Changes should also cater to students
Many of us in the English department here appreciated Nikki Jagerman’s forthright column, “Don’t downplay the classics in the English major” (May 20) in the Bruin and the critical issues it raises.
In arriving at the proposed changes, the majority of the faculty did not focus, it seems, on the undergraduate students’ needs and interests, nor did it solicit their views on the major and its excellencies and/or deficiencies. Rather, it focused on professors’ research interests (best suited to their graduate courses). What we need instead is a coherent plan to educate English literature students and minors who are excited about understanding and writing about literature and its history. Keep up the fight, my congratulations.
Michael J. B. Allen
Distinguished professor of English, UCLA