Students: Graduate Information
Current Students: Department Governance
The English Department considers graduate students to be a valuable source of energy and experience in shaping policy. The English Department Council, which is concerned with general policies and programs, and the Graduate Studies Council, which centers upon the graduate program, consider and resolve most questions of policy for the Department. Eleven graduate student representatives sit on each of these councils. All student members of committees are elected by the graduate student body through the English Graduate Organization (EGO). (See also Student Resources).The Executive Committee
The Executive Committee advises the Department Chair about matters such as the agenda for English Department Council meetings, personnel requirements, financial matters, and the coordinating and performance of Departmental committees. It consists of the Chair and ten elected members, two from each of the professorial ranks, one from the rank of Instructor/Senior Lecturer, one from the rank of Lecturer, a graduate student, one of the members of the EGO Steering Committee, and an undergraduate student. In 2002-2003 the faculty members of the Committee are Valerie Lee (chair), Lisa Kiser, Clare Simmons, Frank Donoghue, Steven Fink, Elizabeth Hewitt, Drew Jones, and Natalie Tyler.The Graduate Program and Policy Committee
The Graduate Program & Policy Committee oversees the Department’s graduate program. While this committee works within the policies and guidelines established by the Council on Research and Graduate Studies of the Graduate School, the Council has granted departmental committees considerable leeway in determining procedures. The Graduate Committee is usually the preliminary forum for policy recommendations that will eventually be submitted to the Graduate Council for approval, rejection, or revision. Three elected graduate students serve on this committee along with five faculty members (including the Graduate Director) appointed by the Department Chair in consultation with the Executive Committee. Only the faculty members participate in certain functions, including the review of Programs of Study and the screening and selection of candidates for the Presidential Fellowship and similar awards and prizes.In 2006-2007 the faculty members of the Committee are Clare Simmons (Chair, Graduate Studies), Aman Garcha (Placement), Seb Knowles (MA Proctor) , Jon Erickson , Kathy Fagan, Pranav Jani , Drew Jones, Manny Martinez , Galey Modan, Jim Phelan, Anne Marie Simpkins, and Roger Cherry. Student members are Mike Johnston, Aaron McKain, and Anne-Marie Schuler.
Two members of the Graduate Program & Policy Committee are appointed annually to assist graduate students in finding academic and non-academic positions. These faculty help students prepare their dossiers, arrange workshops on job seeking, mock-interviews, and the like, and in general coordinate placement activities.
In addition to the placement committee, the Department offers a dossier service, run by the Graduate Studies Coordinator. The service is available to any graduate student in the Department seeking academic or other employment, admission to academic programs, fellowships, or grants. Students are entitled to use the service for a period of two academic years. For further information, please consult the Graduate Studies Coordinator, Kathleen Griffin.
Other Committees
In addition to the above committees, one graduate student serves on each of the following: the Technology Committee, the Diversity Committee, the Undergraduate Studies Committee, and the Social Committee. Two M.F.A. students serve on the Creative Writing Committee.The English Graduate Organization
The English Graduate Organization (EGO) is the graduate student association that assures and expedites student involvement in English Department activities. Every graduate student in English is automatically a member. EGO offers a basis for student-faculty communication and various social activities.Each spring, members elect four students to the EGO Steering Committee. Steering Committee members vote in the EDC and EDPC and help organize all of EGO’s activities. The committee also coordinates elections to select graduate student representatives to the various departmental committees and to the university-wide Council of Graduate Students, as well as to choose the department’s Graduate Teacher of the Year. The EGO Steering Committee, along with the graduate students elected to all other committees, meet monthly with the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss graduate issues.
EGO representatives also serve on the Graduate Studies Committee, the Undergraduate Studies Committee, the Technology Committee, the Council of Graduate Students (CGS), and the Diversity Committee.
The EGO lounge is in 423 Denney Hall; any graduate student who does not teach for the Department, and has therefore not been assigned a mailbox in the main Department office (Denney 421), may request a mailbox there.
