Richard Pindell, an award-winning English professor, has withdrawn from teaching classes for the foreseeable future. He is assumed ill, and his departure has left his students, many of whom sought his classes because of his popularity, with substitute teachers and altered class requirements.
Pindell, whom his colleagues have repeatedly called “a deeply private man,” will not be returning this semester, and has not been assigned any courses for the fall.
According to Susan Strehle, English department chairwoman, Pindell cancelled some of his classes before spring recess because he had to undergo tests at Lourdes Hospital. She referred to the diagnosis and Pindell’s decision not to continue teaching this semester as “sudden.”
“I think it was really a surprise,” said Strehle, who had visited the veteran English professor when he was in the hospital.
Pindell’s courses this semester, ENG 400I: Faulkner, and ENG 300S: Literature of War, will not be offered in the fall.
“Literally, they won’t be offered, which is obviously a huge loss,” Strehle said, noting that demand for his courses is very strong and that they usually fill up “within seconds.”
Pindell’s graduate teaching assistant, Mattea Orr, will continue to teach his Literature of War class, and the class on Faulkner will be taught by Professor Silas Zobal for the remainder of the semester.
Strehle said that they will file a request with the dean of Harpur College, Jean-Pierre Mileur, for faculty who specialize in Pindell’s areas of study.
“He is not replaceable,” said Strehle.
Between the 240 students taking Literature of War, and the 44 students in his class on Faulkner, Pindell’s reputation has been more than enough to fill classrooms. There are two groups devoted to the esteemed professor on Facebook.com, including “The Richard Pindell Appreciation Club,” which has 29 members.
Pindell started teaching here in 1969, winning the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from 1974 to 1975.
“No professor in the English department is more beloved by his or her students than Dick Pindell,” said Robert Micklus, a fellow English professor.
Students who enrolled in Pindell’s courses, because of his popularity within the department, are finding themselves having to conform to a different style of teaching and different requirements.
According to Doug Gochfeld, a senior financial economics major who had taken Pindell’s Modern American Fiction class last semester and is now enrolled in his Literature of War class, Orr is following the course’s original syllabus, with minor adjustments.
Attendance is now taken in every Literature of War class, and a possible change to how much exams will be weighted is looming over students’ heads.
“I’d obviously much rather take the class with him; he teaches from a completely different angle than [Orr] does,” he said.
Gochfeld’s classmate, senior English major Alyssa Cassano, also took the class because of Pindell, and noted that “the nature of class discussion has changed.”
“It has become more theory based rather than thinking of the literature in terms of feelings and how it relates to life,” she said.
Strehl attributed Pindell’s popularity to his unique teaching style and personality.
“[Pindell] was really funny as a teacher, and from what I’ve been told by students, he had a unique way of putting himself on the same level with students and making the material relevant,” she said.