Changes Sought In English Dept.

More than 100 dissatisfied English concentrators have signed a petition calling for better communication channels for its undergraduates and reforms in the department's general exam and thesis evaluation process.

The petition, distributed to the department's 360 upperclass concentrators over e-mail last weekend, was drafted by a group of 10 undergraduates led by Marc R. Talusan '97. organizers plan to present the petition to Professor of English and Comparative Literature James Engell, the department's director of undergraduate studies, today.

"It's been in the back of my mind this year," Talusan said. "But when I saw how biased and obsolete the [general] exam is, I decided to send out e-mail to see if there were other undergrads who were interested."

Talusan and other honors English concentrators who recently took the general exam said they believe the exam does not reflect the department's purported approach to literary study.

"I felt that generals were rather arbitrary," said Emily J. Wood '97, one of the petition drive organizers. "[The exam] seems to assume a fixed canon of text we should know when the department all along has been telling us [otherwise]."

During the exam, Talusan said he wrote a long essay about the exam's flaws instead of answering the assigned questions.

"It biases a particular course of study and runs counter to what many professors teach their students about literary study," he said.

Wood added that most of the texts that the exam asked students to recall are studied in English 10a, "Major British Writers I," and English 10b, "Major British Writers II"--introductory courses which most concentrators take their first year.

The petition calls for the department to tailor the general exam to address issues covered in a student's thesis and course work.

"[The exam] really didn't take into consideration other things we had studied," Wood said.

Talusan said the general exam did not reflect the nontraditional courses he took in the department.

"I don't think my course of study is any less valid," he said. "I should have the opportunity to demonstrate my study in these non-canonical texts."

The petition also outlines measures which organizers believe will make the thesis grading process fairer.

The petition urges the English department to implement specific guidelines for thesis-graders, incorporate student input in the grading process and "insure that a student's reader has sufficient familiarity with the theoretical and critical approaches employed by that student."

Wood said this would avoid problems posed by the oretical clashes between readers and the thesis writer.

"You get people who have ideological disagreements with your position that have nothing to do with the actual text in front of them," Wood said.

According to Talusan, readers currently select the theses they will read from a list of titles and short abstracts submitted many weeks before the actual thesis is due.

"You're basically picking based on a thesis title, which obviously has many inherent flaws," Talusan said.

"It can happen that a Faculty member thinks, 'I can tell this is going to be fluffy and awful, so let me take this and tell them how awful it is,'" Wood said.

Talusan said one of his graders read the thesis despite having said that he was uncomfortable doing so.

"The person who wrote my recommendation said [in the comments] that he was not certain whether he was qualified to read the thesis," he said.

Talusan also said one grader penalized him for "certain points that had already been approved in the prospectus."

"I think that in those particular cases, there has to be an appeals process," he said.

Petition organizers said they are disenchanted with a department that is unresponsive to their concerns.

"I get a sense that undergrads in the English department are kind of an irritation," Wood said.

Julie C. Kim '97, also a petition organizer, said that while Faculty members in the department are "generally very sympathetic to students on an individual basis...the department, as an organization...seems to be wanting in some of that concern."

The petition urges the department to establish a discussion group, composed of students and Faculty, to address student concerns and conduct a survey of English concentrators.

Petition organizers said they do not expect the department to implement their suggestions about the general exam or thesis grading immediately.

"We do expect the department to commit in some real way to improving communication among Faculty, administrators and students," Kim said

The petition also outlines measures which organizers believe will make the thesis grading process fairer.

The petition urges the English department to implement specific guidelines for thesis-graders, incorporate student input in the grading process and "insure that a student's reader has sufficient familiarity with the theoretical and critical approaches employed by that student."

Wood said this would avoid problems posed by the oretical clashes between readers and the thesis writer.

"You get people who have ideological disagreements with your position that have nothing to do with the actual text in front of them," Wood said.

According to Talusan, readers currently select the theses they will read from a list of titles and short abstracts submitted many weeks before the actual thesis is due.

"You're basically picking based on a thesis title, which obviously has many inherent flaws," Talusan said.

"It can happen that a Faculty member thinks, 'I can tell this is going to be fluffy and awful, so let me take this and tell them how awful it is,'" Wood said.

Talusan said one of his graders read the thesis despite having said that he was uncomfortable doing so.

"The person who wrote my recommendation said [in the comments] that he was not certain whether he was qualified to read the thesis," he said.

Talusan also said one grader penalized him for "certain points that had already been approved in the prospectus."

"I think that in those particular cases, there has to be an appeals process," he said.

Petition organizers said they are disenchanted with a department that is unresponsive to their concerns.

"I get a sense that undergrads in the English department are kind of an irritation," Wood said.

Julie C. Kim '97, also a petition organizer, said that while Faculty members in the department are "generally very sympathetic to students on an individual basis...the department, as an organization...seems to be wanting in some of that concern."

The petition urges the department to establish a discussion group, composed of students and Faculty, to address student concerns and conduct a survey of English concentrators.

Petition organizers said they do not expect the department to implement their suggestions about the general exam or thesis grading immediately.

"We do expect the department to commit in some real way to improving communication among Faculty, administrators and students," Kim said