Senate Bill
1819-12
UNIVERSITY SENATE
UNVERSITY AT ALBANY
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Introduced by:
Undergraduate Academic Council
University Policy and Planning Council
Date:
March 25, 2019
Proposal to Establish a Writing Concentration within the English B.A.
IT IS HEREBY PROPOSED THAT THE FOLLOWING BE ADOPTED:
1. That the University Senate approves the attached program proposal as submitted by the
Department of English and approved by UAC and UPPC
2. That this takes effect for the Fall 2019 semester.
3. That this proposal be forwarded to President Havidán Rodríguez for approval.
18-136 ENG (OT-Concentration within Major) with credit breakdown.docx
Page 1 of 2
University at Albany – State University of New York
College of Arts and Sciences
Course and Program Action Form
Proposal No.
18-136
Please check one:
Course Proposal
X Program Proposal
Please mark all that apply:
New Course
Revision of:
Number
Description
Cross-Listing
Title
Prerequisites
Shared-Resources Course
Credits
Deactivate/Activate Course (boldface & underline as
appropriate)
X Other (specify): Concentration within major
Department:
English
Effective Semester, Year: Fall 2019
Course Number Current:
New:
Credits:
Course Title:
Course Description to appear in Bulletin:
Degree Requirements for the Major in English with Concentration in Writing (36 credits):
Within the requirements for the English major, completion of the following courses constitute fulfillment of the writing
concentration:
•
AENG 240z American Experiences (3 credits)
•
6 credits from the following writing courses: AENG 300 Expository Writing, AENG 302 Creative Writing,
AENG 309 Professional Writing, or AENG 402 Advanced Writing Workshop
•
3 credits from the following courses on writing: AENG 306 Literary Publication: History and Practice, AENG
350 Contemporary Writers at Work, AENG 360 Tutoring & Writing, or AENG 450 Topics in Writing Studies
Additional courses may be designated as fulfilling either the writing course or course on writing designations above on
a semester-by-semester basis. Please consult the department’s online course descriptions.
Prerequisites statement to be appended to description in Bulletin:
If S/U is to be designated as the only grading system in the course, check
here:
This course is (will be) cross listed with (i.e., CAS ###):
This course is (will be) a shared-resources course with (i.e., CAS ###):
Explanation of proposal:
(Undergraduate Course/Program proposals: please address the effect on the department’s General Education competency plan)
The proposed Writing Concentration allows students to explore writing in its multi-faceted dimensions as a rhetorical
and a poetic activity, skill, practice, object of study, and art. This proposal is an innovative updating of a Writing
Sequence within the English major that previously was popular among students. It is designed to enrich the
undergraduate experience through extended treatment of the process of writing and of the rhetorical and artistic
aspects of writing and provide students with a credential indicating extensive training in writing. AENG 240z American
Experiences, provides students who elect this concentration with a common starting point for this work in a course
focused on student-driven creative and critical writing projects. This course satisfies students’ Challenges in the 21st
Century general education requirement and gives students a needed background in navigating the cultural challenges
and rewards associated with writing in a diverse society.
English majors may enroll in the Writing Concentration or minor in Creative Writing, but not both.
Other departments or schools which offer similar or related courses and which have certified that this proposal does not
overlap their offering:
Theater, Communication, and Journalism (see correspondence attached to CIF)
If this proposal is for an interdisciplinary program, please indicate the Department where the major/minor will be
Chair of Proposing Department (TYPE NAME)
Administrative Manager or Department Secretary (TYPE NAME)
Date
Charles Shepherdson
Liz Lauenstein
09/07/2018
Approved by Chair(s) of Departments having cross-listed
course(s) [Copy of e-mail approval(s) on following page.]
Date
Dean of College
Date
Kathleen Gersowitz
10/15/18
Chair of Academic Programs Committee
Date
Dean of Undergraduate or Graduate Studies
Date
Oliver Elison Timm
10/10/18
Form: CAS Course and Program Action Form (revised 10/19/16)
18-136 ENG (OT-Concentration within Major) with credit breakdown.docx
Page 2 of 2
Existing Degree Requirements for the Major in English (36 credits)
•
9 credits from required courses: A ENG 205Z, 210, 305V
•
6 credits from the following literature surveys: A ENG 261, 291, 292, 295, or 297
•
3 credits from 200 to 400 level courses*
•
12 credits from 300 to 400 level courses
•
6 credits from 400 level courses
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Proposed Degree Requirements for the Major in English, Writing
Concentration (36 credits*)
•
9 credits from required courses: A ENG 205Z, 210, 305V
•
3 credits from AENG 240z American Experiences
•
6 credits from the following literature surveys: A ENG 261, 291, 292, 295, or 297
•
6 credits from the following writing courses: AENG 300 Expository Writing, AENG 302
Creative Writing, AENG 309 Professional Writing, or AENG 402 Advanced Writing
Workshop
•
3 credits from the following courses on writing: AENG 306 Literary Publication: History
and Practice, AENG 350 Contemporary Writers at Work, AENG 360 Tutoring & Writing,
or AENG 450 Topics in Writing Studies
•
9 credits from 300 to 400 level courses
*6 of these 36 credits must be at the AENG400 level
(We would like the DARS Audit to include a credit check for 6 AENG 400 level credits.)
UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
CAMPUS IMPACT FORM
Version 1.9 08/26/17
Proposal Title:
_________________________________________________________________
College or
School
_____________________
Department ________________________________
Program Director
or Sponsor
_____________________
Email _____________________________________
Action Category
☐ Program Proposal
☐ Other (describe)
Does this proposal include any space
resource implications? Approx. sq. ft.
needed: _________
☐ Yes
☐ No
Action Type
☐ New
☐ Revision
☐ Deactivation
☐ Other (describe)
Does the Office of Finanical Aid identify
this as a Gainful Employment
Program (GEP)?
☐ Yes
☐ No
Brief Description of Proposal: (attach additional pages if necessary)
When submitting a program proposal please submit this form to indicate the
resource implications of the proposal.
Writing Concentration within the English major
CAS
English
Laura Wilder
Lwilder@albany.edu
I
This proposal is an innovative updating of a Writing Sequence within the English major that
previously was popular among students. It is designed to enrich the undergraduate
experience through extended treatment of the process of writing and of the rhetorical and
artistic aspects of writing. The concentration also supports students’ exploration of the
dynamics of working with writers as editors, tutors, and teachers. It is the undergraduate
complement to our graduate concentration in Writing Practices, which productively brings
together the subfields of creative writing and rhetoric and writing studies.
Within the existing requirements for the English major, completion of the following courses
constitute fulfillment of the writing concentration:
• AENG 240z American Experiences (3 credits)
• 6 credits from the following writing courses: AENG 300 Expository Writing, AENG 302
Creative Writing, AENG 309 Professional Writing, or AENG 402 Advanced Writing Workshop
• 3 credits from the following courses on writing: AENG 306 Literary Publication: History and
Practice, AENG 350 Contemporary Writers at Work, AENG 360 Tutoring & Writing, or AENG
450 Topics in Writing Studies
(Additional courses may be designated as fulfilling either the writing course or course on
writing designations above on a semester-by-semester basis.)
This proposal allows English majors who select from an array of electives that emphasize
the practice and theory of writing to indicate on their transcripts this emphasis on writing. The
concentration will thus serve as a professional credential for graduates, as repeated and
varied practice in writing and understanding of theories of writing are desired by employers
and professional graduate programs.
UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
CAMPUS IMPACT FORM
Version 1.9 08/26/17
Is there an impact on other service units? Please attach documentation that you have consulted with each unit
listed below:
Yes
No
☐
☐
ITS
☐
☐
University Library
☐
☐
Scientific Core Facilities
☐
☐
Other services (i.e., parking, facilities, security), please list:
_______________________________________________
Is there an impact on other academic programs? Please list all academic departments consulted regarding
impact and attach documentation.
Faculty and Staff (attach additional pages if necessary)
(a) Describe new faculty hiring needed during the next 3 years
(b) Explain how program will be administered for the purposes of admissions, advising, course offerings, etc.
Discuss the available support staff.
I
I
I
I
No. Consulted with Theater, Communication, and Journalism. Please see attached
correspondence.
(a) So long as current faculty in creative writing and rhetoric and composition remain on
the faculty and current levels of graduate students are funded for teaching positions are
maintained, the proposal should be feasible without the need of additional faculty or staff.
Should the concentration considerably grow enrollments in the English, B.A., additional
faculty in creative writing and rhetoric and composition may be necessary.
(b) Students will elect the writing concentration themselves when selecting English as their
major. The current English advisement office will handle advising majors in this
concentration.
Like the new creative writing minor, this proposal draws attention to existing and regularly
offered English courses, making implementation of the proposal possible immediately.
Multiple sections of AENG 240z (4-12 sections), AENG 302 (4 sections), and AENG 309
(2-3 sections) are offered every semester. All the other courses named as options are
offered at least once every year, and many once every semester (such as A ENG 350 and
A ENG 402). Students will have options in terms of topics and available days/times in
selecting course to fulfill the requirements of this concentration. Should students set out to
fulfill the new Writing Concentration but later change their minds, they may still pursue the
general English major.
UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
CAMPUS IMPACT FORM
Version 1.9 078/26/17
Program Expenses
List all resources that will be engaged specifically as a result of the proposed program (e.g., a new
faculty position or additional library resources). If they represent a continuing cost, new resources
for a given year should be included in the subsequent year(s), with adjustments for inflation or
negotiated compensation.
Program Expense Categories
Expenses (in dollars)
Prior to
implementation
Academic
Year 1:
Academic
Year 2:
Academic
Year 3:
Academic
Year 4:
Academic
Year 5:
(a) Personnel (including
faculty and all others)
(b) Library
(c) Equipment
(d) Laboratories
(e) Supplies
(f) Capital Expenses
(g) Student stipends or
scholarships
(h) Other (specify):
Sum of Rows Above
$
$
$
$
$
$
Explanatory Notes (add additional pages as needed):
$ 0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
UNIVERSITY POLICY AND PLANNING COUNCIL
CAMPUS IMPACT FORM
Version 1.9 08/26/17
APPROVALS
Department Chair
_______________________________________________
_____________________
Department Chair
Date
Dean
_______________________________________________
_____________________
Dean
Date
UPPC Chair
_______________________________________________
_____________________
UPPC Chair
Date
•
It is the sponsoring department’s responsibility to request and attach all required
documentation and to obtain all required signatures (with the exception of the chair of
UPPC’s) before presenting the documentation.
•
Completed forms should be sent to the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Office of
Graduate Education, or both as appropriate.
•
When the Chair of UPPC has received the proposal from the appropriate office(s), s/he will notify
you that it has been placed on the UPPC agenda and invite you to attend the meeting.
Charles Shepherdson
Kathleen Gersowitz, Assistant Dean
09/07/2018
10/15/18
1
Wilder, Laura
From:
Kash, Karla J
Sent:
Thursday, September 6, 2018 1:12 PM
To:
Wilder, Laura
Subject:
English Concentration in writing
Hi Laura,
As the director and producer of Theatre, I do not see any conflict between English's proposal for a
writing concentration and our program and am excited to see how we may be able to collaborate
more in the future.
Best,
Karla
Karla Kash
University at Albany, SUNY
Associate Professor, Director/Producer of the Theatre Program
1400 Washington Ave.
PAC 262A
Albany, NY 12222
518.442.4201
www.karlakash.com
Union Affiliations‐ Actors Equity Association, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and Society of
American Fight Directors
"If you want to work on your art, work on your life"‐ Chekhov
From:
Roberts, Nancy
To:
Golden, Annis G; Wilder, Laura
Subject:
Re: proposal for a Writing Concentration in English.
Date:
Friday, August 24, 2018 8:29:29 PM
Laura,
My apologies, also, for the delay in responding. Like Annis, I also don't see a conflict or
concern relative to the bachelor's degree in journalism and wish you much success in this
endeavor.
Best regards,
Nancy
Nancy L Roberts
Director and Professor,
Journalism Program,
Communication Department
Get Outlook for iOS
From: Golden, Annis G <agolden@albany.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2018 6:58 PM
To: Wilder, Laura; Roberts, Nancy
Subject: RE: proposal for a Writing Concentration in English.
Dear Laura,
Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding. I do not have any concerns with this
proposal in relation to the BA in Communication. However, although the Journalism Program is now
under the umbrella of the Communication Department, I defer to Nancy Roberts as Program
Director to say whether she has any concerns about your proposal in relation to the BA in
Journalism.
Best regards,
Annis
Annis G. Golden, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair, Dept. of Communication
Research Associate, Center for Elimination of Minority Health Disparities
University at Albany, SUNY - SS339
518.442.4879
agolden@albany.edu
From: Laura Wilder [mailto:lwilder@albany.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2018 2:14 PM
To: Roberts, Nancy <nroberts@albany.edu>; Golden, Annis G <agolden@albany.edu>
Subject: Re: proposal for a Writing Concentration in English.
Dear Professors Roberts and Golden,
I am writing to kindly request a response, however brief, to my email below of July 13. As
part of the application process to propose this new concentration in the English major, we need
to show evidence that we consulted with potentially affected departments & programs. I may
have been clumsy and unclear in my request for a reply earlier, but if you could please provide
one now, I would be grateful. You can indicate your potential concerns or state that at this
juncture you do not have any.
Thanks very much.
Regards,
Laura Wilder
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 3:35 PM Laura Wilder <lwilder@albany.edu> wrote:
Dear Professors Roberts and Golden,
I am writing out of a desire to inform you about and consult with you on plans for proposing
a Concentration in Writing which we are developing in the Department of English.As a bit
of background, our proposal actually asks to bring back something similar to the Writing
Sequence which English had in the 1990s. Like that old sequence, the writing concentration
brings together the study and practice of creative writing and rhetorical writing in a series of
courses taught by faculty with expertise in creative writing and/or rhetoric and composition.
