Notes that many scholars see Gerald Graff as a revolutionary critic who provides a model for making fundamental changes within the discipline of English. Focuses on the historical marginalization of the fields of composition and rhetoric studies not addressed by Graff in his book "Professing Literature." (RS)

Provides a working definition for assessment as it relates to higher education. Contrasts what assessment should be with what it should not be. Gives several suggestions for administrators just beginning assessment activities. (HB)

Recounts the process and narrates the steps taken by the English department at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, in its major renovation of its outdated English curriculum. Describes the working conditions of the department and the newly devised curriculum. (HB)

Identifies the growing problems of sexual harassment on college campuses. Outlines current institutional policies and legal debates concerning this issue. Provides firsthand insight of one administrator's experiences and thoughts on the process of adopting and working with a sexual harassment policy. (HB)

Discusses the role of the Creative Writing segment of English departments. Questions the goals and aims of creative writing programs and attempts to sketch a reasonable version of those goals. Provides ways that department chairs might promote rather than ghettoize the creative writing programs in their departments. (HB)

Dramatizes the give and take that accompanies any attempt to get an English department to speak with one voice and arrive at a consensus regarding curriculum revision. Provides details of the curriculum reform process undertaken at the University of Oregon. (HB)

Surveys technical writing professors concerning the definition and location of technical writing programs. Finds that programs located in English departments do not receive the respect and support they need; and that faculty in programs located in other departments are significantly more satisfied. Suggests some strategies for improving the…

Identifies 10 challenges facing public-research universities in the next century and reflects on their consequences for English departments. Discusses how this set of challenges affects English departments and how the issues to be faced in the next decade take their shape from these challenges. (CR)

Considers how deans look at departmental budgets. Presents 10 ways in which to think about English department funding that will enable department heads to build coalitions with the dean including: (1) keeping count; (2) reorganizing; (3) managing and capitalizing; (4) innovating; (5) investing; (6) generating; (7) connecting; (8) setting…

Considers that the issue behind English department recruitment is not the size of the major but the focus and pertinence of the curriculum, where success is defined by an effective articulation between what a faculty believes it has to offer and what serious, goal-oriented students--the sort wanted in the major in the first place--are looking to…

Presents a conversation that took place at the 2000 annual convention in Baltimore of the College Language Association, an organization founded in 1937 to provide support for English (and later foreign language) scholars at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), in response both to the special problems that faced HBCUs and…

Focuses on a survey of 10 questions that the author gave to all tenured and tenure-track faculty members in English at the University of Louisville. Notes that the questions focused on the perceived positive and negative results of a major cultural change (faculty teaching first-year composition) for the department, the composition program, the…

Calls for college English faculty to embrace the challenge of a diversity that includes nonelite institutions. Suggests that graduate students in English who find themselves in nonelite undergraduate institutions teaching mostly nonmajors will have to learn a second language: the language of accommodation. (RS)

Suggests that the crisis of authority in the discipline of English is mirrored in the crisis of audience in the job market. Argues that the job market, the politics of national accreditation, the controversy surrounding standards, and the fickleness of funding at all levels are driving English departments to mediate on questions of scholarship and…

Suggests that the technical and professional writing concentration in the English department at Eastern Michigan University serves as an example of the way Master of Arts (MA) programs often reflect the economy of a particular region. Discusses the MA program at Eastern Michigan University. (RS)