English 2010 APR Self-Study & Documents

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University of New Mexico

UNM Digital Repository

UNM Academic Program Review Office of the Provost/EVP for Academic Affairs

Spring 2010

English 2010 APR Self-Study & Documents

University of New Mexico

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Pagei

Department of English Language and Literature

Self Study for

Academic Program Review

January 2010

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Pageii

Figures and Illustrations

Figure 1: Post-1996 APR Tenure-Stream Faculty Status……….5

Figure 2: Tenure-Stream Faculty: Voting Versus Teaching……….13

Figure 3: Non-Tenure-Stream Faculty: Fulltime Vs. Semester-to-Semester Lecturers.14 Figure 4: Teaching Assistantships: English and A&S………15

Figure 5: Tenure-Stream Faculty Teaching Assignments……….56

Figure 6: Undergrads Receiving Honors………..79

Figure 7: Masters’ degrees awarded 2000-2009………82

Figure 8: Terminal degrees awarded 2000-2009………83

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Pagevi

Tables

Table 1: Faculty Level Comparison with Peer Institutions………20

Table 2: Tenure-stream Faculty/Lecturers Compared to Peer Institution Enrollments.21 Table 3: MFA Applications, Admissions, Acceptances……….49

Table 4: 1996 Faculty Versus 2009 Faculty……….55

Table 5: Core Writing Courses Outcome Goals……….64

Table 6: Graduate Enrollment Trends 2005-2009………..89

Table 7: Graduate Enrollments Fall 2008………..89

Table 8: Gender/Ethnicity, Graduate Students, Fall 2008……….89

Table 9: Overall Enrollment Percentages 2002-2007……….102

Table 10: Enrollments by number of sections, students, and fields………102

Table 11: Core Writing Enrollments, Fall 1997-Fall 2008………103

Table 12: OIR Data: Undergraduate Declared Majors in English………..104

Table 13: OIR: English Department Undergraduate Student Credit Hours………105

Table 14: OIR: Undergraduate Enrollments by Sex/Minority………..105

Table 15: OIR: Undergraduate Degree Recipients by Sex/Ethnicity………106

Table 16: Graduate Enrollments 1999-2008………107

Table 17: Graduate Enrollments, Fall 2008………..108

Table 18: Demographics, Graduate Students, Fall 2008……….108

Table 19: Graduate Programs’ Admissions Data………..109

Table 20: Graduate Programs’ Enrollment Numbers……….110

Table 21: Overall Graduate Totals, 1998-2008………..112

Table 22: MA Degrees by Ethnicity/Gender……….113

Table 23: MFA Degrees by Ethnicity/Gender………..114

Table 24: PhD Degrees by Ethnicity/Gender………115

Table 25: Graduate Student Credit Hours Generated………..115

Table 26: RPT Applications 2007-08………..127

Table 27: RPT Awards Fall 2008………127

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Pagevii

Table 29: Carry-over Balances from 2008-2009………310

Table 30: Department Awards and Account Balances……….311

Table 31: Department Salaries………..312

Table 32: Operating Expenses Overview………312

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Page1

Department of English Self Study

2008-2009

This report reviews and analyzes the history and current status of undergraduate, graduate, and service programs in language and literary studies sponsored by the Department of English at the University of New Mexico. Based on the analysis, the report discusses current issues and future directions. The report follows the Self-Study Guidelines for Academic Program Reviews distributed in September 2008 by the Office of the Provost/Executive Vice President for

Academic Affairs. Further the report emphasizes changes in Department programs, resources, and missions that have come about since the 1996 Self Study. The Department sees this report as an honest assessment of 1.) its critical situation that must be rectified in order that it meet the heavy service demands of the University and retain its excellence in teaching and research, and 2.) its outstanding, committed faculty, programs, and students. Indeed, we are proud that our graduate program is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as no. 71, along with SUNY Stony Brook, George Washington University, University of Tennessee, University of Connecticut, University of Delaware, and Bryn Mawr.

1. General Characteristics of the English Department

1. Institutional Context

Enrolling over 25,000 students in 2008-2009, the University of New Mexico is the largest state Research Extensive institution in the state of New Mexico. As the state’s flagship institution, UNM boasts six colleges including Arts & Sciences, College of Education, and Fine Arts and six professional schools including Engineering, Law, Medicine, and Pharmacy. Offering more than 40 doctoral degree programs, UNM enjoys the classification as a Carnegie Foundation Research University with Very High Research Activity. Unlike other institutions across the country in this category, UNM can boast of its 32% Hispanic and 12% Native American enrollments.1

Drawing on a dedicated faculty of 28 tenure-stream faculty, five lecturers, and an extensive number of Graduate/Teaching Assistants (TAs) and part-time instructors (PTI), the Department of English Language and Literature makes significant contributions to UNM’s educational and research missions. Despite English’s diminished faculty and its increased reliance on TAs and PTIs, the Department generates on average more than 40,500 student credit hours per

1_{At UNM in general in 2008, the undergraduate population was 18,394, of which 599 (3.3%) were African} American, 1231 (6.7%) American Indian, 732 (4%) Asian Pacific Islander, 6,687 (36.4%), Hispanic, 8258 (44.9%), White/Non-Hispanic, 198 (1.1%) international, 689 No response. Of 5711 graduate students, 124 (2.2%) were African American, 289 (5.2%) American Indian, 208 (2.8%) Asian Pacific Islander, 1,157 (17.7%) Hispanic, 3,088 (54.5%) White/Non-Hispanic, 596 (13.4%), International, and 249 no response. (5 year academic ledger). On the undergraduate level, of the 18,394 10,325 (56.1%) were female and 8,069 (43.9%) were male. On the graduate level, 5711, 3,215 (57.4%) were female and 2,496 (42.6%) male.

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academic year and more than 40,710 student credit hours last year.2

2_{Office of Instructional Research, Total Academic Year Student Credit Hours: English, 2000-2008.}

The Department

graduates the third highest number of undergraduate majors in the College of Arts & Sciences and is responsible for teaching the most number of courses in the University’s Core Curriculum. Certainly, if, metaphorically, we might be compared to a faculty member going up for

promotion, it must be said that given our leadership, proven contributions to teaching, research, and service, we would most certainly receive “exceeds expectations” in all three areas.

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2. Brief History

Because English is the cornerstone of the humanities, unless The University of New Mexico plans to become mainly a technical school (and there are no signs that it does), it must restore the strength of the English

Department and enhance its competitive edge (UNM English APR Report 1996, p. 3).

