Everybody Wins

Nearly everyone associated with the Expository Writing program was surprised to hear that longtime Director Richard C. Marius had resigned. Now it's time for Expos to plan for the future.

For Expos faculty members, the resignation is good news. Marius is, by all accounts, an excellent teacher. His former students are quick to praise; his CUE guide ratings are consistently high. But it became quite apparent this fall that Marius was anything but an excellent administrator. Low morale characterized the Expos faculty under Marius's 16-year reign. Many of his polices--most notably an ill-conceived four-year limit for preceptors--ensured that Expos continually lost some of its best and most popular teachers.

Associate Director Nancy Sommers will likely take the helm of Expos now; regardless, whoever takes control should be committed to overcoming the problems of the past. The new director's first step should be to end the four-year rule, stabilizing the faculty and making sure the best writing teachers don't enter Expos with one foot out the door. The new director should create an atmosphere that encourages experimentation, allowing star teaching talents like senior preceptor Gordon Harvey to innovate, and abolishing rigid requirements like the current four-essay rule.

Expos is designed for teaching, not research; its instructors should be the best teachers available. In terms of hiring, should put a stop to a misguided trend of hiring primarily Ph.Ds for Expos jobs. We hope these improvements will result in the hiring of more minority teachers.

Already, Sommers has tried to change Expos for the better; she's set up internal committees, made up of Expos faculty, to assess department policy. She also says she's putting together a student advisory committee for Expos. The Expos program has little tradition of inclusive decision-making, and could use more faculty involvement. If Sommers continues in this direction, Expos will be a better place to work--and therefore, to learn.

There are still larger issues that must be addressed. Oversight for Expos is minimal. The standing faculty committee on Expository Writing meets just once a year. That leaves keeping a full-time eye on Expos to Dean for Under-graduate Education Lawrence Buell, who has yet to show himself capable of doing the job. We'd like to see a more active role fore students and faculty--such as former UCLA writing program head and Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures Patrick K. Ford, in the administration and oversight of Expos.

Marius won't be leaving Harvard; he'll continue to teach, with courses in the English Department and first-year seminars program. So students get the benefits of Marius' teaching; Harvard retains one of its leading figures and valuable fundraisers; the Expos faculty ushers in a new era.