The English department has fifteen full-time faculty, as many as thirty adjunct faculty in any one semester, a number of educational assistants, and two secretaries. Its mission is to provide writing instruction from developmental through honors transfer levels and a wide range of introductory literature courses. It seeks to help students develop a life-long commitment to learning so they can be knowledgeable, thinking citizens. The department has continued to work on a refined mission statement. English operates a Writing Center, a computer classroom, and a share of several computer lab facilities in the Communications building.
Faculty members are among the most active on campus and are involved in a wide range of activities.
Most of the faculty use computer technology in their teaching, ranging from email and basic information on a home page, to extensive course support and even classes offered online. Others are involved in theatre productions, poetry readings, Writing Across the Curriculum, collaboration with other departments, writing awareness activities, alternative instructional methods, educational trips abroad, and interdisciplinary work. This year we had four faculty on sabbatical leave. Nancy Adams, Mary Lauburg, James Mense, and Larry Skinner all explored different ways of using computers in their teaching. Some took formal course work at other institutions, some learned on their own, but all developed some type of computer materials that could be used in teaching their classes.