The University of New Mexico Department of English Language and Literature is over 120 years old and has been at the center of UNM’s teaching, research, and outreach missions since its inception. In particular, the English Department has taught basic writing skills and the literature and narratives of Western culture from the first semester UNM opened. No educational

experience is more fundamental to higher education than the abilities to write clearly, read analytically, and think critically.

Since the early 20th_{century, the English Department rapidly became a pivotal contributor to the}

University’s mission by teaching not only English fundamentals but also literary and rhetorical studies. The Department graduated few majors (approximately 24/year) during the 1950s; by contrast, in the 21st century, English has graduated an average of 100 undergraduates in six concentrations3

3_{Unfortunately the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) does not report number of minors as the English minor} fields in writing are preferred minors across the University.

and an average of 20+ MAs/MFAs/PhDs per year. Late in this decade, English faculty turned their attention to enriching the major and minor concentrations to encourage research experiences for undergraduates. By the 1960s, the Department faculty numbered 25 tenure-stream faculty who taught not only American and British literary studies but also American studies, writing, and linguistics.

The 1970s and 1980s saw major reviews in undergraduate curriculum, particularly the first-year writing program, and the reduction of undergraduate-graduate mixed courses. New

undergraduate major concentrations were introduced that complement the College of Arts and Sciences’ mission; as well, new courses addressing African-American, Chicano/a, and Native American literatures became standard in the curricula that strengthened the Department’s major and minor and advanced the burgeoning programs in Native American, Latino, and Africana Studies. A new undergraduate major in Creative Writing was approved enthusiastically by Department faculty. The 1980s saw a considerable increase in the number of international outreach efforts by Department faculty, and the Department, with support from Arts & Sciences, joined a consortium of universities to sponsor a semester’s study in London, a continuing program housed in English. Scholarly research dominated this decade. The Department sponsored several NEH-funded summer seminars and, although the Department lost New Mexico Quarterly, it gained editorship of Shakespeare Studies, Blake Newsletter,

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3. History since 1996, Previous Academic Program Review

Since the Department’s last Academic Program Review in 1996, English has gained additional University responsibilities but lost resources. Starting in Fall 1999, UNM instituted a Core Curriculum for all undergraduates at the same time that New Mexico began a lottery

scholarship program that guarantees tuition scholarship for New Mexico high school graduates attending any New Mexico public post-secondary institution of higher education. The

enrollment increases put even greater pressure on the Department to staff Core Curriculum courses in English, the most frequently chosen courses in the Core. These courses include

• English 101: Expository Writing

• English 102: Analytic and Argumentative Writing

• English 150: The Study of Literature

• English 219: Technical/Professional Writing

• English 220: Advanced Expository Writing

• English 292: World Literatures: Ancient World Through 16th

• English 293: World Literatures: 17

Century

th_{Century Through the Present}

This University Core adopts several of the courses mandated by the Arts & Sciences General Education Task Force. Simultaneously, University officials reaffirmed UNM’s status as a Carnegie Foundation Research University with Very High Research Activity institution and directed departments and programs to enhance graduate education opportunities. These Core requirements, increased undergraduate enrollments, and the University’s

commitment to quality education has increased UNM’s emphasis on Outcomes Assessment. This emphasis, in turn, resulted in the recruitment of a key Department writing professor to take over the Outcomes Assessments programs for all departments in Arts & Sciences and meant that a second English faculty member expanded her duties beyond directing the Core Curriculum Writing program to administering Outcomes Assessment for all Core Writing courses without providing extra assistance to these faculty members or providing the Department with faculty support to replace these professors.

Over the four years between 2002-03 and 2005-06, the annual enrollment in English 101, 102, 219, and 220 rose from 6632 to 7322, an increase of 10.4%. These courses regularly account for 70% of the total hours taken in English. Over the same four-year period, enrollments and student credit hours in English grew 13%. Increases were marked in Creative Writing (+ 24%), Professional Writing (+ 19%) and Literature (+ 18%). In the Core Writing curriculum, the notable increases are in English 219 (+ 38%) and English 220 (+ 210%). This year the University is touting the 6% increase in the incoming freshman class, yet it has frozen hiring for all intents and purposes. But increased enrollments and retention must be accompanied by a major increase of tenure-faculty hires to teach and advise the increased number of in students in order for the University to maintain its national ranking and status. The literature courses English 292 and English 293 also have large enrollments, with World Literature courses English

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292 and 293 regularly enrolling large sections of 50-75. Following on the 292/293 model, Houston has directed the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies to pilot a large section of English 250 for fall 2010, which will be followed by large sections of 294, 295, 296, 297 to deal with the lack of faculty to teach it in small settings.

A second major event that has hampered the Department since our last APR is the loss of faculty due to retirements and other separations.

Figure 1: Post-1996 APR Tenure-Stream Faculty Status

Overall from 1996-2009 English lost 37 tenure-line faculty and only gained 26 tenure-line faculty, several of which were appointments shared with other departments and programs. Clearly, given the numbers, the hiring authorized by the University between 1996 and 2009 could not make up for the deep losses experienced through retirements and resignations of tenure-line faculty.

With the dwindling number of full-time faculty come increased service demands—including University and Departmental administrative, and student/junior faculty mentoring and advising. Stagnating salaries4

4_{UNM is around 10% below its peer institutions in regards to overall faculty salaries; the humanities divisions,} particularly English, see even lower averages than regional or national peers.

make it difficult to attract and keep top tenure-line hires. As a specific example, of the 20 tenure-line faculty we hired between 1996 and 2005, seven have separated from UNM. Hence, as the field of English and its specializations have expanded dramatically over the last two decades, the UNM English faculty has been decimated, replaced by eight full-time lecturers in 1999-2000, a precipitous increase in part-full-time faculty, and the increasingly rare tenure-line assistant professor. Later, that number was raised to 10 lecturers, but by last year we only had 7 and 2 of those lecturers separated from our Department. We now only have 5 lecturers.

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Exacerbating the loss of hires is that in the recent past so many of our faculty were in

administrative posts outside the Department, some of whom taught only a fourth to half time in the Department; others were faculty in our department in name only. The latest case is Prof. Harrison who served the Department as Associate Chair for two months before accepting a position, in October 2009, as Associate Dean of the Office of Graduate Studies, a much-deserved step up but which, again, is not compensated for with a new line.

