Combined Program Review

COMBINED PROGRAM REVIEW

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

I. Description of the Program

a. Mission Statement

The mission of the English Department at North Dakota State University is to inspire an appreciation for the English language and its literatures, and to cultivate its effective use in creative expression and day-to-day life. Staying current with trends in the field and meeting our students’ needs, the faculty of the English department is transforming our traditional English curriculum into an English Studies curriculum. This change gives students opportunities to explore such subjects as British, American, and World literature; rhetoric, composition, literacy acquisition; professional writing; and creative writing.

• Rooted in the liberal arts and humanities, the study of literature fosters creative and critical abilities, promotes multiculturalism and tolerance in a globalized world, and fosters understanding of cultural, historical, ethical, aesthetic, and linguistic forces that shape our lives.

• Effective writing makes social and professional engagement possible. The study of rhetoric, composition, literacy, and professional writing enhances facilities in writing, communication, and technology much valued by local communities, industry, and organizations.

• Creative writing merges an interest in literary studies with the art of writing, providing a hands-on experience of literature, encouraging students to create literary texts in a variety of media and genres, and emphasizing the power of the individual to respond to human experience in a changing world.

b. Overview

Currently, the department of English offers five degrees: a BA in English (Liberal Arts); a BS in English (Liberal Arts); A BA in English Education; a BS in English Education; and an MA in English, which has two active tracks (literature or composition). The department consists of three professors (Krishnan, O’Connor, Sullivan), three associate professors (Brooks, Brown, Shaw), and seven assistant professors (Aune, Birmingham, Helstern, A. Mara, M. Mara, Taggart, Totten) on tenure-track. Two of these joined the faculty in Fall 2006. Additionally, the department has one full-time instructor, four senior lecturers, eight full-time lecturers and two part-time lecturers. The department usually has approximately 20 active teaching assistantships and two to five adjunct lecturers picking up a class or two. It has one administrative assistant on a ten-month contract who shares office responsibilities with a full-time secretary in Modern languages. The Registrars’ office report for 2005 gives the following enrollment numbers:

Undergraduate Graduate

# of majors: English BA 19 43

English Ed. BA 8

English BS 46

English Ed. BS 8

Total majors: 124

# of minors: 22

Total minors: 22

Total majors and minors: 146

Our current numbers, as verified by our undergraduate advisers checking PeopleSoft, indicate that we have 129 undergraduate majors when all four degrees are combined. This number is considerably higher than the 81 given by the Registrar’s office.

The English department offices are on the third floor of Minard (Minard 320 and 322), but several of its lecturers have offices on the second floor of Minard and the third floor of South Engineering. The department has recently received permission and funding to develop a wireless lab and instrumented classroom in cooperation with ITS which will be devoted primarily to English classes and lab work. It is located in South Engineering 314.

The English Department Head will serve as the program representative for the review process. Contact information:

Dale Sullivan

Minard 322G

701.231.7144

c. Brief History

Over the past ten years, the English department has undergone radical change and is still in the process of change. The total number of English faculty with specializations in composition/rhetoric/technical communication increased from one to six between 1995 and 2006. There has been a general "shift" in the department's balance. In 1995 there were 10 faculty members in literature, 2 in composition, and 1 in linguistics. As of fall 2006, there are 8 in literature, 6 in composition-rhetoric, and none in linguistics. Below is a timeline marking the most important changes during this ten-year period.

· 2000, Discontinued Oral Defense in M. A. program and instituted a portfolio review system in its place

· Fall 2001, Conducted a survey to determine market for Ph. D. in English

· 2002, First draft of Ph. D. proposal written and approved internally at NDSU

· Fall 2002, Approached Dean of AHSS and Provost about taking over the Center for Writers

· 2003, Promoted two lecturers to senior lecturer status and one assistant professor to associate.

