English department to implement changes

Only one introductory level course is mandatory for major

The English department is in the process of making some decisions that will impact Oberlin English students for the next five to 10 years.

One of the most recent changes is the reduction of required introductory classes from two to one. English majors who graduated from Oberlin in the past few years were required to take at least two introductory classes out of the three offered: Introduction to Drama, Introduction to Poetry and Introduction to Narrative Fiction. Now, taking two of these courses will be "highly recommended," but not required.

This is an attempt, in part, to accommodate the addition of Critical Methods, a 200-level course required for all English majors.The prerequisites for upper-level classes will be adjusted to meet this change. In the future, one introductory class in any genre will be seen as sufficient preparation for any upper-level class.

"The requirement for any upper level course will just be an intro course," said Kathy Linehan, the English department chair. Linehan offered several reasons for the change. She sees it as a compromise: majors will be required to take Critical Methods, but to open up space in their schedules for the course, they will no longer have to take the second introductory class.

The field of English, along with the rest of academia and academic thought, has undergone drastic changes in the past several decades and the Oberlin English department has reflected these changes. In curriculum, literary theory and methodology, the English department is attempting to stay up to date.

Another reason for the change is that many students were anxious to move on to more difficult classes. Cathlin Davis, an English department representative, confirmed this. She mentioned that one of the reasons for the change was, "it takes you a lot longer to get to upper-division classes and that was part of the problem."

Linehan also said the department didn't want to hold back students who felt they already had a good background in a particular genre. The intro class exemption exam was re-activated for this purpose as well. Students who take the exam can gauge their preparation and use the information to decide if they need to take additional intro classes.

Oberlin is fairly unusual in that it divides the introductory courses up by genre, but in general Linehan felt that the requirements for an English major at Oberlin were "roughly comparable" to those of other liberal arts colleges.

Several faculty members would still prefer that students take more than one intro class. Linehan, however, anticipates that a student who takes two intro classes will be "the exception rather than the norm." She recognizes that students are "impatient" to move on to upper-level classes. And it can be frustrating, she explained, to go back and take an intro class after you have already taken more difficult courses.

The question has been raised as to whether this change in requirements will impel students to diminish their interests and focus too narrowly on one genre. But Meave Shelton, a sophomore theater and English major, noted that students will have a tendency to gravitate toward the genre they are most interested in, regardless of requirements.

"There's no guarantee that students will get a well-rounded English education anyway," she observed. Like most other departments, the English department tries to carefully balance a fair degree of student choice with some required courses to ensure diversity and depth of study.

Another sophomore English major had a different point of view. "It's important to get to know as many different genres as you can if you're going to be an English major," he said. "I think two intro classes is a fair requirement."

Some students were indignant that the change had not been announced earlier. "I was really surprised to find out that I only had to take one intro course, after I had already taken two of them," commented Rosemary DeFremery, college sophomore, who is in the same position as a number of other majors.

Approaches to English literature and curriculum have evolved substantially over the past 30 years. Traditionally, literature requirements in colleges have been heavy and rigid, often involving required courses in each period of literary history. But along with this established curriculum came a sense of purism. Political attitudes and the rise of multiculturalism have spurred a controversy over the canon and curriculum and consequently, the constitution of the major itself.

Linehan believes the new curriculum at Oberlin reflects a wider change in the philosophy of education. "This change relates to a larger waking up in this field to the narrowness of the old-style approaches," she said.

She also thinks students should be encouraged to take courses on literature beyond the traditional cannon. "There is a positive value in reading across cultural differences," she said. As an example of the department's efforts to promote multiculturalism, she cited the policy of allowing one course in literature other than English to count towards the major.

Some other changes anticipated in the English department will be the hiring of a new tenure-track position because of expected retirements and projected five to 10 year curriculum changes, such as the possible addition of new courses and the elimination of others.

Student representatives have been seeking student input on the planning issues and proposed changes. At an English majors' meeting on Tuesday, students discussed their feelings about the department and made suggestions about additional changes they felt were necessary. Davis saw this as a productive discussion. "This is the first time that reps have gone out to the majors like this," she said.