The problem of keeping faculty on as voting members of the Department but who have no operational role in the Department is aggravated by the fact that these faculty administrators are still considered members of English and are still listed as paid from Department allocations but are currently not replaced by the University. A long-term example of this situation is

Professor Peter White who has served the University as Associate Arts & Sciences Dean, Special Advisor to the Provost, Dean of University College and, most recently, New Mexico’s Secretary of Higher Education. Prof. White is the only Department faculty member qualified to teach graduate level courses in Colonial American Literature; hence, the literature, history, and culture of the U.S. from its founding to the mid-19th century has not been taught as a graduate study in over 15 years. White returns to our Department in spring 2010 as a .5 member of the program, and we are pleased by his return. More typical examples are Professors Reed

Dasenbrock (former Arts & Sciences Dean, UNM Provost, Secretary of Higher Education, and now vice chancellor for academic affairs at University of Hawaii-Mānoa) and Finnie Coleman (Director of Africana Studies and now Interim Dean of University College). Each of these administrators taught one course in UNM’s English Department during their administrative “leaves.”

This trend is long-standing. From the mid-90s on, tenure-track numbers have included full-time administrators such as Michael Fischer (former Arts & Sciences Dean and Interim Provost) and external part-time administrators such as Wanda Martin (Associate Arts & Sciences Dean, now Associate Chair for Core Writing and Director of First-Year Writing), Gail Houston (former Women Studies Director, now English Chair), Anita Obermeier (current Feminist Research Institute Director and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies), and Greg Martin (current Curriculum Co-Director, BA-MD Program).

Upcoming known retirements also bode ill for the Department. Eight faculty members have expressed an interest in retiring soon; all are pivotal to the Department disciplines for which they teach and do research. Indeed, one of those eight, Susan Romano, unexpectedly retired in January 2010, effective immediately. She has been a key member of the Rhetoric & Writing Program. Essentially, these eight faculty make up more than 25% of our active tenure stream faculty (of 28) and come from primarily the Rhetoric/Writing and British/Irish Literary Studies disciplines. At least three of these senior faculty members have indicated that they could leave as early as spring 2010. One other plans to retire by spring 2011. The latest date for retirement for the other named faculty would be spring 2013.

Some of the potential retirements could be from the section that produces most of our service commitments: Rhetoric & Writing. These retirements, coupled with our loss of two lecturers

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from this section in 2008-09, starkly portend a catastrophic situation. By 2013, it is possible that only two faculty members would be left in Rhetoric & Writing and Core Writing who can

supervise and teach the vast contingent of TAs and PTIs necessary to teach English 101, 102, 219, 220.

The remaining potential retirements come from the British/Irish Literary Studies (3) and from American Literary Studies. British/Irish Studies already staffs the Core’s suggested Humanities courses, World Literature English 292 and 293, as well as regularly staffs the pedagogical course for graduate students. English is grateful that the Dean is advocating for hires to replace our faculty losses but we simply cannot go another year in the same condition.

The English Department generated 9,274 graduate and 162,028 undergraduate credit hours in 2008-09. 83,910 of those credit hours are in first-year courses. The Writing and Speaking Core requires nine credit hours, which most students complete by taking Eng 101, 102, and an elective. Core Writing and Rhetoric & Writing regularly teach and supervise graduates students and PTIs teaching English 101, 102, 219, and 220. In fall 2009 we taught 189 sections of these Core Writing courses. About 66% of first-year students enroll in English 101, up to 25% of whom must take the course a second time. Enrollments in the other two Core Writing courses, English 219 and 220, have remained high, with 28 sections of English 219 and 15 sections of English 220 offered this fall.

Retirements (recent and potential) and arduous administrative duties outside our Department on the part of a cadre of faculty mean that by fall 2010, English will have to drastically reduce the sections it teaches of Core Writing courses (English 101, 102, 219, 220). These cutbacks will cause students, already struggling to complete their degree work in five years, to delay

graduation even longer. Too, American Literary Studies (ALS) and British/Irish Literary Studies (BILS) will have to reduce the sections they teach of courses that fulfill requirements in the Core Curriculum: English 150, 250, 292, 293. Further, we will not be able to provide the courses necessary for our undergraduate majors and minors to complete their degrees in a timely fashion. We will also not be able to provide the courses necessary for our graduate students who provide the mainstay faculty for teaching English 101, 102, and, to a lesser degree, English 219 and 220.

At the same time as the Department lost key faculty members, the University announced its aspirations to strengthen its commitment to Diversity:

We lift up our cultural and ethnic diversity as the unique strategic advantage it is, providing the environment in which our students learn with one another to generate new knowledge that helps the world’s people leverage and celebrate the value of difference.

and Intercultural Competency:

Actively deepen and share our understanding of the diverse cultures that come together at the University of New Mexico and the value they add to society. [Strategic Framework 2008] To meet the University’s stated goals, the English Department has repeatedly sought to

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American literatures. Currently, however, the Department has only 2.5 tenure stream faculty to meet these needs. Creating a much needed Southwest Literary Studies Concentration is a goal, but we will need 2-3 tenure-line faculty to ensure the stability of such a program.

A third major event since the last APR is the Department’s inauguration of a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree and events leading to the loss of that program’s internationally known Native American poet, Joy Harjo. After much research, work, and lobbying, the state approved in 2004 the MFA terminal degree program in Creative Writing for UNM. Since then the program has enjoyed robust enrollments and exceptional graduation rates. However, starting in Fall 2007 a traumatic set of events began in the Creative Writing program, quickly spread through all programs and into public (even national) view, and resulted in a schism in the Department and Prof. Harjo’s resignation.

Department members are still working through the tensions that erupted. Efforts to improve the situation continue on several fronts and on behalf of several groups of faculty involved. Virtually all faculty would like to proceed in a professional manner as we grapple with the residual difficulties. In 2008 several Department meetings focused on how to create guidelines for situations concerning sexual harassment, relationships between faculty and students, and bullying. As one step to mend the trauma, faculty voted to include in their syllabi the following statement: “The English Department affirms its commitment to the joint responsibility of instructors and students to foster and maintain a positive learning environment.” A

Department Ad Hoc Respectful Campus Committee is now working to recommend policy and procedure on bullying, sexual harassment, and other matters that affect the working

environment. While these steps in identifying and addressing such important issues are positive, the traumatic events and the time spent to address them robbed faculty of time otherwise needed for student advising, teaching, and research. Indeed, the timely completion of this report was affected by all of the difficulties noted above.

