Offers a different (liberal arts) perspective on the job market for PhDs in English from an undergraduate department chairman. Asks for better information about graduate study possibilities. Argues that the problem is to learn how to better advise aspiring PhD students, and to provide support for them. (PA)

Discusses the role of the English department head in a time of shrinking budgets. Considers popular and governmental conceptions of college faculty productivity. Calls for increased attention to undergraduate teaching. Criticizes attacks labeling college faculty as lazy and incompetent. (HB)

Describes how the Career Management Series was conceived and developed at the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, demystifying the job search, differentiating between process and skills, and looking at both the academic and nonacademic track. Describes how this model was then successfully adapted to the…

Describes valuable aspects for the author of a career management workshop which emphasized a broad career horizon that included nonacademic career opportunities. Discusses her own and other people's pursuit of work and career to emphasize that it is both possible and urgent for people in English departments to change how they think about future…

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)

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…

In this article, the author argues that compartmentalization in the way that writing education tends to be discussed and therefore understood in the professional discourse of rhetoric and composition should be critically examined and transcended if the field is going to lead the development of undergraduate writing majors. Any new major should be…

Evidence indicates that the quality of a high school English department directly depends upon the effectiveness of the departmental organization. Despite the dangers of fragmenting and departmentalizing knowledge, some organization must be established for departmental work to be carried out. Among the variables which influence the organization and…

This book contains reports concerning the English curriculum from more than 20 colleges and universities, including Ball State University, Carleton College, University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Florida, Ohio State University, Rollins College, University of San Francisco, Washington University, and Yale University. Each…

Inaugurates a new column addressed to those in language arts leadership positions, particularly the English department chair and the district and state supervisor or consultant, but also other English education administrators. Describes scope of the column and solicits suggestions for articles. Discusses the role of chairs and consultants in…

Argues that faculty vitality is an essential element in all English departments, and asserts that basic changes in the English field over the last two decades can help create that vitality. (MM)

Relates some of the good and bad of chairing an English department. (HOD)

Offers advice to English department chairs on the behavior of academic departments. (AEA)