Professing their love
■ Love is in the air on campus,
but not just between students
By Brooke Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
To profess her love on Valentine’s
Day, a woman burst in on the object
of her affection during his Humani
ties 102 class about 10 years ago and
serenaded him with a romantic love
song. But she wasn’t a lovesick stu
dent — she was Louise Bishop, ad
junct assistant professor of litera
ture in the Honors College, and she
was singing to her husband, the
teacher of the class, English profes
sor James Earl.
This is just one of many stories
shared by University professors and
graduate teaching fellows about the
ups and downs of working in the
same place as their significant other.
While committed to education and
research, faculty members can also
be romantics who have had to make
sacrifices for love.
Earl and Bishop weren’t always
academic equals. The two met in
1978 when Bishop, then a graduate
student, took a class taught by Earl
at Fordham University in New York
City.
“I fell in love with my professor,”
Bishop said.
She said after meeting Earl she
knew she wanted a different kind of
relationship with him, so she made
sure she never took a class taught by
him again. By 1979, the two were
dating. They married in 1982, and
now have two children in high
school and will celebrate their 19th
wedding anniversary in March.
“The thing about love is you can’t
even define it, but when it happens
you just know it,” Bishop said.
Earl said he is lucky to be work
ing in the same place as his wife, be
cause it’s rare to find teaching posi
tions in the same place. He said
many couples end up working at
different universities in different
towns, and have to travel to see each
other.
However, Earl said he believes his
students often have misconceptions
about what his home life is like, es
pecially those students who take a
class from both Earl and Bishop.
“I think most students imagine a
strange home life where we talk
Photo courtesy of James Earl and Louise Bishop
Assistant professor of literature Louise Bishop first met her husband, English professor
James Earl, when she took a class taught by him at Fordham University in 1978.
about literature over the dinner
table,” he said. “We do talk about our
work a lot, not because we obsess, but
because we like what we do.”
Bishop said although they do like
reading poetry to each other, they
also share interests outside of aca
demics, such as traveling.
She said one trip the couple made
to India in 1998 was one of the best
times she has ever had with her hus
band.
“That was the most exotic trip the
two of us made together, and I
wouldn’t want to do it with anyone
other than him,” she said.
But while relationships are chal
lenging for everyone, some couples
have had to make great sacrifices to
be with the one they love. English
graduate teaching fellows Linda
and Bianca Tredennick shared such
a story.
The two met as undergraduates at
the University of Puget Sound in
Tacoma, Wash., in 1989, and were a
couple by 1991.
“We were both in the English de
partment. We became friends, and
the rest is history,” Bianca Treden
nick said. “I was willing to give up
everything to be together.”
Linda Tredennick said because
Oregon law doesn’t recognize same
sex marriages, both women took the
name Tredennick from Linda’s
great-grandmother so they could
have the same last name.
Bianca said her family was less
than accepting when she told them
she was gay, so she was forced to
make one of the biggest choices of her
life: She had to choose between her
family or Linda, who was on her way
to the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill for graduate school.
“I had to decide whether I would
stay home to pursue graduate
school and do the ‘good child’
thing, or be with Linda,” Bianca
said.
She made her choice less than
two weeks after Linda left town.
“I told my parents I was leaving,
and I walked out, never to return,”
she said.
Bianca Tredennick said she has
not talked with her family since
then, but she said being with Linda
has been more than worth it.
“Nothing else seemed as impor
tant as being with her,” she said.
She said they moved to Eugene in
1997 to begin working at the Uni
versity as GTFs while pursuing
their doctorate degrees. They share
an office at the University, and each
teaches one class per term.
Linda Tredennick said she enjoys
working in close proximity to her
partner.
“We get an unbelievable amount
of time together,” she said.
Next year, the two will be in the
job market for professor positions,
which means there will probably be
a lot of challenges and negotiations
to try and work in the same area,
Linda said.
But despite the challenges of
their careers, Linda is not worried
about the future of their relation
ship.
“Our relationship is the priority,
and we’re not going to let a career
get in the way of that,” she said.
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