Despite our losses, challenges, and outsourced faculty members, the Department faculty are committed to providing the optimum educational experiences for undergraduates and

graduates and to advancing research in the humanities. For example, Julie Shigekuni (Creative Writing Director) has proposed innovative ways to encourage graduate and undergraduate Creative Writing majors and minors to finish their writing. Wanda Martin functions as not only Associate Chair for Core Writing but also as Director of First-Year Writing: she supervises all the Teaching Assistants, semester-to-semester lecturers, and full-time lecturers who teach 189 sections of English 101, 102, 219, 220 and serves the newly established Research and

Development Committee, helping colleagues to find research money. Marissa Greenberg and Chuck Paine started a Department Colloquia this year that is bringing faculty together for

academic discussions. Jesse Alemán prepares junior professors for mid-probationary and tenure reviews by assisting these junior faculty in presenting regular discussions of their on-going research to the Department, something not done before. Scott Sanders leads a committee to establish a Department respectful campus statement while directing the Rhetoric/Writing field and directing the undergraduate internship program for professional writing majors. Aeron Hunt leads the newly established 19th-century Literary Studies Group that sponsors colloquia

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nearly every month and that mentors the educational needs of 15 graduate students. Hector Torres started a theory group for grads and faculty. Helen Damico directs the Medieval Studies concentration and has also gathered the emails of the emeriti and keeps in touch with them (by phone and email) to remind them of upcoming events in the Department, something also never done before. Anita Obermeier prepares a Medievalist banquet for 50 students every semester while holding her directorships in the Feminist Research Institute and the all-important

Graduate Studies. Sanders’s and Obermeier’s service contradicts the standing Department guideline that limits individual faculty members to one directorship. English simply lacks the faculty to continue this standard.

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4. English Department Mission Statement and Goals

The overall mission of the Department of English is to engage in writing, research, teaching, and public service that advance our understanding of English literature and our expanding heritage of literatures in English. Equally important is maintaining the graduate program that offers New Mexico’s only PhD program in English and American Literature.

The Department’s specific named goals are to:

• Educate students to read critically, write clearly and imaginatively, think logically, and speak articulately about literature and language.

• Promote critical literacy, that is, the capacity to interpret, evaluate, and contextualize literary and social text.

• Acquire and disseminate knowledge of our expanding literary and cultural heritages.

• Teach a historical sense of language and literatures in English in all their diversity to the multicultural student body from the state.

• Lead students to realize how the expressive and analytical skills they acquire and exercise in their study of English prepares them for a wide variety of meaningful professional

employment opportunities upon graduation.

Our Programs also exhibit strong commitment to the following goals:

• Attract exceptional graduate students and to train these students to research, teach, and administer effectively. To work with the University administration to provide these graduate/teaching students competitive stipends, health benefits, and research opportunities.

• Collaborate with University officials to increase faculty and student diversity and increase the number of minority students completing degrees in the humanities.

• Provide accurate and reliable advising for English majors, minors, and students completing Core Curriculum requirements and to increase retention and graduation rates.

• Pursue outreach to other University components to develop academic programs and research projects.

• Improve faculty interaction with students and provide defined outcomes assessment data for all faculty.

Our Department’s goals are in line with the University’s 2008 Strategic Framework that states that UNM will demonstrate its position as the state’s flagship institution of higher learning

through its ongoing commitment to:

• Educate and encourage students to develop the values, habits of mind, knowledge, and skills that they need to be enlightened citizens, contribute to the state and national economies, and lead satisfying lives.

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• Discover and disseminate new knowledge and creative endeavors that will enhance the overall well-being of society. . . .

• Actively support social, cultural, and economic development in our communities to enhance the quality of life for all New Mexicans.

The English Department’s goals parallel the Strategic Framework in our efforts to

• provide quality education to undergraduates,

• raise the value and reputation of the graduate programs,

• support and advance research opportunities,

• extend Department expertise to New Mexico residents,

• improve the transition from secondary school students into university studies, and

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5. Overview of Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community

Participants

Students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels attest to the fact that faculty members are effective teachers, interested in and available to their students. . . . These student comments also consistently compared English Department faculty as superior to teaching staff from other units, in terms of intellect, pedagogy, and availability (UNM English APR Report 1996, p. 1).

1. Faculty

Category Number

Tenure-stream faculty

Professors: 14 (including 1 fulltime administrator, 3 half-time administrators, 1 half-time appointment) Associate professors: 13 (including 6 half-time administrators) Assistant professors: 6 (including 3 half-time appointments)

Non-tenure-stream faculty

Fulltime lecturers: 5 (including 3 part-time administrators) PT Instructors: 27 (Fall 2009 term)

TAs-English: 66

TAs-A&S 13

Tenure-track Faculty: Currently, the Department lists 33 tenure-stream voting faculty, 1 of

whom is a full-time administrator (Coleman), 9 are part-time administrators (W. Martin, G. Martin, Harrison, Obermeier, Houston, Mueller, Alemán, Paine, Shigekuni), 4 are half-time in English (Higgins, Nocentelli, Matthews, White), and 5 are on leave, sabbatical, or have just retired (Thiel, Jussawalla, Kells, Martin, Romano). Effectively, therefore, the Department has 14 tenure-stream faculty teaching full time and the remaining faculty are either teaching part-time and doing administrative work or on short- to long-term leave.

As listed in the 1995-1997 catalogue, the English Department featured 38 tenure-stream faculty. Of these faculty, only 15 remain as active faculty. Sixteen faculty retired, 5 left for better positions including full-time administrative positions at UNM, one received a negative mid-probationary review, and one left in a protest of University decisions. Turnover is even greater than these numbers indicate because eight faculty were hired and left for better positions during the interim from the last APR to this APR. Thus more than half of the faculty participating in this APR were not part of the last program review. In addition, of the 15 remaining active faculty, seven are eligible for immediate retirement.

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Figure 2: Tenure-Stream Faculty: Voting Versus Teaching5

5_{Excludes sabbatical leaves, LWOP, maternity leave, etc.}

Since the beginning of this decade, the trend toward losing faculty and, at best, gaining half-time assistance has been the norm. While the UNM Catalog numbers and the Office of

Institutional Research numbers suggest a robust faculty of 32-36 members, the actual number of replacements versus administrators/faculty serving in University-wide positions but not teaching in English means our teaching staff has declined precipitously.

Non-Tenure-Stream Faculty: Fulltime Lecturers: While the Department employed no full-time

lecturers or research professors at its last APR, it received permission to hire 10 lecturers in the early 2000s. Currently English employs five lecturers who teach 8-10 courses/year. Two of the non-tenure-track lecturers also serve as administrators, directing the Web-CT and ESL programs that serve the University. At the beginning of the decade we had ten lecturers, and last year we had seven, but two separated from the university in 2008-09 and have not been replaced, so we are trying to run our service unit (Rhetoric & Writing and Core Writing) with only half the lecturers we had at the beginning of the 2000s.

