Minutes

English Department Meeting

7 October 2009
432 Carl Wimberly Hall

Meeting convened at 3:50pm.

In attendance: Barillas, Butterfield, Canon, Cashion, Crutchfield, Eschenbaum, Finders, Friesen,

Gappa, Graham, Gray, Hart, Jessee, Konas, Kopp, Lan, Mohlenhoff-Baggett, Pribek, Schaaf,
Scholze, Stuart, Thoune, Wilkie, Young

Minutes of May 9, and August 31 (Havening III) approved with one abstention for the latter.

Chair’s Report and Announcements (Crutchfield):

-English Club first speaking event (an open mike night) is scheduled for tonight (10/07/09) at
8pm.
-Bob Treu’s Poetry Pump House event is planed for October 10, 6-9pm.
-Retention Committee will convene Wednesday, October 21 and shall convene again in mid-
November.
-Please sign up for Campus Close-ups (October 30).
-White board in Mail room for assigning upcoming dates.
-English Department Website has new links: Committee meeting minutes; Blogs of English
Activities; English Students Resources; Faculty Resources; Majors Bulletin; jobs for students.
-There is a new version of the Snaps Report (Assessment Report or Degree Audit) in its draft
stage.
-Classroom Modifications are in effect: black boards are being converted to white boards; more
projection screens are available; ceiling mounted projectors and English Department devoted
computer rooms are requested; internet access obtain—all free of charge. A department member
requested more carpeting.
-The Chair suggested that we need to begin talking about and become part of the conversation
for on-line courses (There may be seed money for it.). Our future competitive access to some
demographics of students may depend on it.
-We need to help nominate a student (graduating Senior) commencement speaker for this
semester.
-There is an Inclusive Excellence project to replace the 2008 Plan for diversity. The chair
suggested that members of the Department need to provide diversity sensitive activities for the I.
E. Project.
-The I. E. Project allowed the Chair to transition into a discussion about recruiting students into
the English Majors. Why not consider demographics and include a wide range of diverse
students? How do we make a Major more diverse? Ruthann’s suggestion is to recruit at high
schools for diverse students; that is to say, an invitation in the form of a flyer or a visit to a near
by high school in order that English department representatives can talk with English teachers
and interested students about what we are doing.
-Gen-Ed (or some appropriate) committee created changes to the SLU. We like the changes but
will stick to the old SLU for this semester.
Dept. Mission Statement:
-The statement will be sent back to the committee for further revisions and then we will vote on
it.

Meeting adjourned at 5:00pm.

Minutes compiled by Joe Young