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…

In this article, the authors use two sets of terms--"chronos/kairos" and strategy/tactic--to frame the way they tell the story or the "case" of Professional Writing and Rhetoric's (PWR's) developing identity at Elon University. In doing so, they offer to the readers a framework for identity development that is portable across contexts. The authors…

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and narrates the steps taken by the English department at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, in its major renovation of its outdated English curriculum.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)

Describes the author's department goals with three main principles: to build departmental community, to harness rather than dissipate energy, and to address multiple audiences simultaneously. Discusses how she communicates to the college as a whole what the department does well and finds ways in which caring for the department's interests might…

Gathers some of Sir Francis Bacon's educational ideas from his various writings and applies them to the five stages of undergraduate professional and technical writing program development: planning, implementation, mission, design and development, staffing, and administration. (SG)

Describes how the English department at Willamette University 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 shares three important ideas that might be useful to other departments undertaking similar changes. (HB)

Tells what has happened the last two years at the University of Louisville's English department. Presents a brief explanation of why the University of Louisville's English department decided to redefine their mission--moving all professorial faculty into first-year composition. Offers some general comments about what the author has learned as a…

Presents one composition instructor's personal memoir regarding the horrific treatment he was exposed to as a marginalized member of a college English department. Considers the kind of atmosphere and collegiality to which successful college English departments should aspire. (HB)

Describes how the English department at Roger Williams University set out to revise and revive the English major under difficult circumstances during the 1988-89 school year. Shows how the faculty redesigned the curriculum, recruited new majors, and established support programs. (HB)

Describes how the English department at Western Washington University 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 asks tough questions concerning the best way to undertake such changes. (HB)

Reform of undergraduate education is sweeping the United States and the design of the writing major at Millikin University (Decatur, Illinois), is an example of this movement. The writing major was in need of reform because, in addition to the English major core of literature surveys, Shakespeare, and a course in the history of grammar and the…

Five universities in New York State (SUNY--State University of New York at Stony Brook, Syracuse, Cornell, Binghamton, and New York Universities--are involved in a 3-year project to better prepare graduate students to become teachers. The State University of New York, Stony Brook, English Department is providing graduate teaching assistants with…

The development of a college writing program can offer many challenges to a program director drawn from the ranks of the English faculty. The discipline of writing, an act of production, is both scorned and clutched by faculty who have been trained to analyze literature, an act of perception. Literature specialists, to be qualified to teach…

The advantages of cooperative education for English departments and the role of the faculty member as a consultant for the program are discussed, based on the experience of Northeastern University. Attention is directed to starting this type of program in the English department, the consultant's role as a catalyst, placing English majors, and…