The Solution to Declining

English Majors

Design Brief
By: Randy Joly

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 Executive Summary

What is the challenge were facing?

The state of the English major:

1. A lack of knowledge among students regarding
publishing
2. A lack of community within the English department

Who is our audience and who are our stakeholders?

Audience:
Students
Stakeholders:
Professors
University
Parents

How are we going to get this done?

Publishing:
Publishing Seminar
Publisher Connection
Community:
Reading Groups
Online Presence

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 Table of Contents
The Big Picture 4
The Decline of the English Major
The English Department

The Problems 5
Publishing Knowledge
Student Community

Problem 1 and Solutions 6

Publication Knowledge
Publishing Seminars
Publisher Connections

Problem 2 and Solutions 12

Student Community
Reading Groups
Online Presence

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 The Big Picture

The Major Problem

If you research the state of the English major within the last century, you will
easily find many studies that point toward a decrease in enrollment within the
major. Universities around the nation have shown to be losing hundreds of
students each year. Between 2012-2014, the University of Maryland calculated a
loss of 40 percent of their English majors.1 And Yale has reported a similar
problem, In 1991, 165 students graduated from Yale with a B.A. in English
literature. By 2012, that number was 62.2 Although there is no concurrent
evidence to date, it can be assumed that the University of Oklahoma is receiving a
similar problem. The Department of English at OU is in serious need of solutions
to combat this rising problem within the English field.

The University of Oklahoma Department of English

The Department of English at OU nurtures learning by offering classes that cater
to a variety of interests, such as hip-hop, Shakespeare, or graphic novels.
Possessing this wide range of different classes within two general areas, literary
study and writing, the Department of English values practical and creative
thinkers, and encourages the study of many practices, genres, cultures, and
artistic forms.

1
Flaherty, Colleen. Major Exodus. 2015. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/26/where-have-all-
english-majors-gone
2
Klinkenborg, Verlyn. The Decline and Fall of the English Major. 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-english-major.html
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 Problem 1
Publishing Knowledge
Within the English major at OU, there is an apparent lack of knowledge regarding
the process of publication. Many students dont know how publishing works or
how to go about getting published after graduation. Anthony Adams, a student of
literary studies, noted, [Im] not sure exactly how I would begin to get any of my
writing published. Ive never been given any information about how it works.
This is a grave dilemma as it leaves many graduates unsure where to turn or what
to do after college. This, in turn, reflects poorly upon the university, as it shows
that they have a serious hole within their teaching methods that leaves students
unprepared for life outside of school.

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 Problem 1: Publication Knowledge
Solution 1: Publishing Seminar
Description
The need for knowledge regarding the publishing process is great. A seminar
given by a professional in the publishing field would go a long way to providing
that knowledge to students. The seminar would take place on multiple evenings
over one full week to accommodate multiple students schedules and allow for a
wide range of information to be given.

Competitors
There are many examples of other universities around the country (Yale, Harvard,
Denver, etc.) that hold their own publishing seminars, giving their students
information and opportunities to succeed in their publishing careers.3 These
events last between 3-5 days and predominately host multiple speakers from the
publishing field that talk to students about the publishing world and the
information they will need to get started, while also offering networking for
subsequent job searches. To say that we are one of the ones who dont provide
this service to its students is a serious issue.

Competitive Product Survey

By studying and surveying the universities that have already conducted these type
of seminars, we can better understand the type of information we need to
conduct such an event, such as: the best times for students, the amount and
types of students we can expect, the type of equipment and accommodations

3
http://www.du.edu/publishinginstitute/
http://som.yale.edu/programs/executive-education/for-individuals/yale-publishing-course
https://gsas.harvard.edu/events/publishing-seminar-books-and-scholarly-journals
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needed, and the type of advertisement employed.

Plan of Action
As the goal of this solution is to set up a seminar that covers a broad topic that can
highly influence a large number of individuals, it can be safely assumed that many
different types of students would want to attend. Advertisements promoting the
seminars will be placed around the campus and on social media, and will be presented
in a way that appeals to any student interested in publishing. By attracting students
outside of just the English department, we not only allow the knowledge to be spread
to all who are interested in publishing, but we also bring attention and interest to the
Department of English from outside majors. As we are appealing to a wide range of
different people, we should plan this seminar around a crowd of people (est. 50-100
students). A location large enough to accommodate a great number of students will
need to be secured. In addition, the idea of providing snacks and refreshments might
be considered to entice interested parties. The time of the event will be important to
attracting students; late afternoon to early evening is the best possibility as it
accommodates students who have classes in the morning and early afternoon. A
speaker will need to be invited, either from within the University (professor, advisor,
etc), an alumnus, or a local volunteer. These speakers will talk about the publishing
field, providing information of its process, where to start, what work needs to be done,
etc. We should also try to reach out to different publishers to allow students to find
networking for starting their publishing careers. Equipment will also be for the
seminar: microphone, speakers, projector, etc. Most of these things will need some
amount of money to be accomplished. Possible ideas for funding: donations on
campus, funding from department, or sponsorship with a publishing company. A
committee should be developed to plan out this event and enact the seminar. The key
performance indicators will include: the number of attendants at the event and the
results of surveys handed out at the end of the event.

