October 25, 2016

David Shabazz, Interim Chair Division of Literature, Languages and Philosophy Kentucky State University Frankfort, KY 40601

Dear Mr. Shabazz,

I am writing in support of Dr. Joe Moffett's application for early tenure at Kentucky State University. As Dr. Moffett's dossier details, in his three years at KSU he has far exceeded our expectations for tenured faculty in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service. And that is without even considering his previous stint as a tenured associate professor at Kentucky Wesleyan College. We should consider ourselves lucky that Dr. Moffett wants to make KSU his professional home.

As a teacher at KSU, Dr. Moffett has been willing to take whatever assignments were most needed to serve the needs of our students. He is a noted scholar, with three published, peer-reviewed books of literary criticism, but he has not hesitated to take more than his share of composition classes. In addition, his student evaluations, and the informal feedback we receive from students, all confirm that Dr. Moffett is able to establish a connection with our students that allows real learning to occur.

As already mentioned, Dr. Moffett's record as a scholar is truly remarkable. He has spent his entire career either as full-time faculty at a teaching-intensive institution (Kentucky Wesleyan and here) or as a full-time professional academic advisor who also taught (at Northern Kentucky University), yet he has amassed a body of books and peer-reviewed articles that should qualify him for a faculty job at a research institution. His commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding for its own sake perfectly exemplifies the ideal of lifelong learning that we try to promote for our students. In addition, his publication of a co-authored popular trade book (The Ultimate: An Illustrated History of Hamer Guitars) demonstrates that he is not an ivory tower academic writer, but one capable of successfully communicating with and appealing to a broad general audience, which is the one of the important skills that we hope students will learn in our composition classes.

Equally impressive is Dr. Moffett's record of service to our institution. He has not hesitated to take on difficult and time-consuming tasks in our division. He has served as chair of our "English Major Committee," a post that amounts to an uncompensated "program coordinator's job," while at the same time serving in the Faculty Senate and chairing a Faculty Senate committee.

Without reservation, I enthusiastically endorse Dr. Joe Moffett's candidacy for tenure at Kentucky State University and look forward to sharing the years ahead with him as a colleague.

Sincerely, Danny Collum Professor of English Hathaway 414C Danny.collum@kysu.edu