Considers the role of the visiting writer in encouraging and supplying useful writing advice to student writers. Proposes some principles for the art of writing that writers offer composition students, especially related to the art of writing over its craft. (HB)

Outlines the controversies that began as the English Department at Louisiana State University tried to revise the departmental curriculum. Raises important questions for any department to consider as they undertake a similar revision. (HB)

Suggests that parenting is still invisible in the academy. Discusses commonalities between parenting and teaching. Concludes that academicians must bring their parenting selves and their children into their work and their workplaces. (RS)

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…

Discusses the tension that exists between different ways of being a college teacher in many small college departments within and between generations. Considers the amount of publications faculty members produce and how that correlates to their achievement of tenure. (SC)

Addresses (1) shared understandings regarding the extent and pattern of increased reliance on part-time and adjunct faculty; (2) elements of quality undergraduate instruction affected; and (3) institutional advantages and disadvantages of such reliance. Suggests general guidelines for rectifying inappropriate reliance on part-time and adjunct…

Offers basic principles for English department fundraising: know why people should give money to the department; identify several colleagues who can help represent the department to potential givers; involve alumni; work on getting grants while pursuing private gifts from donors; create a print representation of the department; and cultivate a…

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.…

Discusses how the author learned to make a research assistant (RA) a part of the administrative package. Shares her ambition to make available good teaching editions of out-of-print novels by Victorian women writers. Suggests coediting new editions of a literary text with RAs and/or post-doctorate students. (SG)

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…

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)

Illustrates four points relating to community college students. Emphasizes relations to writing and relations to the humanities. Considers four points including: the class as golden age; interaction with students that seems at first monumentally bad but that leads to meaningful resolution and change; holding "ourselves" as educators accountable;…

Considers that ever since distance learning technology has enabled colleges and universities to offer courses to students who might otherwise not be able to earn college credit, resistance has emerged on pedagogical or fiscal grounds. Notes that most students in distance learning composition classes indicate that they would participate in such a…