During the past year, the professional success of our English graduate students was shown by the fact that graduates continue to be accepted to respectable PhD and MFA programs; during the reporting period, graduates were accepted to terminal programs at Oklahoma State University and the University of Memphis. Our students have also entered professions including teaching, editing, business, law, and professional communications. Along with such successes, twenty graduate assistantships that we are able to offer for qualified graduate students make the program attractive; however, an increased graduate stipend would significantly raise the quality of the already relatively qualified graduate students. Comprehensive examinations that are administered three times a year ensure that the knowledge base of our graduating students is broad, and our graduate faculty are actively encouraged to stay up-to-date in their fields of expertise and to be productive scholars. Recently, a handful of graduate students have been paired with faculty members as research assistants; these collaborations have led to publications and conference presentations.

In addressing the weaknesses identified in the findings above, we need to consider the following:

First, we should re-kindle our departmental discussion of how the comprehensive examination does, in fact, test our MA candidates' mastery of a broad range of materials. While most students follow the spirit of the exam in choosing areas across a sufficient range, some do cluster their areas, thereby easing the burden both of critical understanding and of specific preparation. We need to consider how to close any loopholes so as to assure that the comprehensive examination does, in fact, adequately measure the students' mastery of the discipline.

Second, while the holistic assessment of essays suggests that our students write at or above an agreed-upon standard for English graduate-level critical thinking and writing skills, we are aware that some students do not, in fact, have adequate knowledge or the ability to synthesize arguments well. We acknowledge that writing is but one measure of such skills. We need to revisit this issue, first, by agreeing as a graduate faculty upon standards that will reflect the program goals; second, by agreeing how we can make sure that none of the students who take an MA in English at SHSU falls short of these standards.

Finally, to address the weaknesses in the oral performance of the students, we need to discuss the expectations that we have for students in oral exams and the best means for measuring these expectations. During new student orientation, the Graduate Director and/or Chair will also explicitly address the oral examination performance expectations.