Welcome Back!

Fall semester starts with success

Welcome back! We are starting the term with several points of excitement. We have welcomed five new faculty this fall, and we have advertised for three new positions for next year. 

We have several new department administrative changes: Leah Orr is the new depart-ment head, Clai Rice is the new associate head, Wilbur Bennett is the new assistant head, Lisa Graley is the director of creative writing for the fall semester, and Laurel Ryan is the graduate coordinator for incoming students. Thanks to Mark Honegger, Randy Gonzales, and Henk Rossouw for their service as they rotate off their administrative positions.

This fall, the English department welcomed its largest cohort of graduate students in at least ten years: 24 new Ph.D. students and 4 new M.A. students. The halls are busy and we had a full house at the Welcome Back party, hosted by Sally Donlon. The university is also growing, with overall enrollments up over this time last year. The final numbers have not yet come out, but over in English we are offering 306 sections this semester, most of which are full, plus independent studies and thesis/dissertation hours. We offered more than 5,000 seats in English classes this fall. We have 53 full time faculty this semester, plus 91 enrolled graduate students. That’s a lot of people!