From the Chair

In the two months since I last wrote this column, I have spent much of my time engaged in two activities of importance to the department: faculty and staff recruitment and program assessment. I hope that the next column will allow me to identify the new faculty who will be joining us next August, as well as the new staff members who will have brought us to full administrative strength for the first time in over a year.  The impact that our new colleagues will have upon the department is difficult to gauge, but the new faculty and staff are obviously reshaping the department.  Next August, we will have eighteen assistant professors who were not at our institution four years ago. Moreover, the entire administrative staff will be composed of people who have joined the department within the last two years. I believe that these faculty and staff changes will bring not only new ideas to the department, but also the infusion of new vigor.

The assessment activities in which I have participated have been motivated by preparation for the coming accreditation visit from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, but I view them as also providing an impetus for meaningful new activities that will also reshape the department to the benefit of its students.

Thus far, the department has focused its assessment measures on recent graduates; a number of adjustments have been made to our undergraduate program as a result of these assessments.  I think that it is now time to look at the impact of our programs on the career development of our graduates. To that end, I plan to create an "Advancement Council" composed of English graduates who have been in the workplace for a number of years. The Council will be asked to provide the department with feedback concerning how well our undergraduate and graduate programs prepared them for their careers.  Additionally, Council members will also be asked to assist the department in making our current students aware of the diverse occupations in which ECU English majors have found success. Most importantly, Council members will assist the department in advancing its goal of providing a high quality liberal arts education to its majors by helping us to determine ways of strengthening our programs and by serving as role models for our majors.

If you are an ECU English graduate willing to serve on the Advancement Council, or know of someone whom you would like to nominate for membership on the Council, please contact me.