a newly emended NYCEA Bylaws that stipulated the VP would succeed to President, I requested that John Mulryan consent to stay on as Executive Director, so that his wise counsel and historical perspective would not be lost. He graciously accepted. After the Board’s hesitancy about naming that new office Executive Director, least it be confused with the Executive Director post Jack Joyce held at the national CEA, the title Chair of the Board was selected, then later, because the NYCEA President, rather than the Chair of the Board, actually chaired the Board Meetings, the name of that office was changed to Executive Director. A President’s task begins long before assuming office. A year earlier, when Marcy Guirano, whom I’d met at an aesthetics conference at Buffalo State, mentioned the NYCEA, I asked if JCC might like to sponsor a conference; the result was the handsome brochure and inspiring Madness & Insanity in Literature which featured poet Jon Brandi’s “Writing from the Abyss,” and was hosted by William White, who was immediately asked to serve on the Board, later served as Secretary/Treasurer and currently serves as President. His aesthetics helped guide the NYCEA to develop a brochure, the NYCEA logo and stationary.

Everywhere I went, I invited anyone I met and admired teaching anywhere in New York—at Pinter conferences, at the MLA, the CEA, at national and international theatre conferences—to consider hosting a NYCEA conference. The JCC brought John Kandl forward to contact Roger Deakins at NYU, and out of that came two remarkable conferences, 1 May 1993, “Historicizing Literature,” hosted by Roger Deakins, and another on “World War II and Literature,” both held on those sunny, blossoming warm Spring days that are quintessentially New York revealed at its best.

Another young man of obvious great promise, clearly capable of delivering on his promises, Charles Ernst of Hilbert College, who came forward to host Fall 1993, “Refiguring Medieval & Modernist Texts in a Postmodern Age,” was invited to join the Board and also succeeded to President. His term of office would greatly augment the task I had undertaken, to increase membership. Where I had attempted to do so by inviting gifted and dedicated people to join the Board, Charles deployed the board to contact every college in the state to designate and send a NYCEA delegate to each conference. Meanwhile, continuing to serve on the Board were Anthony Farrow (St. Bonaventure), also Secretary-Treasurer NYCEA; Earl Ingersoll (SUNY Brockport); the esteemed John Joyce (Nazareth College), then CEA Executive Director, a man who has been a mentor and guiding light to many; and John Mulryan (St. Bonaventure). Together, we proposed a midwinter meeting at the Old Heidelberg to discuss the future direction of NYCEA. Invited to join our working Board were Jan Balakian (Kean College, New Jersey) to bring in new members from states without a CEA affiliate, Prof. Joseph Pestino (Nazareth College), who had so ably run an admirable conference three years earlier, Roger Deakins (New York University), after his stunning success with his first conference, and Prof. David S. Linton (Marymount Manhattan College), after his first conference at Marymount. A longtime friend, Gertrude Hamilton (Marymount College, Terrytown) and a cherished colleague, Lauren Pringle De La Vars (St. Bonaventure), NYCEA Newsletter Editor, also continued to serve on the Board, and it is with fond gratitude that I recall their dedicated contributions to the NYCEA.

In April 1994, David S. Linton hosted the spring conference on Drama at Marymount Manhattan College, the first of two equally enlightening conferences he coordinated. He allowed me at lunch, to present my "Address on Rwanda to the New York College English Association,” which later appeared in the CEA forum. That previous spring, when I was asked to deliver an address to the officers of the regional affiliates on “Inspiring Courage as you Do,” I was surprised and honored by Earl Ingersoll who presented me with the NYCEA Teaching-Scholar Award. It was to Earl that I publicly passed on the office of Presidency during the Nazareth College, October 1994 Conference (“Texts in Dialogue: Theory, Pedagogy, Cross Disciplinary”), coordinated by Joseph F. Pestino, currently Vice President and Editor of the NYCEA Newsletter. It is from Earl you will receive the next installment of the NYCEA history.

During my nearly twenty years with the NYCEA I have slowly come to appreciate how our task as teachers and writers is to awaken consciousness and inspire courage to empower ourselves and others. And during that time I have found inspiration and courage that is love in the wisdom, often eloquently expressed, by so many New York College English Association colleagues. I would appreciate hearing from you in these pages about what the NYCEA has given you.

Penelope Prentice
D'Youville College