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User Persona

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 Solution 2: Publisher Connections
Description
Along with the lack of knowledge regarding the publishing process, our university
lacks the connections that make this publishing process possible for students.
Setting up some connections with publishing companies would help students on
their way to their possible publishing careers and would help bring publicity to the
university in the process. The goal would be to contact possible publishing
companies that might be interested in potential student submissions and get
these publishers to set up a connection network between their company and our
university through on-campus representatives, easy communication through
email, and/or departmentally sponsored events (i.e. seminars).

Competitors
Emerson College hosts a great selection of options when it comes to publisher
connections. They are in contact with many publishing companies, have many
professors with publisher knowledge and connections, and have many alumni
that have gone on to publishing careers.4 Another great competitor is Ithaca
College, who provides publishing connections and internships.5 In addition, the
University of Iowa has many connections and hosts publishing seminars that offer
students the chance to discover publishing careers and connections.6

Competitor Product Survey

By studying competitors who have developed their own publishing connections,
we can find ways to form and integrate our own. Studying the types of publishers
these competitors have found, we can figure out what publishers we should be
looking at. In addition, we can decide exactly how we should be putting these
connections to use (i.e. seminars, internships, on-campus presence, etc.).

4
http://www.emerson.edu/writing-literature-publishing
5
http://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/writing/interns/
6
https://clas.uiowa.edu/interdisciplinary-programs/about/events/career-connections-publishing
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Plan of Action
The first step in our search would be to find the right publishers we would be wanting to
contact and to send them word of our interest, explaining our mission in contacting
them and the benefits this connection would provide them (publicity, new material and
interested parties, etc.). After we have sent all our requests out and have received
responses from each publisher we can move on to setting up an exchange of
information about the subject: either a meeting or a direct phone call that would detail
our plans in regards to the publishers. Depending on the publishers willingness to
participate in campus projects, we can at least hope for the ability to provide references
and contact information to interested students. If the publishers are willing and able to
provide on-campus support, we can plan to set up booths in the union or on the south
oval for representatives to promote their services and request student emails for further
contact. We could also plan to set up booths in our university job fairs, and possibly
have representatives come and speak in public seminars. Each of these on-campus ideas
would require advertisements (flyers, social media, email, etc.) that would provide
information for the time and place for events and contact information for the
publishers. They would invite students to come learn about the publishing field and
develop the contacts needed to get your works published. We will need to acquire
permission to set up booths on campus, as well as space and resources in the event of a
seminar. If we wanted to set up internship possibilities, we would need to ask interested
publishers exactly when and where students would be working, what they would be
doing, and what benefits this experience would provide students. We could then relay
this information to students in the form of email and/or advertisements which would
list further contact information. We might even think about offering credit hours to
further entice students. There would be little money needed for booths and contact
connections, but in the case of a seminar further funds would be needed. Possible ideas
for funding: donations on campus, funding from department, or sponsorship with a
publishing company. A committee should be developed to contact publishers, make
connections, and plan out intended events. The key performance indicators for these
connections would include: the number of student emails obtained by booths on
campus, the number of students looking for publishing contacts from the English
department, and the number of students who contact our publishing connections. We
could also request these contacted publishers offer students questions about how they
found out about them and the quality of the assistance they received from our
department.

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User Persona

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 Problem 2
Student Community
The English Department at OU has a serious problem within their student body: a
lack of community. There are hardly ever any student events held within the
English Department, and when there are, most students never even know they
happened. Dannin Tauber, writing track student, commented, Ive been meaning
to make it to some of the [English departments] events, but I can never find any
information for them. This is a major problem because not only are students
missing out on fun, educational activities outside of their normal classes, but it
also gives students less reason to enroll in the major in the first place. A fun,
established community within the English department would give a much
stronger appeal to prospective students and would reflect well upon the
University as a whole.

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 Solution 1: Reading Groups

Description
Within the University of Oklahomas Department of English, there is little
evidence of student community outside of the classroom. There are only a few
events that the department holds for students, and these events are barely even
publicized. Setting up better structured, well-advertised events would help the
departments student population grow a better community within itself and
would better attract students who are looking for the kind of community we
could provide to the major. The best starting point for this kind of community we
should be creating would be the foundation and development of reading groups.
These reading groups would provide a means by which students could get
together and talk about some of their favorite books and interests. The goal
would be to set up a time and place for these reading groups, plan out the
subjects of discussion and persons in charge of these discussions, and advertise
and set-up the actual meetings.

Competitors
Two of our most prominent competitors can be found on our very campus. The
University of Oklahoma is the location of two different reading group societies:
The Honors College Reading Groups and the World Literature Today Book Club.
The Honors College Reading Groups meet up once a week and offer a great
selection of groups to choose from that each analyze a different work of
literature.7 The World Literature Today Book Club meets once a month and offers
its members the chance to choose new book selections after every meeting. 8 Each
of these groups are free to any person interested and offer their books of study
free for all members.

