During the the fall semester 2014, English faculty members proposed a number of modifications in the design of the English program. The proposal was approved by the faculty council early in the spring semester, and program changes will affect new fall students.
A first-year, spring-semester course called The Field of English (1 credit) was replaced with a required Special Topics in Literature (3 credits). Taught by program faculty and open to all students, this course becomes the second-semester First Year Program course for English majors. With this revision, majors have a clear program path through the first year of college: the new course will assume and build on the skills and concepts introduced in Approaches to Literature and Culture and strengthen coherence within the program by providing a second-semester pathway to the upper division. It would also be open to other English majors, either as an English elective or as an arts and sciences elective. To insure consistency from one Special Topics course to another, a syllabus outline has been created. The eventual goal is to determine course topics and instructors at least two years in advance. A group of returning students and faculty members will propose these topics.
Finally, faculty dropped a set of senior requirements (Literary Genres and Movements and Writers in English and Translation). These were replaced with a simple, streamlined requirement of “two EN 400-level seminars.” Much more flexibility is thereby created. Faculty plan to work with returning students to propose seminar topics.
Because the English program includes 45 credits in elective courses, students may easily include in their studies one or more minors. Even a second major is possible.