Non-Tenure-Stream Faculty: Part-time Instructors: In the late 1990s the English Department

committed its resources to employing semester-to-semester, part-time instructors on a short-term basis from the pool of recent graduates. The reasoning was to provide newly minted MA/PhDs with a cushion while they searched for permanent employment. This strategy proved impossible to continue as the demand for Core courses increased and the available faculty decreased.

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Figure 3: Non-Tenure-Stream Faculty: Fulltime Versus Semester-to-Semester Lecturers

While advantageous to the University’s staffing needs, part-time instructors receive only $3,193/course, no health or retirement benefits, no secure office space, and may not serve on any Department or University committees. Even though semester-to-semester instructors account for 444 credit hours just for the Fall 2009 term, PTI employment is not without Department-wide consequences. For one, with fewer tenure-stream faculty and increased Department obligations, full time faculty serve on more committees and programs and are not as available as mentors for students. This decreased mentoring role impacts undergraduate majors and minors in particular.

2. Graduate Student/Teaching Assistants

Traditionally Teaching Assistantships of .5 FTE6_{are awarded to graduate students who show}

continued advancement toward degree completion. These assistantships include a stipend and tuition waiver in exchange for teaching two sections (of first-year writing with 22 students/ section) each semester; the central administration has asked us to have 23 per section. This situation has somewhat changed since the last APR when the Review Committee noted that, “The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) recommends that TAs in comp teach no more than 30 students per semester.” This means no more than 30 combined in two classes; UNM-English Department TAs typically teach 44 students a semester.7

6_{FTE is the University’s abbreviation for Full Time Equivalent. The}_{Faculty Handbook}_{defines FTE as “Faculty} "teaching" assignments are measured in "load units" as defined and calculated in accordance with the University's load formula. . . . ‘Instructional faculty FTE’ measures the percentage of time charged to an instructional budget.” Policy C110, Teaching Assignments.

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Figure 4: Teaching Assistantships: English and A&S

One noteworthy change came about in 2001 when then-chair Scott P. Sanders, then Arts & Sciences Dean Reed Dasenbrock, and then Arts & Sciences Associate Dean Wanda Martin arranged for graduate students from other Arts & Sciences departments to receive

assistantships in English. Since that time the number of Department and Arts & Sciences TAs has remained consistent despite increased University enrollments. While the experience and financial support that the students receive are important, the requirement to train and mentor students without backgrounds in English/Writing has increased the administrative workload in the Department.

3. Staff

Megan von Ackermann, Web Designer & Sr. Fiscal Sevices Tech

Megan maintains and updates our websites, including the English Department’s site, Taos, Blue Mesa Review, and other related sites. She is also responsible for compiling and distributing the Department Directory that is available typically by the second week of classes this fall. Megan also complies and distributes the Department’s in-house newsletter, The First Friday News. She consults with faculty and staff on the design and production of flyers and announcements related to speakers, new courses, and special events. In the past Megan has been responsible for processing travel reimbursements and can assist with purchasing airline tickets and books using the Pcard. However, she will become a graduate student in the Rhetoric & Writing Program in spring 2010, and thus will only be working 20 hours a week, a major loss of staff support for us.

Barbara van Buskirk, Program Coordinator

As part of her half-time appointment, Barbara is responsible for overseeing the administrative functions and financial databases for the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference.

Robert Castillo, Information Technology Specialist

Robert maintains the Department’s computing equipment, including the equipment in the common computer room, the Media Room (HB 108), and the office computers and printers. He helps evaluate new computing systems and software, primarily consulting regarding requests for upgrades and new equipment.

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Page16 Linda Livingston, Department Administrator

Linda oversees Department operations, including the processing of purchasing documents and reimbursements and tracking and reporting departmental budgets. She supervises the staff and student employees and provides administrative support to our faculty related to tenure and promotion, contracts, and hiring.

Dee Dee Lopez, Undergraduate Advisor

Dee Dee performs undergraduate majors’ and minors’ degree checks and works with class scheduling, classroom changes (after the second week of classes), and office assignments (including key cards). She also coordinates IDEA student course evaluations, schedules special events that require a classroom (other than one of the self-scheduled Department meetings), and has copies of UNM forms related to drop/add and instructor-initiated grade changes.

Dee Meier, Program Coordinator

Dee is responsible for working with faculty, graduate students, and staff to process purchasing and reimbursement paperwork. This includes travel, reimbursements for supplies, and

purchasing of materials and services. Dee is also responsible for design, implementation and management of databases for the Department.

Ezra Meier, Graduate Program Assistant/Advisor

Ezra maintains records related to the graduate program and its students. His office produces and distributes information about policies and procedures related to all our MA and PhD programs. Ezra has copies of most of the forms related to graduate study at UNM.

Deanna Montoya, Administrative Assistant I

This position is now vacant. We are hoping to replace it and Megan von Ackerman’s 20 hours with a higher-level financial person. Deanna managed the front desk. She maintained the Department Event Calendar on the west wall just south of her office, which lists department committee meetings, readings, and other events. General physical plant problems (leaking pipes, problems with the phone service, and so on) were reported to Deanna. General office supplies, such as paper and envelopes, were also available from Deanna. These jobs now fall to work-study, with supervision by Dee Dee Lopez.

These Department staff are dedicated to providing excellent service to students and faculty. The Department staff currently numbers 6 full- and part-time staff members, all of whom are funded by state Instructional and General (I & G) funds.8

8_{See Appendix 4 for details.}

This limited number of employees advises undergraduate Core Curriculum students, undergraduate majors and minors, and graduate students; runs the Main Office; keeps track of and dispenses Department finances; monitors funds for special projects such as the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference; and creates and manages Department web pages and electronic data. The Department’s Administrator III joined the staff last May after a six-month hiring freeze prevented filling the position. The

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Department also has a half-time IT/media/ computer expert who spends the other half of his time in the College and a half-time web-designer.

In essence we have fewer staff than we did in 1996, at our last Academic Program Review, while our service commitments to the university have almost doubled. Increased bureaucratic demands (UNM Jobs) and new and cumbersome software (Banner) have, contrary to what was promised, increased the time it takes to finish tasks and made the flow of paper less efficient, to the frustration of many. Getting part-time instructors hired has become a nightmarish process. Likewise, getting faculty and staff reimbursed for travel and research now can take an inordinate amount of time. For a Department that provides so much service to the University, it would seem appropriate to provide more staffing so as to provide quality service.

