University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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---------------------ECONOMICS----------------------------------- Economics The department of economics offers a great variety of courses on both the undergraduate and graduate level. Sixty one courses are offered on the undergraduate level covering the areas of Economic History. Schools of Economic Thought. Economic Theory. Mathematics and Research Techniques for Economists. Public Finance. Monetary Economics. Urban and Regional Economics. Labor. Industrial Organization. International Economics. Comparative Economics. Development Economics. Area Studies. Honors Courses. Independent Study and Courses for Non-Majors. Forty-four courses are offered in the graduate level covering Comparative Economic Systems. Demographic Economics. Development and Growth Economics. Econometrics. Economic History. Fiscal Economics. Industrial Organization. International Economics. Labor Economics. Mathematical Economics. Monetary Economics and Regional Economics. The total faculty including adjunct professors and those whose primary appointments are in other departments is 45. The department aims at preparing undergraduate students for graduate work, for jobs in industry and gov-eminent. The Department’s record for placing its graduate students in excellent positions in teaching and government is outstanding. 21S

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EARTH PLANETARY SCIENCES Earth and Planetary Science The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences offers programs of teaching and research in geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and planetry sciences. The primary role of the Department is the training of undergraduate and graduate students in the geosciences and in conducting research in these areas. Our undergraduate majors receive a broad and basic educational foundation that is designed to make them competitive in the current job market and in being accepted into the better graduate programs around the country. The quality of our program is being increasingly recognized on the national level. Students who are interested in science and enjoy working out of doors should find a satisfying career in the geological sciences. Employment opportunities are currently very good, and the demand in the foreseeable future for geoscientists will continue to be strong in light of the nation's increasing energy demands. The Departmental faculty consists of 15 full-time faculty members. Currently enrolled are about 35 undergraduate and 45-graduate students. GLila: I 214

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ENGLISH r ■mBn English In recent years, the English department has experienced some declining enrollment and a dramatic shift among ns undegraduate maiors from literature to writing. In I970about 25 percent of its English majors were in the writing sequence. Today 60 percent are writing majors. Mary Louise Briscoe, chair of the English department, does not feel this shift is necessarily indicative of students’ concerns with getting |obs when they graduate. She bases her reasons on the fact that there are not many lobs in poetry and fiction, although some of our non fiction writing majors do gel tobs in journalism. She says. We do not train people to get |obs; that is not what we are about. Students are flocking to the writing program because they are look mg for a place where they can engage in self-expression. The writing pro gram offers what liberal arts has traditionally offered a place where the Student can expand and grow intellectually.” Students concern with being able to express themselves in writing apparently carries over to non-English maiors as well. The department's composition courses, available to all undergraduates, have been increasingly popular. In 1971 when the requirement that all Put undergraduates take English composition was dropped, the enrollment in these courses declined substantially. Since then enrollments in comp courses have been steadily increasing to the point that they fill up very fast, and Briscoe says. We could offer more comp courses if we could staff them The department offers eight different composition courses in 135 sections. In 1974 writing and composition were together in one program. In the fall of that year there were 2.866 course registrations in writing and composition courses. In fall 1977. enrollments in the writing and compositon pro- grans totaled 2.979 704 in writing and 2.275 in compo- sitoin. During that same period, total undergraduate enroll moms in the department dropped. In fall 1974 there were 5.615 grades issued in the department in 1975.5.284; in 1976. 5l4li and last fall there were 5.066. The number of under graduate majors has also declined from about 5CX3 in the early 1970s to approximately 300 now. However, according to Fiore Pugliano. undergraduate advisor in the department, the number of English maiors has remained constant in the last few years at about 302. With the number of writing maiors increasing, it is the lit erature program which has fell the brunt of the declining enrollment. And. according to Briscoe, the 60s or introductory lit course have experienced the most steady decline. These are the courses which students who were considering major -ing in English lit would have taken first, but since so many students are going into the writing program, many of these lit courses are not filling up. The department is offering few er sections of the 80s courses now. This phenomenon, which is not peculiar to Pitt, has affect ed graduate programs as well. Briscoe explains. The 80s courses were once the center of English departments; teacher training programs, she says. At Pitt these introductory courses were often offered in large sections with one faculty member and several teaching assistants and fellows helping the faculty person. But today people who want to teach English need to be able to teach composition and writ ing. not literature. Because of the changing student demand, that's where the teaching |Obs are. so our T As need more experience in comp and writing. Briscoe points out.noting that the department has added an area to the Ph. D. comprehensive exam in composition. The department has about ICO graduate students 47 of them are TAs and TFs. Right now the English department is engaged in a self-evaluation. Various committees of faculty are taking a hard look at the curriculum and are considering new ways to offer the information which is most vital to literature majors. Bris ce says they are considering changing courses titles and reorganizing some courses. James Kanpp. who chairs the Committee for the Evaluation of Undergraduate Curriculum in the department, says I don't think there is opposilioniamong faculty) to meeting demands of students at all. but we find it hard to predict what will go. He points out that a course he developed call Medieval Imagination” was tremendously popular, while some modern literature courses are not doing as well as one might expect. His committee is looking for ways to pique students interest in literature. Lor example, they are considering courses which use literature to look at social change, at ur ban centers, and even at the future. He notes that some tra ditional courses have remained popular, such as Shakespeare, and some newer courses are consistently popular, such as ones dealing with science fiction. Others such as drama courses enroll fewer students than they once did. Knapp says there has been aproliferation of drama courses both in the English depatment and in other departments like theatre, and we're probably saturating the market. 216