Considers the profound impact of severe budget cuts on the English department at Portland State University. Describes some of the surprising and peculiar types of behavior among faculty members resulting from intense departmental changes. Provides advice for chairs facing similar budget restrictions. (HB)

Discusses the seemingly contradictory nature of chairing an English department by highlighting the opposing impulses faced, especially as related to funding. Presents the situation in the form of a parable similar to a work by Franz Kafka. (HB)

Considers the rewards and sufferings of English department heads. Offers advice aimed particularly at those who have newly been appointed as department chairs. Describes the major challenges faced by department chairs. Provides a list of "dos and don'ts" for new department heads. (HB)

Considers the ways by which English departments might begin the process of revitalization. Provides suggestions in eight areas of concern: record keeping, teaching, scheduling, advertising, handling workloads, revising the curriculum, funding, and hiring. (HB)

Describes steps taken by the English department at Washington State University to deal with the double bind of overproduction of PhDs and the situation of temporary instructors. Addresses the forces pushing against these efforts and the department chair's difficulties in dealing with those forces. (RS)

Proposes, in general terms, three interrelated actions to begin to address the problems facing higher education English departments: (1) an enhanced public relations campaign for higher education; (2) greater collaboration with secondary schools and community colleges; and (3) an elevation of self-image and healing of the internecine stresses…

Suggests two principles for successful evaluation of college faculty members: chairs should know their departments; and "always, always pay attention." Describes how the chair of the English department at Michigan State University developed and implemented these suggestions. (RS)

Suggests that W. Ross Winterowd's most significant and influential contribution to the field of rhetoric and composition is the Rhetoric-Linguistics-Literature Program (RLL), started in 1972 as a program in the Department of English at the University of Southern California. Presents a history of the program, noting its "virtual demise"…

Argues that the IRA/NCTE (International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English) standards should provide a starting point for both local and national discussions of what it means to have standards, what effects standards can have, and how to go about developing them. Offers a set of questions that teachers might consider…

Offers statistics on employment placement as reported by PhD-granting English departments in United States universities. Discusses the departments surveyed and number of doctoral recipients reported, their placement in and outside higher education, numbers of PhDs awarded to men and women and their placement, numbers and placements of minorities,…

Provides a retrospective update of a 1974 profile of the English department at Hinds Community College, Raymond, Mississippi. Discusses the major changes for the school: (1) it is no longer a "junior college"; and (2) it has expanded its campus. Describes the faculty, activities, curriculum, extracurricular activities, school changes,…

Studies career paths of doctorates, examining the actual employment patterns of English PhDs 10 years after finishing their degrees. Discusses the many career paths of this cohort of English PhDs; characteristics of respondents; career paths within and outside of academe; satisfaction with current employment and value of the PhD; advice from PhDs;…

Discusses the role of an English department chair within the modern university. Presents 10 useful lessons for a chairperson who is trying to make a department's case to the administration. Concludes that talking successfully to administrators requires avoiding a "them-versus-us" mentality and being willing to think collectively and creatively…

Attempts to make effects of fiscal constraints better understood in the hope of finding optimal solutions to critical difficulties faced by academic institutions. Suggests a new emphasis in graduate training on teaching. Points toward ideal changes in the structure of higher education but attempts to keep recommendations practical. Discusses the…

Shares thoughts about a recent teaching experience that may speak to two current and related issues of importance to English studies, those of part-time and adjunct staffing and of the full-time faculty's responsibility for and involvement in the design, supervision, and instruction of lower-division courses. Considers the reintegration of tenured…