Describes steps taken by the English department at Washington State University to deal with the double bind of overproduction of PhDs and the situation of temporary instructors. Addresses the forces pushing against these efforts and the department chair's difficulties in dealing with those forces. (RS)

Summarizes issues raised in speeches and group discussions at the Minnesota Conference on the Future of Doctoral Study in English and makes personal observations about the conference in general. (MM)

Discusses the role of the English department head in a time of educational crisis. Examines the possibility that graduate study in English is losing its moral base. Considers the role of leadership and oppositional politics in the context of the crisis in graduate study. (HB)

Describes how the task of leading an English department has changed over the past 25 years. Considers the delicate yet essential task of the department head to provide leadership and vision for an entire department. Relates the general problems of English departments and specific problems in graduate education with diversity and difference gone…

Suggests that English graduate departments ought to begin discussing what will make graduate education more organic to the teaching experience of the graduate student. (RB)

Explores some aspects of a "literary education," and concludes that a literary education helps one to live alertly in a culture which is "idiotically" stratified. (JM)

Suggests that working beyond the academy should be understood not as an abandonment of the academic job market, a response to failure, or a curse: instead, it should be understood as a new avenue for intellectual work, one that neither graduate-school programs nor the Modern Language Association would be wise to ignore. (RS)

Presents the results of a survey on the salaries paid by English departments with established Ph.D. programs of nationally recognized quality. (RB)

Calls for college English faculty to embrace the challenge of a diversity that includes nonelite institutions. Suggests that graduate students in English who find themselves in nonelite undergraduate institutions teaching mostly nonmajors will have to learn a second language: the language of accommodation. (RS)

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)

Uses a baseball metaphor to advise students who want to pursue a doctoral degree--in many ways the Master's program at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, is like a triple-A minor league farm club, preparing players for the big leagues of the doctoral institutions. (RS)

Suggests that English departments have seen their power to shape the identity of their members diminish. Argues that an important part of the preparation of future professors takes place in a master-apprentice setting strengthened by an economic atmosphere that encourages students fearful of getting jobs to identify with those faculty members…

Contains the results of a recent survey on the employment possibilities for doctoral students about to receive their degrees and those who graduated since 1971 with a Ph. D. in English. (RB)

Harold H. Kolb, Jr., introduces three historical discussions of graduate education in English. C. Hugh Holman discusses "The Desperate Soldier-Scholars: Graduate Study in English, 1946-1956." Robert Kellogg discusses "The Boom Years: Graduate Education in English, 1955-1968." Fred L. Standley considers "'Living Modernly's Living Quickly': Beyond…

Surveys the current situation concerning Ph.D.s in English and the job market, and discusses the ways in which the present reality and the future probability bear upon the graduate English curriculum. (JM)