After 20 years without an update, USF St. Petersburg’s English degree program is being streamlined while adding more diverse class options.
Starting fall 2012, the undergraduate program will run under a new catalog featuring new class options and changes in class requirements. Some of the changes include different concentration names and core requirements. Replacing a concentration in English and American Literature will be Literature and Cultural Studies. Instead of Professional and Technical Writing there will be a concentration in Writing Studies.
The core requirements for each concentration will be changing slightly with some classes being cut and more being added. Among the added required classes are an introductory class and a senior portfolio class. New special topics courses will give students more options and flexibility with their degree.
The talk of changing the English degree program began a few years ago when USFSP was seeking accreditation independent of USF Tampa. The faculty wanted a curriculum that was suitable for a small school and a small department. The final push for change came when USF Tampa recently remodeled its English major program.
Students who started the major under a class catalog before fall 2012 have the choice to remain in that catalog or switch to the new program. If a student chooses to stick with the original catalog, he or she will graduate with the same degree as someone who switched to the new program. If a student chooses to switch to the new program, he or she will have the option to use courses already taken to count for new requirements.
Senior English literature major Jennifer Trumbull, who is graduating in the fall, is not concerned with the changes, but is happy to see them coming into effect. Many students who have heard of the changes are glad to see that Literary Criticism is no longer a required class for the degree, but will still be offered as an option.
“I’m probably going to just stick with the catalog I started in, unless I get the option to not take Literary Criticism,” Trumbull said.
While these changes have not gone into effect yet, the department has only received positive feedback after revealing the new curriculum.
“A department has to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops to change a major,” said Julie Armstrong, an English department professor and designer of the new curriculum. “The whole way, everyone has praised the way we thought through the process, considered students’ needs, fit the two concentrations together and connected course to student learning outcomes and to the university mission.”
Incoming students in the fall will be automatically under the new undergraduate catalog.
