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Tessa Forsythe
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Dr. Schaak to Write Novel During Spring Sabbatical
Dr. Schaak thinks writing a novel will help him teach fiction better.
--Tessa Forsythe, photo
In the spring of 2006, Doug Schaak, professor of English at Multnomah Bible College, will take a sabbatical to write a novel -- something no other MBC professor has ever done while on sabbatical.
Dr. Schaak will pull out his pen long before the sabbatical begins, however. "Although I plan to start reading and drafting this summer," he said, "I suspect the novel won't be completed until at least the end of summer 2006 -- maybe even later."
Wayne Strickland, Multnomah's academic dean, said, "Dr. Schaak's proposal was a bit unusual by typical sabbatical standards because we generally approve projects related to research leading to scholarship writing." Despite the oddity, Dr. Strickland said little to no opposition accompanied Dr. Schaak's proposal.
"We believe that this sabbatical will yield great benefits for our students," Dr. Strickland said. "He will be able to draw from personal experience as he guides learners in the dynamics of fiction literature."
Daniel Scalberg, chairman of Multnomah's arts and sciences division, said professors must meet requirements to earn a sabbatical. One requirement is that the professor must work on a project within his field of expertise. Dr. Scalberg said that Dr. Schaak's writing a novel is "appropriate to his discipline."
Dr. Strickland said a faculty member must complete six years of full-time service, and the academic dean's council must approve the sabbatical application.
The novel will introduce the reader to a middle-aged college professor named Henry who realizes he is missing something in his life.
"The idea is that here's a man who has done everything right: pursued an education, started a family, had a successful career, and who seems to be one of the lucky or successful ones," Dr. Schaak said. "Yet he is beginning to feel betrayed by those choices -- he's sensing that they haven't led to the things that they seemed to promise."
He said Henry wants to find out what would happen if he started his life from scratch. "That impulse will lead him to some unusual places, both geographically and psychologically," Dr. Schaak said.
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