Students interested in the concentration fulfill all the current requirements for the English
major and then some additional requirements from a selection of writing courses or
courseson the topic of writing (writing research and theories of writing). I paste below more
details about our proposal at this draft stage. I am contacting you both because your
program and department can of course be seen to have some degree of overlap with the
broad topics this proposed concentration engages. I thus wanted to inform you of this plan
and ask if you foresee any potential impact on your own programs. I can assure you that
while writing and rhetoric from a broad view are areas where we overlap (and often, I
would say having students from your programs in my own classes, in productive ways), our
proposal focuses on genres of writing and an area of research and scholarship that is unique
to English studies.
I do hope you will let me know if you have any questions or concerns. As part of the
application process for developing our proposal, we are required to consult with academic
programs which could potentially be impacted by our proposal. While the distinctions I tried
to quickly overview above indicate to me that there should be no impact on your programs,
I rightly should not be the sole person to determine this. Thus I would appreciate your reply
with and concerns and with your sense of any potential impact on your programs. Kathy
Gersowitz similarly sensed such impact would not be an issue, but she encouraged me to
reach out to inform and solicit input from you nonetheless.
Thanks very much! (details or proposal below)
Best regards,
Laura
--
Laura Wilder
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of English
University at Albany, SUNY
HUM 349
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12222
(518) 442-408
Proposed Structure of the New Writing Concentration within the English Major
Fulfill All Degree Requirements for the Major in English (36 credits):
9 credits from required courses: A ENG 205Z, 210, 305V
6 credits from the following literature surveys: A ENG 261, 291, 292, 295, or 297
3 credits from 200 to 400 level courses
12 credits from 300 to 400 level courses
6 credits from 400 level courses
Within the above requirements for the English major, completion of the following courses
constitute fulfillment of the writing concentration:
· AENG 240z American Experiences (3 credits)
· 6 credits from the following writing courses: AENG 300 Expository Writing, AENG 302
Creative Writing, AENG 309 Professional Writing, or AENG 402 Advanced Writing
Workshop
· 3 credits from the following courses on writing: AENG 306 Literary Publication: History
and Practice, AENG 350 Contemporary Writers at Work, AENG 360 Tutoring & Writing, or
AENG 450 Topics in Writing Studies
Additional courses may be designated as fulfilling either the writing course or course on writing
designations above on a semester-by-semester basis.
Rationale
Benefits for students:
This proposal is an innovative updating of a Writing Sequence within the English major that
previously was popular among students. It is designed to enrich the undergraduate experience
through extended treatment of the process of writing and of the rhetorical and artistic aspects of
writing. The concentration also supports students’ exploration of the dynamics of working with
writers as editors, tutors, and teachers. It is the undergraduate complement to our graduate
concentration in Writing Practices, which productively brings together the subfields of creative
writing and rhetoric and writing studies.
AENG 240z American Experiences, currently the only 200-level writing intensive English course,
provides students who elect this concentration with a common starting point for this work in a
course focused on student-driven creative and critical writing projects. This course satisfies
students’ Challenges in the 21st Century general education requirement and gives students a
needed background in navigating the cultural challenges and rewards associated with writing in a
diverse society.
This proposal allows English majors who select from an array of electives that emphasize the
practice and theory of writing to indicate on their transcripts this emphasis on writing. The
concentration will thus serve as a professional credential for graduates, as repeated and varied
practice in writing and understanding of theories of writing are desired by employers and
professional graduate programs.
The proposed Writing Concentration allows students to explore writing in its multi-faceted
dimensions as a rhetorical and a poetic activity, skill, practice, object of study, and art. The English
major’s required core courses and survey courses as well as the 9 hours of electives students
pursuing this sequence must take are vital in supporting this sustained exploration of writing.
Feasibility:
Like the new creative writing minor, this proposal draws attention to existing and regularly offered
English courses, making implementation of the proposal possible immediately. Multiple sections
of A ENG 240z (4-12 sections), A ENG 302 (4 sections), and AENG 309 (2-3 sections) are offered
every semester. All the other courses named as options are offered at least once every year, and
many once every semester (such as A ENG 350 and A ENG 402). Students will have options in
terms of topics and available days/times in selecting course to fulfill the requirements of this
concentration. Should students set out to fulfill the new Writing Concentration but later change
their minds, they may still pursue the general English major.
--
Laura Wilder
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of English
University at Albany, SUNY
HUM 349
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12222
(518) 442-4084
