Strategic Plan 2025-2030
This strategic plan builds on the most recent strategic plan (2010-2012). The department recommits itself to ongoing strategic planning and refinement of this document as needed. Strategies listed under department objectives were identified as most immediately needed and achievable within the five-year scope of this strategic plan.
University Mission Statement
The faculty, staff, administrators and students of California State University, Stanislaus are committed to creating an inclusive learning environment which encourages all members of the campus community to expand their intellectual, creative and social horizons. We challenge one another to realize our potential, to appreciate and contribute to the enrichment of our diverse community and to develop a passion for lifelong learning.
To facilitate this mission, we promote academic excellence in the teaching and scholarly activities of our faculty, encourage personalized student learning, foster interactions and partnerships with our surrounding communities and provide opportunities for the intellectual, cultural and artistic enrichment of the region.
English Department Mission Statement
The faculty, staff, administrators, and students of California State University, Stanislaus are committed to creating a learning environment that encourages all members of the campus community to expand their intellectual, creative, and social horizons. We challenge one another to realize our potential, to appreciate and contribute to the enrichment of our diverse community, and to develop a passion for life-long learning.
To facilitate this mission, we promote academic excellence in teaching and scholarly activities of our faculty, encourage personalized student learning, foster interactions and partnerships with our surrounding communities, and provide opportunities for the intellectual, cultural, and artistic enrichment of the region.
English Department Antiracism Commitment Statement
As educators in an institution dedicated to serving a diverse population of students, the Stanislaus State Department of English recognizes and is committed to ensuring that our department continues to encourage and support inclusion and diversity. These efforts are an important foundation.
We acknowledge and oppose the historical and structural barriers to equity in society: the legacies of white supremacy, slavery, colonialism, and other forms of racial violence and injustice--legacies that affect educational practices and life beyond the university. We oppose racism and racist ideologies. We also recognize that university curricula, including that of our own department, have often sidelined the narratives and experiences of Black communities and people of color.
Going forward, we want to intensify our efforts in and beyond the university to be inclusive, diverse, and reflective of our students’ realities and will create supportive and nurturing spaces for Black students and students of color. Within our department and programs, we are committed to action-driven momentum toward lasting change and support for community efforts to achieve racial equity. We affirm that Black lives matter.
We agree with Cornelius Minor that "This is immense work, but this work of ensuring equity and access is doable." We are here to listen, learn, and act in ways that support racial equity at Stan State.
About the Department
The work of the English department is multi-faceted, offering instruction in literature and language courses for English majors, future secondary school teachers as well as courses that serve general education, business, journalism, creative media, liberal studies, honors, and humanities programs. The department also provides a university-wide writing program, concentrations for pre-credential students, professional writers and journalists, a certification for Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESOL), as well graduate programs in literature and Writing Studies, with an optional concentration in TESOL.
Program Goals:
Provide all Stanislaus students the opportunity to achieve appropriate levels of proficiency in written communication.
- Share with our students a rich variety of American, British, and World texts.
- Guide our students to develop a broad range of interpretive abilities and analytical skills.
- Present the historical, cultural, and technical information necessary for students to become competent readers and scholars.
- Assist our students in the continual process of improving formal writing skills.
- Provide opportunities for students to practice their oral communication skills.
- Support our students as they prepare for and enter into professional life.
- Engage prospective teachers in the philosophy and practice of teaching language arts in secondary schools.
Student Learning Goals / Objectives:
Successful English majors will:
1. Master various analytical and critical reading skills, demonstrating the ability to read closely and to comprehend and interpret a variety of culturally diverse literary, non-literary, and visual texts.
2. Gain broad knowledge of literature, achieving
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Familiarity with the development and significant periods and movements of American, British, and World literatures.
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Knowledge of literary, critical, and theoretical terminology.
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Understanding of background and contextual knowledge necessary for the well-informed consideration of various texts.
3. Demonstrate formal writing skills by composing essays and other documents that
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Make clear, organized, and well-reasoned arguments.
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Analyze, develop, and synthesize concepts.
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Reveal the ability to evaluate, incorporate, and document information.
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Exhibit a sense of audience and occasion.
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Display a mastery of grammar and language.
4. Develop competent oral communication skills through class discussions and formal presentations.
5. Gain understanding of intellectual and professional issues of the academy, including diversity, academic ethics, and canonicity.
Successful English (Literature) MA students will:
1. Master the techniques and practices of literary analysis.
2. Become familiar with the history and current theories of literary interpretation.
3. Acquire the abilities necessary to become professionals in the field of literature, whether as teachers or as other professionals.