7
http://www.ou.edu/honors/specialprograms/readinggroups.html
8
http://www.ou.edu/wlt/programs/book-club.html
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Competitor Product Survey
Through careful study of these other reading groups on campus, we can see what
attracts students to their meetings and what types of literature students are
interested in. We can also determine what times are good for students and how
many students we can potentially attract.

Plan of Action
The first step in creating reading groups on campus would be to map out exactly how
many students we could expect at each group. This would determine how big of a space
we could expect to need for meetings. The classrooms in Cate 2 would probably be
perfectly sized, assuming we could procure them for use after classes. We could decide
times that groups meet up based on either pre-determined set times established by
organizers or group leaders, or members of groups could select a time based on their
availability. Pre-determined times would make sure no interested students waste time
showing up just to find out their available time doesnt match up with others, but also
excludes those who might be able to attend with a more flexible schedule determined
by votes. Groups could expect to meet once a week to talk about their assigned
readings. Going by our competitors ideas, it is advisable to either have the books be
free for interested members or have a fixed membership cost that would pay for
procured books. The primary option would attract the most students, but if other
methods of payment cannot be found membership costs would be a logical fallback.
Advertisements would have to be sent out in a variety of forms: flyers, email (English
department and university wide, if possible), social media. Possible funding options
include: donations on campus or departmental backing. Depending on how much
money we are allotted, we might be able to offer drinks and/or snacks to members. A
committee will need to be established that would: set times and locations for groups
(including a projected timeline of how many weeks each group should meet), determine
subjects and literature for each group (preferably setting a variety of different genres to
choose from), set moderators or group leaders for each group, gather funding for the
groups, and make up and distribute advertisements. The key performance indicators we
can expect from students include: the number of students that attend group sessions
and the results of surveys handed out to members after the first and last sessions that
the groups hold.

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User Persona

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 Solution 2: Online Presence
Description
The Department of English at OU is not particularly known for their great website
or social media presence. This makes it hard to gather information about the
department itself and its various functions. It also provides little room for
students within the major to develop an online community through which they
could contact each other. By creating a more prominent and active online
presence, we would be able to culture a more active and present student
community that would help students become more active within the department
itself, and would help interest those outside the major. The online presence we
should be looking to establish would be developed through a revamped English
department website and, most importantly, a stronger image on social media
sites, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Competitors
Many other universities around the nation have much better websites for their English
departments than the University of Oklahoma does. The University of Wisconsin
Madison and the University of Washington both provide very interesting home pages
for their department that highlight student involvement and events within their
department.9 When looking at social media sites, the University of Wisconsin Madison
and the University of Texas at Austin both have great presence on Facebook, offering
almost daily updates about events and interesting articles.10 In a similar fashion, North
Carolina University and the University of north Texas both have great twitter accounts
that offer frequent updates about their department and interesting articles. 11 These
Facebook and Twitter pages both garner appeal and attention from their students and
provide a space where these students can talk and connect.

9
https://english.wisc.edu/
https://english.washington.edu/
10
https://www.facebook.com/englishuwhelencwhite
https://www.facebook.com/utliberalarts
11
https://twitter.com/ecuenglish?lang=en
https://twitter.com/untenglish?lang=en

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Competitor Product Survey
By studying our competitors social presence, we can gain valuable insight into how we
should approach our revamp of our departments online presence and gather ideas of
what would look good and be interesting to viewers. We can learn what design choices
look good for our website and what catches the readers eyes. As well, we can learn
how we should set up our social media presence and determine exactly what types of
posts would attract students and allow for discussion and connection by students.

Plan of Action
The first step in establishing a strong online presence would be the renovation of our
departments website. Right now, the website is rather bland and does not paint a very
interesting portrait of our department. The only colors on the page are a bit of red at the
top and an overwhelming white background throughout the rest. To revamp its image, we
would need to find a better design that offers colors and shapes that attract the eyes. We
would also want to implement more photos of our students on the website (preferably
having fun and/or attending events), as this would show the department as a more active
and entertaining environment to be in. There should also be a better system of displaying
information about the department and its upcoming events, as the current system is not
very informative or inviting. Regarding social media, our Facebook page is currently being
updated semi-regularly, but a lot of our posts do not include pictures, and those that do are
not very engaging. More photos of students engaging in the departments events and
activities would really brighten up the page. It would also help to share fun and interesting
articles that would engross readers. As for Twitter, the Department of English does not
currently have a Twitter account and would need to set one up. In a similar fashion to the
Facebook page, the Twitter page should offer pictures of events and students within the
department, as well as sharing interesting and fun articles that pertain to the department.
The major problem with establishing these revamped online presences would be the
subject of who would perform the work necessary. The best option would be to offer an
internship to a few students within the department to design and update the website and
social media accounts. These positions would be paying, if possible, as they would require a
lot of time and effort on the part of the interns. Funding would have to come from the
department or the university, if possible. A committee would need to be formed to
advertise and organize these internships through flyers and emails, and they would need to
provide equipment and working space to the interns. They would also be in charge of
scheduling hours and days for them. Our key performance indicators would be the amount
of feedback we receive on our social media pages. As well, we can set up a feedback box on
our website for students to provide feedback about the site.
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User Persona

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