Teaching and Learning
An academic career of course has its frustrations: computers crash; like cats, members of the faculty refuse to be herded; we all have to submit to performance evaluations and merit tests. No matter how many years we have been at it, the blue books and the take-home papers just don't measure up to expectations. And I fear that I have to write the department self-study this year in preparation for the History Program Review next year. And yet your History Department appears to be in good condition. Interest in history seems to be increasing. Our enrollments continue to be high. In Fall 1999 our History majors are up by 19.2% compared to Fall 1998.
The great majority of our classes in Spring 1999 and Fall 1999 were fully enrolled or overenrolled; after the beginning of the semester only a few upper division courses were still open to student Òadds.Ó Because the university has admitted a larger number of freshmen and sophomores, lower division courses (the Civ courses and the U.S. History surveys) are particularly full. Our graduate program is thriving. This issue of the newsletter has an article on the approval of the Ph.D. program in Public History. Although we don't expect large numbers of Ph.D. students, we are hoping for the first of them to arrive in Fall 2000.
Our master's programs (we have three: the Standard program, Public History and History/Humanities) continue to be very popular. Because of an usually large number of master's candidates admitted in Fall 1999, several students were not able to get into graduate seminars. We are attempting to remedy this situation by offering extra sections beginning in Spring 2000.