Successful Writing Studies MA students will:
1. Understand the historical development and major theories of rhetoric and composition.
2. Master and apply the techniques and practices of rhetorical analysis.
3. Acquire the abilities necessary to become professionals in the field of composition and rhetoric, whether as teachers or as other professionals.
Successful Writing Studies MA students with a concentration in TESOL will also:
1. Gain knowledge and understanding of relevant concepts from the areas of linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and language teaching methodology.
2. Acquire in-depth knowledge and understanding of the interaction between second language acquisition theory and second language teaching and learning.
3. Demonstrate expertise in curriculum design, assessment, teaching methods, and classroom management in various TESOL settings.
Department Objectives
Objective 1: Ensure the continuation of a dynamic, diverse, and caring teaching faculty.
Objective 2: Offer classes and programs that align department priorities with student and university needs.
Objective 3: Maintain advising strategies to ensure that they are responsive to student needs and that they closely track student progress.
Objective 4: Enhance enrollment in the English major, minor, and graduate programs, with particular attention to enhancing diversity and quality through recruitment and retention efforts.
Objective 5: Increase the number of contacts and partnerships between the department and area community colleges, school districts, and other potential community partners.
Objective 6: Create and codify assessment strategies that identify programmatic and curricular priorities and track student learning outcomes.
Strategies for Objectives
Objective 1: Ensure the continuation of a dynamic, diverse, and caring teaching faculty.
A. Revise department RPT elaborations.
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Review expectations for the areas of Teaching, Scholarship, and Service.
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Gather suggestions from faculty (especially recently promoted Full, Associate, and Assistant Professors) about opportunities for clarity and guidance within the elaborations.
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Articulate expectations for post-tenure review.
B. Establish current and future hiring priorities.
Objective 2: Offer courses and programs that align department priorities with student and university needs.
A. Complete revision of the major and concentrations, including creation of new classes and course modifications.
B. Complete a needs assessment of our undergraduate and graduate programs and concentrations.
C. Review current GE and service courses and strategic opportunities for recruitment through non-major courses.
D. Complete a needs assessment of our undergraduate, certificate, and graduate students to develop flexible, student-centered scheduling and modalities (in-person, online, hybrid, etc.).
E. Explore opportunities with CAPE.
Objective 3: Maintain advising strategies to ensure that they are responsive to student needs and that they closely track student progress.
A. Review the advising ecosystem within the department.
B. Develop shared understanding of prerequisites, requirements, and student pathways through the major.
Objective 4: Enhance enrollment in all of the department’s programs, with particular attention to enhancing diversity through recruitment and retention efforts.
A. Grow enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs.
B. Invest in enrollment and retention. Create department media resources, community and school-based interventions, and recruitment strategies.
C. Build and maintain relationships with high school counselors and teachers, as well as community college faculty and counselors, community organizations, and alumni to create a recruitment network.
D. Establish relationships with school districts, offices of education, journalism/media enterprises, and other employers relevant to our graduates for recruitment and networking purposes.
E. Develop and maintain a robust website and social media presence that draws on professor, current student, and alumni perspectives.
Objective 5: Provide dynamic leadership and support for the development and assessment of writing programs across the university.
A. Develop ongoing and responsive professional development opportunities for writing program faculty.
C. Regularly collect data on enrollment trends, DFW rates, and retention related to writing program courses.
D. Continue providing campus-wide leadership within the University Writing Committee, the Graduation Writing Assessment Committee, and the campus’s Writing Across the Curriculum efforts.
Objective 6: Increase the number and quality of contacts and partnerships between the department and the community.
A. Continue strong connections between the department and the Great Valley Writing Project, ERWC, local high schools, local community colleges, etc., especially as recruitment and opportunities for graduate students.
B. Build community relationships that can lead to internships and professionalization for undergraduate and graduate students.
C. Track alumni in a systematic way and develop opportunities for alumni engagement.
Objective 7: Continue to refine program assessment grounded in program goals and objectives and student learning outcomes.
A. Review and update department and program goals, objectives, and student learning outcomes.
B. Revise the cycle of assessment of our major and programs to track the introduction, development, and culmination of student learning outcomes.
C. Develop an objectives/goals-based program assessment of the graduate programs.
D. Review and modify strategies for gathering information from current and graduating students.
E. Collect, assess, and disseminate information from the department's exit surveys annually.
Updated: June 12, 2025