Everyone on campus may know about Western Connecticut State University’s plan to cut certain majors like Social Sciences and Meteorology. As we previously reported, both students, and professors, along with American Association of University Professors are organizing to save those departments, with some success. While the fight for each major is of great political importance to students and the direction of the university as a whole. There is still one more major that has been lost in the shuffle: the English major.  

The English Department and major has been struggling since the start of 2021, when two full-time professors went into retirement, limiting the class options available to current students of either concentration of the major: Literature and Education. While one of the retired professors came back as an adjunct, exclusively teaching online asynchronously, this did little to help students in their need for classes since another one of the full-time professors went on sabbatical for the semester. In addition, the professor only taught one class each semester during the 2021-22 Academic Year, with only one class being necessary for their degrees.  

Things still did not look up for English Majors, as the one of the full-time professors, Dr. Heather Levy went on leave near the end of the Fall 2021 Semester which continued into the Spring of 2022. However, their leave was not announced to students outside them leaving for the rest of the Fall semester, classes were being taken over and some even cancelled without notice. Students were not informed until some students happened to notice classes missing and brought up to the Department Chair at the time. 

Around this time, rumors began circulating that the English Department was either going to be merged with the Writing Department or cut all together. The former course was decided and the two merged into the Department of Writing & Literature. However, despite this the English Major is still struggling with sparse classes offered and low enrollment in most classes.  

This problem persists as changes are coming to the English major as one of the two full-time professors, Dr. Shouhua Qi, is retiring come the end of the 2022-2023 school year and not enough sections are offered for students next semester. While an Adjunct Professor is allegedly being promoted to full time, this still does little for the students remaining in the program after the Spring 2023 semester. Among the options available for English majors, only ten classes are available and little to none are what students require to complete their degrees. Some students have started a petition in order to open more classes for English Students due to the lack of necessary classes.   

The state of this major is still uncertain for students, as no Writing professors are planning on teaching English classes next semester, outside of one grammar class for English Education Majors, in contrast to this past semester, where the first class that counts for both Majors, ENG/WRT 398 Irish Authors, was offered. English Students have not benefitted from the merger with Writing as were promised, and students from both English and Writing have reported that the merger was not done well and has overall benefitted no one.   

Despite the merger barely even being a year old, it was announced on March 28th, 2023to the English Majors that the two majors would be splitting off again and the English Major will be merging with another major, Interdisciplinary Studies, to form a new department called the Department of English & Interdisciplinary Studies. For students in this merger, substitutions for missing classes can be offered with approval from the Department Chair who will most likely be Dr. Cigdem Usekes, who is leading this new merger.  

An attempt was made to reach out to English Students for comments, but only the writer of this article and one English Major, both graduated this past semester have made comments. As a spirit of good faith, these comments will remain. If anybody impacted by these changes wishes to comment, please reach out to us at echo@wcsu.edu. Anybody who is not affected by these changes but is wishes to comment is open to do so.  

Matthew Sterk: Graduating English Literature Major 

I have felt like I’ve been screwed over and over again by being an English Major at WCSU. I have been caught up in both professors retiring and professors going on leave, to the point that I feel it’s been overall detriment to my education. I had to constantly check with professors of both English and Writing in order to make sure I had options and yet despite reassurance that I would, I have not seen anything that has help me along the way. When the whole Social Sciences debate was going on, while I did realize that this was important, I was mad that English wasn’t getting the support it deserve meanwhile Majors that weren’t even on the cutting room floor yet were getting Union support. While everyone hears about the problems Social Sciences faces, no one knows about the English Major has; I asked a professor once on Westside while I was working at Robert S. Young Library, and they mentioned never even heard once about the English major facing problems. So many problems and yet we’re just left to crumble. I listened to President Beran’s interview with WXCI, and he mentioned at one point being a former English teacher, which infuriated me to no end cause English was not getting the support it needed and yet apparently someone who’s a former English teacher doesn’t care. While I am graduating, it still makes me mad and worried that whatever happens after I’m gone will affect my degree in the future. 

Caleigh McAllister: Graduating English Major   

Honestly, I feel like I speak for everyone when I say this merger is a blatant act of disrespect towards students & professors. Not only did the school’s apprehension cause many students to graduate late due to the class availability being shortened, it chipped away at the department altogether. I do not understand why English is placed in such disregard in comparison to other majors.  

The merger personally did not bother me but, it was clear this was an attempt to water down the English department. There are hardly any upper-level classes available to students. We should not have to petition for a class to be taught (like LGBTQ+ Writers). If the school wishes to merge the English department with writing, we should be granted the same roster of classes as well. It’s unfair to extend tuition finances simply because the school cannot meet basic accommodations. In other majors if a class is a graduation requirement, it is available… this just is not the case with English. If they want to merge the departments, they need to actually hire more professors rather than overwork the few on staff. (Not to mention, the English department is basically merged with English education already.