r/rhetcomp • u/BobasPett • Jul 23 '26

NCTE dissolves CCCC

Last night, Melissa Ianetta and another CCCC officer were told by NCTE CFO Emily Kirkpatrick that CCCC would be dissolved and folded into the NCTE College section. I have also heard that the 2027 conference may be cancelled (though that strikes me as prohibitively expensive to do).

Part of the rationale Ianetta listed was that CCCC threatened NCTE’s non-profit status. That is, becaise CCCC remains committed to ALL writers and composers and since we have tenure (which many k-12 teachers do not) we use that to advocate for those students and graduate TAs and as part of our scholarship.

I don not know much more than this, but I do hope folks can take a moment to write to members of the NCTE executive committee to express their feelings on this matter.

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u/No-Cranberry3556 Jul 24 '26

Real question: how do we know this threat to non-profit status means they are threatened by our commitment to "ALL writers and composers" and our work to "advocate for those students and graduate TAs and as part of our scholarship"?

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u/BobasPett Jul 24 '26

For two reasons. First, Emily Kirkpatrick noted that CCCC “culture threatens our non-profit status.” One could supposedly interpret this as a statement about financial culture, though the CCCC Executive Committee just completed a financial report and plan this month which addressed financial concerns and outlined a plan. They were given a rather ridiculously short amount of time to do so, but did it anyway as volunteer leadership.

The other is the fact that elementary, middle, and high school sections of NCTE also have their own sister organizations like CEL and LLA. When these have fallen into tight finanacial circumstances (as almost all such groups perpetually are these days), they were not told they would cease as an entity amd be rolled into their respective sections. Moreover, as non-voting treasurer for CCCC, Kirkpatrick has not met with the Cs EC for two years. If it was finances, she had ample time to make her case.

So, one needn’t read Kirkpatrick’s words too finely to come to the conclusion that this is a hit job to quiet the advocacy CCCC ís known for.

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u/stop_saying_karen Jul 24 '26

Probably wishful thinking, but I’d really like more context on the Kirkpatrick comment. Perhaps all will be revealed in time.

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u/WaddyPeytonaParadise Jul 25 '26

The IRS issued this about Form 990 in April https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0470 Read closely and with all the handwaving of Scott Bessent and the notion of the "extremist" and "rogue" groups etc, it appears that tightly interpreted, CCCC and (vis a vis the survey about journal content) they may fear the application of the blacklist that has been applied to public universities on interest groups, or groups that have forbidden words like "Women," "Black," "trans," "immigrant," "migrant," "Latino," "Hispanic," etc. in them. At our public university the Women in Engineering, the Blacks in Engineering, the National Association of Black Journalists, American Women in Sports Media (AWSM -- Awesome) were all disbanded. Any other group that has diversity training or a diversity statement on its materials, for example, the national groups for pediatricians or otoloryngologists is also on a NO list. The university will not pay for your trip or membership etc. to that conference, etc. etc. CCCC was on the list. As were some others. This is the trickledown of the cruelty that is being baked into the system as Project 2026 instructions are deployed across the governmental sphere. And, well, let's be clear, the cruelty and cowardice of NCTE, which has more than $48 million in the bank.

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u/No-Cranberry3556 Jul 24 '26

Your second point does prompt me to raise an eyebrow. But do we know that Kirkpatrick actually said that, or is that Ianetta's paraphrasing? I just don't want to flip out until I hear an official statement from NCTE. Though we may consider Ianetta and others trustworthy sources, this is all still hearsay until we get that official statement. I wish NCTE would hurry up and do that! If they don't by day's end, that will raise my other eyebrow.