· Summer 2003, Hired Dale Sullivan as Head of the Department

· Fall 2003, Revised assessment instruments and program for English BA program

· Summer 2004, Hired two external consultants, Martin Jacobi (Clemson) and Doug Hesse (Illinois State) to do external curriculum reviews

· Summer 2004, Richard Shaw took over administration of Center for Writers

· Fall 2004, Conducted first pilot program in vertical writing curriculum

· Fall 2004, Dropped the English Minor in English Education because it was no longer feasible under No Child Left Behind

· Fall 2004, Initiated wireless graduate program—all TAs issued their own wireless laptops

· Fall-Winter 2004-05, Revised the Ph. D. in English Studies proposal, changing it to a Ph. D. in Rhetoric, Writing & Culture

· Spring 2005, Graduate Council at NDSU approved revision of Ph. D. proposal

· Spring 2005, Promoted 2 lecturers to senior lecturer status, raising number of senior lecturers to 4

· Fall 2005, Conducted second pilot program in vertical writing curriculum

· Fall 2005, Discontinued accepting applicants for the Linguistics strand in our M. A. program because we lost Don Salting, our linguist

· Fall 2005, Gained Faculty Senate approval to institute a vertical writing program in general education

· Fall 2005, Pushed back start date for vertical writing curriculum to Fall 2007

· Fall 2005, Were notified of NDSU administration’s decision to take Ph. D. in Rhetoric, Writing & Culture to the State Board of Higher Education in December

· Fall 2004 and Spring 2005, Revised entire English curriculum

· Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, The revised English curriculum passed Academic Affairs and University Senate

· Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, Proposed and secured permission and funding to build a wireless lab and instrumented classroom for English instruction

· Spring 2006, Documented the BS in English for the first time

· Spring 2006, Ph. D. approval processes initiated: SBHE stage 1; stage 2; original unanimous approval among presidents; objection by UND president in March

· Fall 2006, Ph. D. proposal presently on hold but upper administration is eager to take it forward again, perhaps with a name change

· Fall 2006, third vertical writing pilot program initiated.

These changes have re-positioned the NDSU English department in the university and in the profession nationally. What used to be primarily a service department with a small number of majors and a successful Masters program is now poised to become a leader in reshaping general education writing and writing across the curriculum, a program with added appeal and career opportunities for undergraduates, and a regional center and potentially a national competitor among Ph. D. programs in rhetoric and writing.

d. Goals

Short Term Goals

· Secure final approval of the Ph. D. program in Rhetoric, Writing & Culture

· Develop full catalogue description and handbook for the new Ph. D. program

· Enhance library resources

· Revise departmental website

· Find release time for an alumni director and newsletter editor

· Develop a department advisory board

· Recruit public school teachers for grad classes

· Recruit high school students directly

· Establish a 3/2 teaching load for tenure-track (instead of a 3/3 load)

· Establish a 4/3 teaching load for lecturers (instead of a 4/4 load)

· Increase office staff: at least two full time or 2 ½ (we presently have one 10-month office administrator and share a full-time office secretary with Modern Languages)

· Give administrative releases for undergrad director, grad director, upper-division writing

· Raise more scholarship money

Long Term Goals

· Increase field experience and co-op program and participation

· Increase participation in Governor’s School

· Double the number of English majors

· Find funding and permission to build a second wireless lab or classroom

· Increase office space, especially for lecturers and teaching assistants

· Create a Community Literacy Center

· Garner funding to give administrative assistantships for some GTAs

e. Strengths and Needs

The English department has many strengths, including collegiality among faculty and staff, willingness to work together for the common good, innovative thinking and planning in curriculum development and technology, service to the college and university, our ability to give individual attention to our students, and the relative success of our students in the graduate program, both in placement with flagship Ph. D. programs and in winning awards. Our writing and assessment programs are informed by current theory and practice, and we have expertise among the faculty in areas of British, Irish, American and World literatures, cultural studies, rhetoric, composition, and technical communication. When compared with other English departments, the percentage of our faculty with expertise in writing, composition, and technical communication is high, and we are, therefore, in a strong position to make advances in that area. We also have strength in travel writing, American cultural studies, and Native American literature. We have developed a departmental culture that expects scholarly success in research and publication, and production has been going up as teaching loads come down.

