New Plan for English Majors

University of New England introduces three new track plans for the English majors to make their arts and humanities division stronger. 

UNE is known for being a healthcare driven university. So what happens to the art and humanities section? A whole new layout is being created to help benefit the students within the department. 

“We will have three tracks in the new English major. We will have a literature track for students who are in the English major for literature, a writing track because we always have English students who are interested in the major to become writers, and then we have the third track that is the English education track. That’s the track for secondary education majors that are doubling with English,” said Dr. Michael Cripps, head of the English department. 

With this new plan, it makes the English major customizable for the students. Instead of a strict, written out 24 required credits, it will become more flexible. 

“Some big highlights in the new English major? Well, it will have 18 required credits, which gives you a little more choice and the track you decide will have electives within that path to fulfill the rest of the credits. We are enabling students to signal to themselves and us why they are in English,” said Dr. Cripps. 

The driving force behind this new plan was to make it easier for students. Most of the required credits needed by English students are not offered anymore or as frequently, resulting in an influx of substituted course paperwork. 

“Every program has to go through a program review every seven year, which is a year and half long process. We did what we call a self study, where you look at yourself, your program, and what your students are doing to collect data to identify what you want to do. We created a survey for alumni English majors and we collected information from current students. Last spring I met with the Provost to go over this and with the help of the review board and external evaluator noted that we didn’t have a lot of writing courses,” said Dr. Cripps.

The English department has been a small portion of such a huge campus. Seeing a change this vast in one of the smaller programs is a serious accomplishment. 

“This is the biggest change in the English department curriculum since I’ve been here and I’ve been here for thirteen years. We didn’t change any of the courses or add anything new, we just grouped them together to let students be able to customize their classes,” said Dr. Cripps.

The focus was completely for the students versus the faculty in regards to the new plan. The new track plan eliminates two classes from American and British literature to one class of each. The student decides which class interests them the most out of the classes grouped under American and British literature, bringing it down to one required class for each subject.

“One of our hopes is that it creates less paperwork and stress for students in regards to substituting classes. The other big thing that I think is very valuable with the new curriculum is LIL420, which is the arts and humanities capstone course. At the end you come back to the seminar and it creates an opportunity for more in depth and meaningful discussion and you get to share work with each other,” said Dr. Cripps.

Hopefully, this new English major relieves the “freak out” mode of English students in the future. Not only that, but another hope with the new plan is to better prepare English students to transform their skills into skills required for their jobs or careers once they graduate. 

“We help students to think about translating the English learning outcomes to the kinds of skills that employer’s value. This class better prepares students for the job market by helping to give them a way they can talk about what they did in English,” said Dr. Cripps. 

This plan has not yet been enacted, but stay tuned for future semesters as it will soon be in action. Thankfully, this new English track plan motivates students to take more classes that interest them and create an environment that doesn’t scare them for the real career world. 

(interview with an English student or another teacher to be continued…)