4. Students

Overall University Student Population: The student community UNM serves is diverse, with a

majority of the students being native New Mexicans. Many of the University’s students are the first in their families to go to college—a decision sometimes fraught with cultural changes. For example, some students from rural areas find it difficult to come to Albuquerque,9

Department of English Majors: In 2003-2004 we had 406 majors; in 2004-2005 we had 506

majors, and in 2005-2006, 497 majors. The English Department database showed 658 majors at the start of Fall semester 2007, up from 533 majors at the end of spring 2006 and 506 majors at the end of spring 2005. A majority of our undergraduate majors and minors are women as are our graduate students: At nearly two to one, women outnumber men among the English

the only city in New Mexico with a population larger than 100,000. Also, even with the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship, many students must find employment to cover educational and living expenses in a large city. In fact, 32% of freshmen and 50% of seniors at UNM work 16+ hours per week. Moreover, a sizeable minority of entering students will not complete their degrees in the expected 4 years/8 semester cycle. Of a typical entering class of ~1800 students who complete four years, 500 of them (28%) will need additional years/semesters to complete their degrees. The University’s Research Office reports that over the past five years, only 43% of UNM

students have finished a bachelor’s degree within 6 years (12 semesters). 35% of entering freshmen in recent years are required to take at least one “developmental” course in Mathematics (Math 100), Reading (Read 100), or writing (Eng. 100). Of those who enter needing one developmental class, about 31% finish a BA degree within that 6-year or 12 semester standard. Of those needing two developmental classes, the completion rate is 25%. Of those needing three such classes, the rate is 11-12%.

9_{Albuquerque’s population according to the 2007-08 Bureau of Business and Economic Research was}_{526, 694.} The next largest city is Las Cruces, home of New Mexico State University, with a population of 93,753.

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majors at UNM. 10

5. New Mexico Communities

In 2008 38.7% of our female undergraduates were minority students. During that same time minority males in literature courses went from 31.4% to 41.1%. Combined, minorities made up 36.2% of literature classes in 2001 and rose to 39.6% in 2008. Degrees conferred between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, English: 5.01% of all degrees.

Between 2003 and 2009 on average 29% of our graduate students are minorities. Graduate enrollment of female minorities went from 35% in 2006 to 40.7% in 2008. Annual Report of 2005-06 re grad enrollments: “The enrollment and admissions trends seem congruent with the trends noted for AY Fall 2004- spring 2005. Women continue to have a larger presence in the program than men—the numbers are even in the MFA program and disproportionate in the MA in literature program. Ethnic minorities comprise 17% of the graduate-student body (up from last year’s 10%), with the MA in Rhetoric and Writing holding the strongest minority ratio and the doctoral program the lowest.”

In regards to the (relatively small) African American and the (sizable) Latino/a and Native American student populations, English shares two faculty with Africana Studies, Finnie Colman (Interim Dean of University College) and the Department’s newest hire Kadeshia Matthews. English currently has only one faculty member in Native American literature and rhetoric, Kathleen Washburn, even though in the recent past that has been a thriving area of study in the Department. Further English has two faculty members who work in the area of Chicano/a literature, an area that brings in students of Hispanic origin as well as other racial groups to the classroom.

The English Department has enjoyed participation from the Albuquerque/New Mexico

community in several important venues. First the Department has benefited from local poets, novelists, and nonfiction writers presenting their insights into writing and publishing. Recent New Mexico-based writers who have presented at UNM include Arthur Sze, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Levi Romero, Demetria Martinez, and Jimmy Santiago Baca among others. The Department has also had the opportunity to have UNM students study with some of the state’s prominent writers such as John Nichols, Rudolfo Anaya, Dana Levin, and James Rupert to name only a few.

Second, the Department’s Writing Across the Curriculum initiative brings us into contact with all the diverse communities in the state, and the Core Writing program’s Teacher’s Institute brings our faculty into contact with hundreds of high school teachers all across the state. Some faculty members teach in the Community Education program, which includes many emeriti, their spouses and partners, and autodidacts.

10 Statistics from the UNM Office of the Registrar, fall 2004. In the sentences giving these statistics, we use the

Registrar’s categories for names of ethnic groups. The Registrar’s statistics further show that one “Foreign” student majors in English, and that 40 students listed “No Response” in answer to the question of ethnicity.

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Third, the Medieval Studies program brings in a regular and devoted group of retirees, emeriti, K-12 educators, and former students to its classes, colloquia, conferences and outreach

programs. As will be noted in our section on institutional contributions, there are many other ways we interact with the community.

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2. Program Comparison

In 2001 UNM’s PH.D Program was listed as #79 tied with Arizona State University and George Washington University. In 2005, the PhD program in English at UNM was 89, tied with New Hampshire and Wayne State University. In 2009 the US News and World Report listed University of Berkeley, Stanford, Yale tied at number 1 and University of New Mexico was at 71, tied with other third tier schools such as University of Connecticut Storrs, University of Delaware, University of South Carolina, and University of Tennessee, Bryn Mawr, Fordham, George Washington University, and SUNY-Stony Brook.

UNM peer institutions are set by the New Mexico Higher Education Department (HED), after consultation with UNM, for use in the funding formula and for making salary comparisons. The following 16 public institutions were chosen as peer institutions because they have a similar mix of programs, are comparable in size, and their missions are close to that of UNM.

Table 1: Faculty Level Comparison with Peer Institutions

Academic Institution Faculty Members

University of Arizona 72 University of Arkansas-Fayetteville 22 University of Colorado-Boulder 53

University of Iowa 57

University of Kansas 44 (Graduate faculty only)

University of Kentucky 49 University of Missouri-Columbia 49 University of Nebraska-Lincoln 44 University Oklahoma 31 University of Oregon 45 University of Tennessee-Knoxville 44 University of Texas-Austin 118 University of Utah 35 University of Virginia-Main 75 University of Washington 54

If UNM English is deemed to be a peer with the above university departments of English, it is at the low end of the scale in terms of numbers of faculty: University of Arkansas has the least number of faculty (22 tenure-stream) with only one professor in Core Writing. The University of Oklahoma is tied with UNM for second lowest in faculty numbers.

If UNM is deemed a peer with the university departments listed below, UNM English has more faculty than two of the University of Texas branch campuses but far fewer faculty than its other 11 peer institutions.

