Urges that PhD-granting departments consider shrinking their graduate programs, thus reducing overproduction of PhDs and, by reducing the number of sections taught by graduate assistants, perhaps providing new tenure-track positions. Urges also that PhD-granting departments examine staffing practices in lower-level offerings and commit to engaging…

Gives detailed information needed to begin using a common database program such as "Access" or "Paradox" for scheduling college English courses. (PA)

Presents statistical data dealing with: number of positions listed, definite tenure-track assistant professor positions, number of doctorate recipients in English and Foreign Languages, institutions granting an average of 10 or more doctorates in English and American Literature annually. Presents tables with positions listed by field…

Discusses numerous solutions to enlarging the pool of interested and qualified undergraduate students of color, attracting and retaining graduate students of color and helping them in the job search, and increasing the numbers of faculty members of color. Notes that these include funding, mentoring, and coverage and validation of interdisciplinary…

Honors Phil Smith for his outstanding contribution to the English profession. Notes that as chair of his department, Phil Smith understood the social complexity of the organization he administered, and his example is particularly instructive when it reveals the thoughtfulness with which he addressed the issue of work for all his colleagues. (SG)

Discusses how chairs might use information from a survey documenting the types of support and compensation that chairs in the Association of Departments of English community receive to negotiate a compensation package that is best for them during their term of office but also takes into account such other considerations as opportunity costs…

Offers advice to English department chairs: when talking to the dean, learn a new perspective, a new language (the language of college administration), and new skills; when talking to colleagues, be jargon-free and appeal to shared values; and when talking to students, be explicit about what the department has to offer. (RS)

Suggests that educators in two year colleges must find a space, in all the other work that they have, to do both the reading and writing that allows them to thrive professionally. Concludes that teaching will always matter, but it should not exclude the essential development that only a broader professional conversation can enable in the teacher.…

Uses the term "shape shifting" to describe a set of evolving, institutionalized practices that are open to both dark and benign interpretations. Discusses ways to foster diversity. Presents a practical guide on how graduate programs can be more proactive in preparing students for positions that demand a diversity of specialization and skills. (SG)

Describes the author's experiences as chair, for two years, of the English Department of Fayetteville State University, a historically black university. Considers how as society shifts demographically to a more diverse society, the challenge for the English profession will be to adapt to this new and often incongruous mix of personal and social…

Presents the results of a survey conducted to determine the teacher workload in institutions of higher education, concluding that over one-third of the English teachers teach too many students or too many courses or both. (RB)

Memories of student protest in the 1960s prompt the author to reflect that English departments seemed to have been teaching more criticism than history and that, if they don't want the 1960s to recur, they had better reverse this proportion. (GT)

Presents axioms about scholarship, learning, English scholarship, and English teaching and examines a little recognized intellectual crisis in current English scholarship. (GW)

Discusses various aspects of language--written and spoken--and concludes that departments of English have not yet met their responsibilities concerning the teaching of writing. (JM)