English Department Meeting: Apr. 17, 2024

English Department Meeting Information

Zoom Meeting Link

Meeting Minutes Takers

Next Department Meeting

Apr. 17 Wednesday from 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Please send Gian and Melanie any items you want included on future department agendas. I’m happy to include any items anyone wants to discuss.

Minutes

Important Dates & Information

Upcoming Events

March 25 Monday: Advising Pizza Party (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. in 114 Jane Leonard Hall)

News Items

Thanks

To Grace Fette for organizing the English Club Fair on Feb. 7
To Melanie Holm for helping Gian to coordinate the English Valentine Poetry Party on Feb. 14
To Alayna Pesce (NCTE IUP 2022-2023 President) and Kailey Swope (NCTE IUP 2023-2024 President) for organizing the Penny’s Library Dedication Ceremony on Feb. 22
- Book donations can be placed in the Little Library anytime
- The library is located in the 2nd floor lounge area of Jane Leonard Hall

Congratulations

To Chauna Craig for being selected to make an IUP Book Recommendation
Chauna recommended Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos
To Mike Williamson for also being selected to make an IUP Book Recommendation
- Mike recommended The Big Book of Science Fiction

Agenda Items

1. New Process for Online Student Evaluations

Faculty will be able to request their own student evaluations and access them independently after the semester ends
A process will be worked out for required evaluations
APSCUF piloted this process, and it seems to work really well

2. English and Foreign Language Merger

Merger Calendar

December 2023 English and Spanish Education Program Meetings
January 2023: Merger Committee Begins Planning
First Department Meeting in Feb. 21, 2023 with English and Foreign Language
Department Name Votes: February and March 2024
- Follow-up Name Meeting Discussion: TBD (after break)
Chair Election
- Election Procedures Vote: March 2024
- Chair Election: April 2024
- Assistant Chair Election: May 2024
New Department Start Date: July 1
- Department Seniority Resets
- University Seniority Does Not Change
Merged Leadership Council: May 2024?
New Department Retreat: Early Fall 2024
- Mission, Vision, and Values
- Curriculum Connections and Innovations
- Committee Elections
- New Operations
Policy Updates: Fall 2024
Curriculum Changes: Fall 2024
- ENLG/FNLG 121 to ARHU 121?

Thoughts and Recommendations

Issues for Discussion
Office Space and Voluntary Moves
Summer 2024 teaching will follow English rotation
Programmatic Issues
- Program Membership remains open
- Programs will continue to control their curriculum
English Leadership Council Membership
TA number will go up to 7.5 due to increased department size

3. Course Caps

ENGL 101
- Administration raised the cap to 28 for Spring 2024
- The cap will likely go to 28 for Fall 2024
- Bryna Siegel Finer is working on updates to the LSE Handbook to address how to limit the increased workload
- Bryna is also exploring the possibility of getting embedded tutors for 101
Caps for other courses holding steady
25 for ENGL 100 and ENGL 103
28 for ENGL 202
50 for ENGL 121 but some FNLG 121s were lower, so Gian will move to push these down to 45
25 for BA majors courses
17 for BA writing courses
17 for graduate courses
Several other departments had increases of 7-8 students per class (PSYC saw even larger increases)

4. LSE Program (Bryna Siegel Finer–Director)

We need for ENGL 103 teachers
Benefits of Teaching English 103: Composition I Accelerated
- Teaching 103 is the same as teaching 101 except with more conferencing and individual work
- Teaching 103 means fewer total students
- Teaching 103 can save a prep for a faculty member
Possible renumbering of ENGL 103: Composition I Accelerated to ENGL 102 to avoid student confusion
New Liberal Studies Structure has passed and is moving forward
- First year seminar needs to be developed
- 1 credit second year seminar needs to be developed
- ENGL 202 will be limited

5. Program and Curriculum Updates

MA TESOL (Curt Porter–Director)
- Going into Moratorium
- Thanks to Curt for submitting this curriculum revisions
Merger of MA Composition and Literature with MA Literature (Chris Orchard–Director)
- New Program Name: Ma in Literature and Composition
- Primary requirements will be literature courses due to limited composition MA offerings
- Meeting of Chris Orchard (MA Director), Mike Williamson (L&C Director), Melanie Holm & Gloria Park (CAL Co-Directors), and Ken Sherwood (M.A. Literature Committee Member)
CAL Program (Melanie Holm & Gloria Park–Co-Directors)
- CAL Program shifting to low residence Program only
- Summers only remote students
- Academic-year students being phased out
L&C Program (Mike Williamson–Director)
- Remote only option to be clarified
- New course
BA English Studies Program (Dan Weinstein–Director)
- Course rotation update
English Education (Emily Wender–Director)
- Received 2 year accreditation with no follow-up report required!!!
- Way to go Emily!!!!
ESL Certificate Program (Brian Carpenter–Director)
- Opportunities for connections with Foreign Language faculty
Cook Honors College (Chauna Craig–Director)
- Ken Sherwood (Interim Director while Chauna is on sabbatical in Fall 2024)
- Reduction of AWA support for Honors Core 202
Women’s and Gender Studies (Lingyan Yang-Director)
- 2 more events coming up
- Great scholarships available for students

6. Advising Reminders

Please schedule a meeting with each of your advisees to give them their pin number and help them plan their courses
- Please also check on their general well being and encourage them to take part in the English Department events
- If your advisees have never received any English goodies, have them contact Gian to get some
- We have tried to distribute advisees evenly so no one has too many
March 25 Monday: Advising Pizza Party (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. in 114 Jane Leonard Hall)
ENGL 103 counts for ENGL 100 and ENGL 101
- If a student passes ENGL 101 or ENGL 103, they do NOT have to take ENGL 100
English majors take ENGL 122: Introduction to English Studies NOT ENGL 121: Humanities Literature
- If a student already took ENGL 121, then ENGL 122 is waived for that major
Students in the Honors College are NOT required to take ENGL 101 nor ENGL 121/122
English BA and English Education students take courses in the same categories, so advising either type of major is much easier
- Emily Wender and Brian Carpenter assist English Education students with the Education Certificate part of the degree

Announcements

Happy Spring Break!