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Table 2: Tenure-stream Faculty/Lecturers Compared to Peer Institution Enrollments Department T-T Faculty11_{Lecturers Total Enrollment}

Oregon 40 4 20,000 Texas-Arlington 25 34 25,000 UNM 30 5 26,000 Oklahoma 33 27,000 Texas-San Antonio 19 27,000 Texas Tech 31 14 28,000 Nevada—Las Vegas 35 28,000 Colorado State 30 28,000 Utah 38 3 30,000 Arizona 39 1 37,000 Washington 58 10 39,000 Texas A&M <60 45,000 Texas 70 50,000 Arizona State 42 13 52,000

3. Comparison of Programs Offered by Peer Institutions

In this section, we compare ourselves to three of our peer institutions that have around the same number of faculty: University of Oklahoma (32), University of Utah (35), and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (which has 44 faculty, about 16 more than the UNM English Department has). University of Oklahoma is ranked 81, University of Utah and University of Nebraska are both ranked 63, and UNM is ranked 71 by the U. S. News & World Report (Jan. 17, 2010).

University of Oklahoma

(31 faculty)

6. Undergraduate

UO has two undergraduate tracks, Literary and Cultural Studies and Writing. They also offer a “standard teaching certificate in language arts.”

Track One: Literary and Cultural Studies 15 hours of required courses:

11_{Count includes on faculty in Literature, Rhetoric/Writing, and Creative Writing, not those in sub-departments} that at UNM are separate departments or programs (i.e., Linguistics, Film/Media, and TESOL). Totals do not include emeriti although data from these peer institutions lists emeriti as equivalent to active faculty.

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A. 1 pair of methods courses at beginning of major (6 hours), Intro to Critical Reading and Writing, and Intro to Literary and Cultural Studies. B. One pair of survey courses at beginning of major (6 hours): World Lit to 1700, World Lit 1700-Present, English Lit from 1375-1700, English Lit 1700-Present, American Lit to 1865, American Lit since 1865. C. Capstone course at end of major (3 hrs).

21 hours electives, of which one may be a writing course.

These seven courses must be distributed over at least 4 groups out of the following six groups: Group I Medieval/Renaissance, Group II Early Modern and Contemporary British Literature (17th-20th c), Group III American Literatures, Group IV World

Literatures, Group V Genres and Media, Group VI Theory, Criticism, and Cultural Studies. Track Two: Writing

15 hours of required courses (same as required of Literary and Cultural Studies).

21 hours electives: Of the electives, 3 courses must be in literary and cultural studies from two different groups and four courses must be writing courses, three of which must be upper division.

7. Graduate

On the graduate level, OU offers two MAs, one in Literary and Cultural Studies and the other in Composition/Rhetoric/Literacy; these master’s level programs mirror the undergraduate majors and thus seem to make good use of a smaller faculty. Further, the Ph.D. is only offered in these same two areas, a further indication of good use of resources. At the same time, the Ph.D. requires that students declare a primary and secondary area from the following list: American Studies, Gender Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Native American Studies, Theory and Media. This range is small enough not to overtax the faculty but broad enough that it represents current areas of study in the field.

OU currently has 56 students enrolled in the English graduate program. That breaks down to 27 MA students and 29 PhD students. This is somewhat lower than our normal enrollment, which has historically hovered around 65 to 70 students overall, but they have accepted fewer students in the last few years. This accounts for the fact that they offer only about 8-10 graduate courses a semester, but UofU, as will be noted presently, also only offers 8-10 grad classes a semester and they have around the same amount of students as we have, 93. This suggests that we should look very carefully at what graduate courses we are offering and why. OU has a faculty that specializes in many fields:

Medieval 5 Renaissance 4 Theory and Cultural Studies 14 Postcolonial 7

Gender 5

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World Literature 1 Comparative Literature 1 American Literature 3 Creative Writing 1.

Clearly, they see their specialties through a different lens than we do. But we are the same in many ways. If UNM-English faculty were asked if any were specialists in Theory and Cultural Studies, at least 10 would say yes, but we don’t set up our rubric this way.

Conclusions: The UNM English Department could learn much from OU: they have a clarity and consistency as well as expansiveness that our sprawling course offerings and sub-groups do not have. They have two suggested undergraduate tracks (unlike our seven concentrations, some of which only have two or three students in them); at the same time, they have six groupings that cover the kinds of areas that our Department has wanted to make official but have never been able to do; these groupings also give clarity as well as expansiveness of approaches. In

literature, we are trying to move away from a strict coverage model of the periods of literature, and OU’s groupings offer a way to do so by adding in theory and genre, which have become key to this field. Dividing the department between Writing and Literary Studies would also help us organizationally to move from a sprawling administrative rubric that loses sight that we are one department, not just a lot of disparate subgroups. Their writing track combines Rhetoric and Creative Writing, something UNM-English Department Chair Gail Houston has thought of doing to move the Department away from disparate groupings and to streamline administration of undergraduate studies. Finally, their rubric is much more realistic regarding how much a small faculty can do. The Department will take this into consideration as we work more intensively on becoming more lithe and focused as we meet in intensive meetings next year.

University of Utah

(35 faculty)

1. Undergraduate Major and Minor

The English Department undergraduate degree at Utah requires 13 courses, which, like OU, includes requirements not only for period courses but also studies in form and genre, methods and theory.

There are three minors offered in Literature, Creative Writing, and Teaching.

Conclusions: Again this seems like a sleek and straightforward way to provide offerings to undergraduates that reflect the current state of the field, providing both coverage of literary fields but also recognizing the emergence of theories and genres as sites of study. This model seems to realistically reflect what their relatively small faculty can cover. Indeed, the website for the undergraduate major at Utah boasts that its undergraduate courses are, by and large, taught by tenure-line faculty. This is certainly not something we can assert, as more and more Part-Time Instructors teach our upper division courses.

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Academic Program Review, 2004-2009 Page24 2. Graduate

Like the UNM-English Department, the University of Utah provides a number of graduate offerings. There are six areas of study under the MA Program: American Studies, British and American Literature, Creative Writing MFA, Modular MFA Program, Emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition, and Environmental Humanities. On the Ph.D. level, Utah offers 5 specialties: American Studies, British and American Literature, Creative Writing, Rhetoric and Composition, and a BA to Ph.D. track.

Faculty expertise: Like UNM, Utah only has two Medieval Studies tenure-line faculty, but has five Renaissance faculty where we only have 2.5. Where they have two 18th century British faculty, we only have one. Shockingly, where we have only two full-time 19th century British faculty, they have seven. Equally surprising, where UNM-English has, at best, about six faculty covering 20th

This comparison illustrates how many of our faculty are .5 or on paper only. Further, it would seem a shame that one of the most homogeneous states in the country (92.9% of Utahans are white

century British and American literature, Utah boasts eleven. In contrast, where Utah-English has four faculty who specialize in ethnic literatures, UNM-English has 3.5.

