Jim Sanderson

Chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages

Began working at Lamar University in 1989

‘I got out of graduate school. I got a job at a community college and worked there for seven years. That seven-years is sort of biblical. I had done previous sins, so I spent seven years wrestling with God, as Jacob did, out in the desert of West Texas, and I wanted out of the community college. And so, Lamar had a job and hired me in 1989.’

‘Lamar has been pretty good to me. Lamar has always supported my creative writing activities. The former Lamar Tech actually did support an art. So that was good. I was directing the Texas Reading Circuit, which was an offshoot of the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers. It was a group of colleges that would apply to the Texas Commission on the Arts for a grant. Then the college would match the grant dollar for dollar and then a lot of indirect expenses to have writers touring the state. They would stop at all these colleges. I was directing it. I was writing. We had to write a grant once a year. And then, we just schedule the writers, and to find the writers. And this was all before computers. We started out with typewriters. Yeah, we had computers, but we had no email when I came in. I got my first computer in 1984 and promptly wrote a novel.’

In 1995, the Texas Commission on Arts got, I think, 50 or $100,000 from the NEA. So, they divided up into individual projects. So, they gave me $10,000 to try to get this reading circuit larger. And so, I had $10,000 to match and then put the reading circuit on steroids. So, Lamar, back to your question, helped me with that and gave me some expenses, and I got a little bit of administrative help. Lamar gave me the first two summer developmental leaves. And through the developmental leaves, I went to the big bin and talked to border patrol agents, and I wrote a novel. Then the novel eventually got published in 1998, and Lamar helped with that as well. Lamar gave me another developmental leave for a full semester in 2001 for which I completed another novel and then that novel was published in 2004. Let me back up. In 2002 I was a distinguished faculty lecturer, so Lamar gave me that opportunity too.’

‘In 2006 I was a University Scholar. And then in 2006, Joe Nordgren became chair, and he was the freshman composition director. Then I was writing director and so I was writing director for six years and that's the first time Lamar gave me a job where I invented the job. So, I did that for six years and then I became chair and so I've been chair for eleven years. So now Lamar has given me another job in which I think I'm supposed to be me or figure out what it is that my job is. And so as of fall, I'm going to be a writer in residence.’

‘Lamar has changed dramatically. I don't know if you want to use this, but when I got here it was its own system and I took an $8,000 pay cut to come here. And then Lamar basically was broke for about eight to ten years. So, I went eight to ten years along with people hired after me with no increase to my salary, and the powers that be would bring out a chart of salaries at Lamar. Then things got better, and it jumped to The Texas State system. I want to say it happened in the mid-90s. That was an adventure. Lamar didn't have money and there were accusations, perhaps legal problems. So, there's a lot of turmoil, a lot of people protesting, and it was an adventure. And I think one of the solutions was to join the Texas State system. I had gone to Southwest Texas State, which is now Texas State, and it was sort of like they were the flagship, I guess I thought they were. And it was sort of like we were the ugly sister wanting to get back in the family. We were begging, hat in hand. And we were able to join them because we had our community colleges in tow. The Texas State System had other community colleges within the system. And so not many people wanted an independent community college. In other words, most community colleges have like the school district a tax system, so people pay taxes for the community college. Well, ours didn't because they're part of the Lamar System. So, we brought them with us into the system, and then under the Texas State System, they became their own entities. Then we broke ties with LIT and Lamar Port Arthur.’