Discusses the current administrative problems of English departments due to the cutback of educational funds. (RB)

Suggests and discusses four strategies for English departments to consider in the 1980s: technology, standards, consolidation, and leadership. (AEA)

Maintains that one of the most difficult problems faced by English department chairpersons arises from the widely divergent theoretical or ideological positions of faculty members. Argues for faculty to stop abusing one another and illustrates departmental discord in an imaginative fiction involving "Roger" and "Rose." (HB)

Considers how Phil Smith has given much thought in his own department, and in the national deliberations, to the staffing crisis in English departments, and he has done so with attention to the highest values and to the needs of all, from undergraduate students in the general education courses to part-timers to tenure-track and tenured faculty…

Explores and describes (from the standpoint of a retired department chair) the paradigm change, one of Copernican proportions, that has occurred in English departments from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Compares Modern Language Association bulletins from 1978 and from 1994. (TB)

This article offers an account of online experimentation and innovation that has taken place in the English department of the University of Wolverhampton from 2003 to 2005. Focusing on an introductory first-year module and two third-year modules, it explores how and to what extent a virtual learning environment (VLE) can enhance the teaching of…

This article offers a critical reflection upon underlying theoretical and philosophical inclinations which manifest themselves through the type of courses introduced in higher education institutions to meet what is perceived to be students' educational needs. Given the fact that this article seeks to promote an understanding of the nature of…

Discusses the roles of English department chairpersons, with special attention to current questions regarding the teaching of composition and literature. (GT)

Discusses procedures for choosing department chairpersons, essential characteristics for effective chairpersons of large departments, and the question of the rotating chairmanship. (GW)

Reviews five years' experience as an English department chairperson to show how a chairperson teeters between administration and faculty, constantly addressing questions of identity and allegiance. ( GW)

Reviews various approaches and books on the subject of corporate management and assesses their usefulness to the English department. (SRT)

Describes one method of peer review used by a secondary school department head when asked to evaluate teachers in her department. Visits to individual classrooms included observation and notetaking, a narrative response to each teacher, and a final conference during which each teacher could respond to the narrative. ( NKA)

Develops several perspectives of the discipline of college English teaching that include local, state, regional, and national levels of involvement as well as viewpoints of others outside the discipline. (AEA)

A personal memoir of Marjorie Hope Nicolson and the graduate English department she headed at Columbia University in the 1940s and 1950s. (SJL)