Sets forth and elaborates on three ways in which an external review can always help an English department. Suggests three principles a chair might keep in mind in trying to fulfill departmental goals by means of an outside review. Examines how a chair and his or her department may facilitate an outside review. (TB)

Presents results from a survey to document the types of support and compensation that chairs in the Association of Departments of English (ADE) community receive. Notes that results for the respondents overall are shown in tables 2 through 6, while tables 7 through 15 sort responses by institutional size, type, or sector and tables 16 and 17 by…

Addresses teachers' feelings of dismay, perhaps even disgust with the work of their students. Concludes that how educators talk about students reveals what they think about themselves as teachers; and how they think about themselves as teachers reveals how they think about higher education and its role in enacting democracy. (SG)

Suggests guidelines for departments and institutions regarding information technology; guidelines dealing with the hiring, reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes designed to help departments and faculty members implement effective evaluation procedures; and guidelines that recommend the minimal reference information that should be provided…

Considers how the placement of personal computers in every departmental and faculty members' office has made it possible for faculty and departmental clerical staff members to perform tasks previously performed elsewhere. Describes a department that runs largely by committee, in which newsletters, alumni relations, the web site, and strategic…

Describes the author's educational experiences as a student of Robert Scholes. Elaborates on one of the earliest projects of computers and the humanities. Notes how he and his work has affected her experiences in teaching writing and literature pedagogy. (SG)

Stresses the need for English department chairpersons to gather and present information about teaching, to see that some consistent form of faculty evaluation is maintained, and to work at identifying teaching competence and supporting teaching excellence throughout the year. (GW)

Examines the typical curriculum in an English department and the place of literary and critical theory within it. (SRT)

Discusses the problems of being a department head and how best to deal with them. (SRT)

Proposes practical suggestions for department chairpersons in dealing with academic deans. Adds some thoughts about the need for more serious continuing education programs at the college level. (NKA)

Responds to Richard Ekman's criticism of poststructuralism and discusses three strands of a poststructuralist English curriculum. (EL)

Discusses the teaching of literature in an instrumentalist or bureaucratic culture. Gives examples of instrumentalist influence in the English department at the University of Iowa: changes in department offerings, the emergence of a new departmental coherence, and the concentration of literary theory in the program of comparative literature. (EL)

Reflects on being selected as the first female head of the English department. Discusses the selection process (done at a poker game), women's academic advancement, power, and job related responsibilities. (EL)

Points out that change in English departments will have the best chance if it comes through explicit analytic and goal- and strategy-mapping efforts; through open and sympathetic acknowledgment of anxieties, fears, and objections; and through the greatest possible clarification of misperceptions. Describes several models of change. (EL)

Reports the results of a study to determine why more Ph.D. graduates were not appointed as full-time faculty in arts and humanities. Finds that most often stated reason was that a non-Ph.D. had better qualifications. (AEA)