Describes three criteria used by a college administrator to allocate faculty positions. Discusses ways for English departments to enhance their chances for faculty positions. Suggests that departments that can significantly enhance undergraduate education have the best claim on faculty positions. (RS)

Presents 10 concrete strategies for retaining faculty lines, strategies that respond to the new economic realities shaping institutions and at the same time preserve the vital heart of the academy. (RS)

Suggests that successful strategies for retaining faculty lines will vary widely according to local circumstances. Discusses the cases of the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Stony Brook, which suggest that English departments stand to gain if they can demonstrate that adding faculty lines will help overcome the split…

Discusses the role of the English department head in a time of shrinking budgets. Considers popular and governmental conceptions of college faculty productivity. Calls for increased attention to undergraduate teaching. Criticizes attacks labeling college faculty as lazy and incompetent. (HB)

Dramatizes the attempts, including hunger strikes, to get the University of California at Los Angeles to create a department of Chicano studies. Considers the difficulty of dealing compassionately with protesters when faced with institutional budget cuts. (HB)

Suggests that the most important piece of advice for the survival of English departments is that all faculty members, especially chairs, learn to collaborate effectively. Discusses the kinds of collaboration required for the retention of faculty lines. (RS)

Considers the role of the English department head in a time of fiscal constraint and retrenchment. Describes the special responsibilities necessitated by lean financial circumstances. Discusses department/administration relations and the public relations aspect of chairing a department. (HB)

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)

Discusses the psychological impact of chairing an English department in a time of shrinking resources. Provides advice for department heads faced with budget cuts. (HB)

Raises a number of questions about the direction of the English department in light of its fundamental transformations. Asks whether the profession wants to replace the study of literature with the study of culture or critical methodology, i.e., semiotics and semantics. Looks at graduate education and the place of literature in it. (TB)