Recounts the process and narrates the steps taken by the English department at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, in its major renovation of its outdated English curriculum. Describes the working conditions of the department and the newly devised curriculum. (HB)

Focuses on a survey of 10 questions that the author gave to all tenured and tenure-track faculty members in English at the University of Louisville. Notes that the questions focused on the perceived positive and negative results of a major cultural change (faculty teaching first-year composition) for the department, the composition program, the…

Suggests that the technical and professional writing concentration in the English department at Eastern Michigan University serves as an example of the way Master of Arts (MA) programs often reflect the economy of a particular region. Discusses the MA program at Eastern Michigan University. (RS)

This paper deals with a peer supervision program developed by the members of the English department of Brattleboro Union High School (Vermont) which has resulted in a sense of collegiality, shared purpose, and a renewed feeling of professionalism among the teachers. The paper describes the ways in which these teachers developed a program to…

Presents a monologue by a writing laboratory director aimed at English department chairs in order to familiarize the "boss" with the writing laboratory, to explain what the laboratory can offer the English department, and to describe how the laboratory works with students. (RS)

Discusses the role of college libraries in the teaching of library skills to undergraduates, and describes a program in which an English department cooperated with library staff in sharing the responsibility for instruction. (FM)

Describes how the English Department at Loyola University of Chicago, adopted assessment measures beneficial to the department's program and acceptable to administrators, faculty, and students. (TB)

Explains the dynamics of the interaction between the English department and Freshman Writing at the University of Southern California (USC). Asserts that the ideal relationship between Freshman Writing and the English department would be an academic partnership that acknowledges their differing priorities but accommodates these differences by…

Discusses the separation of the Freshman Writing and English department at the University of Southern California (USC). Advocates reengaging the English department with first-year students and with writing. Suggests a move from amicable separation toward reunion, but a reunion defined as reengagement, not remarriage. (PRA)

Considers how in the 1990s most English departments have altered curricula to accommodate the explosion of the canon, the emphasis on cultural studies, the arrival of new technology in writing and literature classrooms, and the varied learning styles of students. Discusses how many of these changes have been patches rather than substantial…

Describes how the author survived for more than a quarter of a century as a minor university administrator by applying a "schizoid narrativizing strategy" to the art of running, and being run by, an academic department. Notes that established written departmental procedures are indispensable. Discusses briefly the state of the academic economy.…

Describes the author's department goals with three main principles: to build departmental community, to harness rather than dissipate energy, and to address multiple audiences simultaneously. Discusses how she communicates to the college as a whole what the department does well and finds ways in which caring for the department's interests might…

Describes a program that gives first-year students the chance to have a small course, 15 to 20 students, taught by a full-time faculty member on a special topic conceived by the professor. Notes that their program set an implicit parallel of time and value between teaching at the most advanced and at the most introductory levels of the curriculum.…

Offers a case study of how the English department at Mary Washington College constructed over a period of years a credible process for assessing its undergraduate major. Explains and critiques that process and the procedures the department has come to use. (TB)

Discusses the anxieties, problems, and advantages of a merger between the English department and foreign-language departments at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Overall, the new Languages and Literatures department is stronger than its two component parts were formerly, in part due to the merger and the recruitment of excellent junior…