The English department will add requirements to its major starting with the Class of 1996, including an eleventh course chosen from a different department and a final culminating project.
The department will also increase the number of courses required for an honors major from 10 to 13 and require that all honors majors write a senior thesis.
"The English major felt kind of light to us," said Professor David Wykes, vice-chair of the department and chair of the Committee on Departmental Curriculum (CDC). "English majors were doing less work to get the major than a student at Dartmouth should.
"It is unusual to have a 10-course major with no prerequisites," he said.
Currently, English majors are required to take a course in each of four period groups (Medieval or Renaissance, 17th and 18th Centuries, 19th Century, 20th Century), a course examining a single author and five additional courses.
In the past, students have petitioned the CDC to substitute courses from outside the department for credit on their major cards, Wykes said.
"The effect of the change is that people will still take the outside course, but they will be forced to take more courses in the English department," Wykes said.
Members of the Class of 1996 will have to satisfy the 10 existing requirements and then take an additional course in a related discipline outside the English department. The course will be chosen by the student and approved by the member of the CDC who signs the student's major card.
Wykes said students could choose the eleventh course from different disciplines, including French or Russian literature, Greek and Roman studies, comparative literature, history, or religion.
"But the student has to show how the course fits into the major," Wykes said. "It has somewhat the same criteria as the modified major. It would be hard to use a physics course as the eleventh course."
English majors in the Class of 1996 will also have to participate in a culminating experience. But since the department is so large, it will be difficult for each individual to have a specific project.
The department decided that majors will have to either take an English course in a special topic or an advanced seminar or write an honors thesis as the culminating experience. Students can take on more than one culminating experience if they choose.
Honors majors will have to take 13 courses in the English department instead of the present 10 courses and will have to write a thesis.
According to Professor Cynthia Huntington, honors majors used to be able to take fewer courses than regular English majors if they transferred credits and substituted courses.
"Honors majors should go over and above," Huntington said. "They should be more prepared than the rest."
Majors in English and creative writing will not have to take an outside course because English 80, the prerequisite to the creative writing major, serves as the eleventh course, Wykes said.
English 85 will continue to count as the culminating experience for the creative writing major.
Wykes said these changes were prompted by two studies. First, in its report to the College last year, the Committee on Curriculum recommended that the academic departments attempt to develop more interdisciplinary courses. The College also commissioned an independent, outside study of the English department last year.
To study and respond to the results of those two studies, five subcommittees were formed in the English department, Huntington said. The changes in the major were proposed at general department meetings this year.
The CDC put those suggestions into formal proposals, which were then voted on by the entire department and accepted, Huntington said.
The curriculum changes have already been approved by the Committee on Instruction and Humanities Divisional Council, Wykes said.
Huntington said she did not think the addition of an eleventh course would scare off prospective English majors.
"The English department is worried about appropriately serving the people we have," Huntington said. "We don't want to drive people away, but we don't need to attract people. We're fine with what we have."
But opinions are mixed among prospective freshmen English majors.
"I think adding an extra course would discourage me from majoring in English," said Anh-Thu Cunnion '96. "The English major is harder than most majors as it is. It requires students to take one class per period and you can't concentrate on one field."
Kathy Keyser '96 agreed with Huntington that the additional course is a good idea.
"The English department doesn't have prerequisites," Keyser said. "Having 11 courses isn't a big deal. The fact that the additional course is out of the department makes it better to me."
There are no plans to change the requirements for the English minor or the modified major, Wykes said.