On the other hand, our faculty is small for an English department in a university the size of NDSU (we are smaller than the English departments at MSUM and Concordia). We staff many of our classes with lecturers, who do an excellent job of teaching but are not expected to give service to the department or the university. As our programs grow, we need more faculty members to help carry the service load involved with an innovative department and with active and growing graduate programs. We have identifiable needs for faculty in English education and technical communication. Our faculty members have had a 3-3 teaching load, and their salaries are below national and institutional averages. All tenure and tenure-track faculty have been expected to teach at least two service-writing classes a year. As a result, our faculty members are not able to devote adequate time to research and writing in their fields of research. We need a reduced teaching load and release from the obligation of teaching such a high percentage of service-writing courses. Many English programs will not permit tenured and tenure-track faculty teach these classes because faculty members are considered too expensive for such a luxury. Here, however, they are used to defray the cost of an effective writing program at the expense of their professional development as researchers and scholars and at the expense of the department’s commitment to its own areas of expertise. Other members of the department, besides tenured and tenure-track faculty, are also overburdened and under compensated. The teaching assistants who enter our MA program receive only $8,100 and tuition waivers for teaching 4 classes in the course of an academic year. Our lecturers teach a 4-4 load, and although their salaries have gone up in the last couple years, they are still low (high 20s and low 30s), especially for those who have given over 20 years of service to the department. We have only one 10-month administrative assistant and share a secretary with Modern Languages. As with other programs, we are cramped for space: many of our lecturers share office space, and our teaching assistants are crammed several to an office, making student consultations difficult. We do not have as many majors in our program as would be expected of a university this size, so we need to increase enrollment in our degree programs. To do that, we need to teach a wider variety of classes, especially those that attract students and prepare them for careers after they graduate, and this need, of course, points to our need to hire more faculty.

f. Changes Implemented

The last program review report contained seven recommendations. In summary, the first recommended increasing support staff and operating budget; the second recommended that office space be increased to facilitate teacher-student interaction; the third recommended developing a clear vision and objectives for the graduate program; the fourth recommended that assessment reports and student evaluation reports be kept and updated regularly; the fifth recommended that faculty increase scholarly publication and grant writing, and that the library resources be increased; the sixth recommended that teaching responsibilities of our teaching assistants be reduced; and the seventh recommended that the department set long-term goals taking into account impending faculty retirements.

The problem of inadequate support staff referenced in the first recommendation has not been remedied. Instead, the problem has become even more difficult. We still share one full-time secretary and a ten-month office manager with Modern Languages, but now the work load is heavier: we now host one regional conference each year and another regional conference every two years, and the office staff supports these conferences. We now have considerably more computers and printers to be set up, updated, and monitored. The department is making major changes in policies and curriculum, and once again the staff is taxed keeping track of changes and doing paper work. Finally, the Distance and Continuing Education has recently divested itself of the tasks of writing contracts, monitoring attendance, and keeping track of the payroll for DCE classes, and that work has been passed on to the office staff without increased compensation or hours.

Office space continues to be a problem; however, we did divide one teaching assistants bay into two small offices for faculty, so that now all of our faculty have at least a small private space with a window. The teaching assistants were moved into the old, internal offices that belonged to the faculty. There was no increase in square footage. We have, however, developed a laptop program for our teaching assistants so that each now has a laptop and can meet with students for conferences in any wireless environment around campus, thus alleviating the conferencing problem.

The department has re-written its Ph. D. proposal and now has clearly defined objectives for both M. A. tracks and the Ph. D. Although many of our graduate students are getting through the program more rapidly now, they still teach two composition sections a semester as teaching assistants. Comparing data from the previous program review, improvement has been made in the time needed to complete an M. A. degree from an average of 4.85 years to 3.2 years. A fuller discussion is available in section III of this report.