Uses a baseball metaphor to advise students who want to pursue a doctoral degree--in many ways the Master's program at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, is like a triple-A minor league farm club, preparing players for the big leagues of the doctoral institutions. (RS)

Examines the effect of assessment and accountability requirements on the English department at Eastern Kentucky University. Aims not to offer solutions but to help to define the problems faced by a particular department at a particular university in a particular context, with the assumption that other departments are facing similar problems. (TB)

Tells stories, somewhat fictionalized, that may help English chairs frame the discussion on curricular revision. Describes the institutional and management issues chairs need to explore when they think about initiating the curriculum debate. Considers departmental structural issues, campus structural issues, organizational issues, and a set of…

Considers how the creativity of individuals can best benefit the whole, without making others feel disenfranchised. Presents four assumptions addressing fragmentation, the reason for fragmentation, the role of the chair regarding fragmentation, and the role of individuality in a small vs. large institution. Notes the author's department has…

Addresses the "community" within an English department. Considers what image of the department the author can have that allows the possibility of forgiving one another. Discusses what metaphors describe the department: a lifeboat; a hive; a monastery; an ecosystem; or a minefield. Considers how metaphors account for the best and the worst things…

Addresses learning and teaching in the context of the new kinds of collaborative research made possible by "Romantic Circles," a distributed, networked project. Notes that many educators in the humanities would do well to continue the conversation about what is being done and what might be done on the Net. (SG)

Explores the place of faculty and faculty values in the process of assessing the work of higher education. Searches to find better ways to put the intellectual work of faculty and students at the center of the educational concerns and at the center of assessment models. Suggests that faculty should devote themselves to teaching the first-year…

Focuses on the navigation of the path from educator to administrator and whether it is possible or desirable to find a way back. Finds that the author's experiences as a scholar and teacher came into play more than anticipated. Suggests that there are many benefits if presented with the opportunity to move from faculty to administration. (SG)

Discusses how professional conversation should focus on the intersection of teaching and text. Notes that exemplary practices can be found in two-year college English programs, and university research programs should find ways to study and critique that practice. Suggests that graduate programs in English should explicitly acknowledge that a…

Discusses what it means to work in and chair an English department in a University of Excellence. Clarifies what a university dedicated to excellence means in his experience. Suggests that the effort to show excellence is fundamentally about making an account, a narrative that inspires public credulity. (SG)

Presents some different angles to the humanists opposition to corporatization. Notes three different vectors of change pushing to a greater involvement with what might be called marketplace issues. Notes that chairs and other administrators have a particularly important role to play in disseminating a greater understanding of the challenges and…

Relates the stages a new intern goes through to become an "insider." Relates the socialization of newcomers to writing and editing internships. Suggests ways in which the socialization of interns can be improved through intervention from academic advisors and an active role on the part of the interns themselves. (SC)

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) offers student workshops that range from Cool New Web Stuff (what is on the web that can help make research or just plain life easier) and How To Use Google Scholar. These workshops are brilliant fodder for podcasting. In fact, the initial idea for its podcast project came from a student plagiarism…

Although writing instructors have a clear picture of how well our students can write by the end of a composition course, very rarely do we learn how well the students carry over the skills and strategies we teach them to the essays they write for other courses. I collected essays from other courses to determine how effectively students transfer…

A graduate teaching assistant who lived through the Northridge quake in Los Angeles County reached some realizations about her habits of thinking in the wake of that experience. As students schooled or even trained in poststructuralist critical theory and/or protocols of postmodern cultural critique, this teaching assistant and some of her…