ENAM department eliminates senior Comps

In an effort to comply with a faculty vote two years ago to require a thesis, essay or other independent work of every senior at the College, the English and American Literatures (ENAM) department was forced to reexamine the ENAM Senior Comprehensive Exams Program, colloquially referred to by students as “Comps.”

Comps, an intensive reading seminar for senior ENAM majors offered during Winter Term, features a heavy workload with a formidable reading list, several papers and an extended oral examination at the end.

Comps provides an intensive survey of English and American literature, including many influential authors and spanning a variety of genres and eras.

Because Comps did not satisfy the new independent senior work requirement, the ENAM department was faced with the choice of either requiring both Comps and a senior essay or thesis or simply the thesis. Moreover, according to department chair and Reginald L. Cook Professor of American Literature Brett Millier, “many ENAM faculty had grown disillusioned with Comps” and as a result “the department voted overwhelmingly … to get rid of Comps altogether.”

As Associate Professor of English and American Literatures Timothy Billings described it, this dissatisfaction arose largely from a feeling within the department that the program offered a “fairly superficial survey of literature” rather than “the kind of substantial experience we want our majors to have.

One hour to discuss a Shakespeare play, followed by one hour to discuss a Dickens novel — it amounted to little more than a series of hoops to jump through quickly, one after another. We all loved doing it because it was kind of crazy fun, but we had to admit that it wasn’t very thorough.”

Furthermore, with Comps as a requirement for the major, the department needed four professors to teach it every Winter Term.

This meant that “four whole courses of the creative or experimental type that one can only offer during J-term were not being offered, which we thought was an impoverishment to our curriculum,” said Billings.

The department opted to eliminate Comps altogether. Beginning with the Class of 2012, every ENAM major must write either a senior thesis or senior essay and will not have the option of taking a Comps class instead. However, as a way of easing the transition, members of the Classes of 2010 and 2011 still have the opportunity to take Comps as a substitute for, or in addition to, their independent senior work.

This year, the first in which the program is optional, Comps functions somewhat differently. Instead of requiring the class for approximately 60 majors, this year there is only one section. Within that class, five members are replacing their senior essays or theses with Comps, and three are completing both requirements.

Avery Finch ’09.5 and Eleanor Johnstone ’10 both opted to take Comps in addition to completing senior essays this year.

“It’s fun and interesting, and the classroom atmosphere is nice,” said Finch.

“With such a small group, it feels a lot like book club. We … talk about these great works, people bring in snacks and sometimes other professors from the department visit.”

Both students agree that this optional Comps class, taught by Associate Professor of English and American Literatures Marion Wells, seems more laid-back than the stories they have heard from past classes, and that this relaxing of the curriculum is for the better.

While the faculty may feel disillusioned by Comps, students do not necessarily share this view.

“My biggest regret is simply that [Comps] will no longer be offered after this year,” said Johnstone.

“We write a lot at this college. There’s a lot of emphasis put on the individual intellect and what students can bring to the table … I’m taking Comps because I’m already writing a critical essay in the spring, and spending even more time in the library on my own when I could be in engaging discussions with well-informed peers and professors seemed foolish. We’re undergraduates, and we always have a lot to learn from our instructors … I frankly think that cutting Comps dilutes the quality of the ENAM major. Keeping it and making a semester’s essay or a year’s thesis a requirement would enhance it.”

“I think it’s too bad that they’re trying to phase it out,” said Finch.

“I don’t know how it was different in the past, if maybe it was less valuable or enjoyable for the students, but I’m finding it to be a great sort of way to put a cap on my English degree.”

However, those classes without the opportunity to take Comps may not feel its loss as acutely as those with more exposure to the old ENAM program.

“Comps does provide the opportunity to read these amazing books, but they don’t necessarily get the airtime they deserve,” said Francie Alexandre ’12, a sophomore English major and member of the first class that will never have a chance to take Comps. “If I have to read a lot in a very short period of time, I’m much less likely to take anything from it. Although being able to discuss great literature is what the ENAM major is all about, I still like the program as it is, and I can definitely see the value in doing individual work in addition to all the other discussion courses offered by the department. Overall, I don’t think I’ve lost anything major in my ENAM experience.”