12

Conclusions: It is difficult to understand how such a small faculty can cover this many fields. However, that in spring 2010, their graduate program is only offering eight courses, which is only half of what UNM-English tries to offer every semester to our graduate students who regularly complain that we don’t offer enough electives courses. Looking at the areas of specialization also makes apparent that they have a depth of faculty in most fields that can cover what is offered, whereas we are literally stretched to the limit. Likewise, they seem to have areas of focus, as, for instance, the 19

) has more faculty with expertise in ethnic literatures than does UNM-English faculty, who teach at the flagship of the only majority-minority state in the union.

U of U currently has 93 active graduate students: 59 PhD candidates, and 34 MA and MFA candidates. They offer 8-10 graduate courses each semester. Our department on average offers 32 graduate classes a semester to around the same amount of graduate students; we should study whether we should reduce our graduate offerings.

th

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

(44 faculty)

century British has 7 faculty, suggesting they see that area as one of their pillars of excellence.

1. Undergraduate

UN-L offers five areas of concentration for the undergraduate major: Literary and Cultural Studies, Creative Writing, Writing/Rhetoric/Culture, Film Studies, and an Individualized Concentration. Like Utah and OU, UN-L requires an Intro to the Major course and period

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courses. But they also require courses in emergent fields of study, such as, Culture/Ethnicity/ Gender, Literary/Rhetorical Theory, and Linguistics/Writing/ Rhetoric, something we do not do.

Conclusions: Though UN-L has about sixteen more faculty than UNM-English does, their mix of requiring courses from the old period model as well as from emergent fields is what we aiming for in our British Literature Section, and have been working to establish over the last year and a half, with the goal of beginning the institution of programmatic changes in the fall of 2010. We have strong expertise across the periods in gender, narrative, and cultural studies, but we have not highlighted these in our PR nor in our major/minor or graduate requirements or programs. With the new programmatic changes in the British/Irish section, it is expected to have more organized offerings along the lines of our Medieval Studies and American Literary Studies. The overall response of Chair Houston to our three peers, is that Houston would like Creative Writing to make decisions about how much it can really offer on the graduate and

undergraduate levels of the 3 genres they have been focused on: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction; Houston would like British/Irish to continue its self-evaluation in order to telescope its offerings and programs based upon faculty expertise. Rhetoric and Writing is more difficult since the University makes such heavy service demands on it for Core Writing. As a result, Houston suggests that if we cannot get faculty lines replaced in RW we will certainly have to reduce what we can offer both in the Core Writing as well as on the graduate level. This would be a sore reduction to a program that has been very strong in the past.

2. Graduate

Perhaps in a savvy move, UN-L offers only three M.A./Ph.D. level programs: Literature Studies, Creative Writing, and Composition/Rhetoric. But to make up for the sparseness, they also allow and encourage students to obtain certificates in what they refer to as “affiliated

interdisciplinary programs.” They also provide a practical Certificate in the Teaching of Writing, something our program could benefit from; we have a major opportunity to help train New Mexico high school English teachers through the College of Education,13_{but, here again, the}

Rhetoric and Writing Program is the most depleted in terms of faculty losses. The faculty at UN-L specialize in the following areas:

Film (3), Theory (5), American Lit (9), Creative Writing/Fiction (4), Creative

Writing/Poetry (5), CW/Creative Non-fiction (2), British Romanticism (4), Women Studies (8), Comp/Rhetoric (8), Renaissance (1), Ethnic (2), Modernism (2), Critical Race Theory (1), African American Lit (2), Comp Lit (1), Canadian Studies (1), Renaissance (2), Southwest Lit/ecocriticism (1), Chicano/a Lit (2), Afro-Caribbean Lit (1), Digital

Humanities (1), Jewish American fiction (1), 18th century British (1), 19th and 20th

This set of faculty suggests that a program does not need specialists in every literary period, and, further, that a program can choose pillars of excellence in the literary periods and not

century British (1).

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offer expertise in other areas. For example, this faculty has strengths in British Romanticism but no faculty specializing in medieval literature. The depth of faculty in Creative Writing is stronger than ours: they have four tenure line faculty in fiction where we have three; they have five tenure line faculty in poetry where we have two; they have two tenure line faculty in creative non-fiction where we have .5. Essentially, as a successful program, UN-L’s program suggests that we can choose what pillars of excellence we want and focus on them without necessarily feeling the need to cover every period with depth, a process we are in the early stages of fulfilling.

Comparison of tuition remission, fellowships, health benefits offered

UNM virtually offers all incoming students financial support, 90% receiving tuition and stipend, with 66% being from TAships and 44% receiving tuition waivers. Students receive health benefits at no cost and some receive money for travel to research and for summer. Full fellowship support=tuition +13,645 (MLA Graduate Department Summary 2004). Compared with our peers (below) we offer a high rate of support exclusively through TAships and we seldom can offer support for travel for research or conferences or job searches. This aggravates the feeling that many graduates have here that they are perceived by the Department more as TAs than as graduate students.

UN-L offers 50% of its incoming students tuition and stipends for five years, including for summers. 44% receive TAships and 40% of their students receive either externally funded fellowships or internally funded tuition waivers, fellowships or stipends. Health benefits are available with a co-pay. Full fellowship support =tuition +$22,000. Only some students receive money for travel for research (MLA Graduate Department Summary 2004).

University of Oklahoma provides financial support to all its incoming students, 85% through TAships and 100% through tuition waivers, stipends or fellowships. Students receive health benefits at no cost and all receive financial support for travel for research and for job searches (MLA Graduate Department Summary 2004).

University of Utah offers all its students financial support through TAships and tuition waivers, fellowships, or stipends. Full fellowship support =tuition + $10,300. Health benefits are

available with a co-payment. Most students receive some help for travel to research and conferences and all receive support for expenses for job searches (MLA Graduate Department Summary 2004).

English 2010 APR Self-Study & Documents

UNM Digital Repository

English 2010 APR Self-Study & Documents

Department of English Language and Literature

Self Study for

Academic Program Review

January 2010

Contents

Figures and Illustrations

Tables

Department of English Self Study

2008-2009

1. General Characteristics of the English Department

1.

Institutional Context

2.

Brief History

3.

History since 1996, Previous Academic Program Review

4.

English Department Mission Statement and Goals

5.

Overview of Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community

Participants

2. Program Comparison

3. Comparison of Programs Offered by Peer Institutions

University of Oklahoma

University of Utah

University of Nebraska-Lincoln