Several years ago, when his college first financed a writing program administrator (WPA) position--reassigned time and a budget to pay adjunct faculty stipends for program development--the author met with all the most senior adjunct faculty. "Without you," he told them, "this effort to build a better writing program won't work. Participation and…

Describes "academentia," the delusion that disciplines are intellectually powerful as a result of their specialization. Prescribes "neighborliness"--intellectual and practical work done from the perspective of critical consciousness--as the antidote to academentia. Suggests that writing projects have great potential as…

Describes the distinction between the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds artists, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds those who talk about art. Examines the similar distinction in alliances between writers and scholars in English departments, focusing on their effects on writing programs. (MM)

Describes how the English department at Merrimack College set out to revise the English curriculum as a participant in the MLA-FIPSE English Programs Curriculum Review Project. Shows how the faculty redesigned the curriculum, and articulates two strategies marking the successful phases of the process. (HB)

Describes the art of effective English departmental administration in a difficult time of budget constraints, calls for accountability, and intellectual turbulence. Considers the effect on departmental management of sustained scholarly interest in oppositional stances, powerlessness, and marginality. (HB)

Describes the political dynamics, hierarchy, and rituals of a typical college humanities department. Proposes reorganizing this academic structure, replacing the "humanities" with a philosophy of liberal education. (MM)

Presents a skeptical perspective on the English teaching profession and the educational system in general. Argues that the alleged educational crisis is in fact an encompassing social crisis, necessitating teachers to teach from a social and political perspective. (MM)

Examines the question of teaching literature in the composition class in terms of an ideological gap between composition and literature which is maintained for political reasons, and reflected in the tenure process. (MM)