SLU’s undergraduate English club is doing more than just reading books.
The new organization, founded this year by department faculty member Ellen Crowell, is attempting to unite English students and foster communication between them and their faculty. The English club was founded after students and faculty alike realized that students who had been taking English classes for their entire college career lacked class identity and didn’t know many other students in the discipline.
“We want to foster a sense of community and strength,” said Crowell, the club’s faculty adviser. “Seniors were getting into their required senior seminars and they didn’t know each other.”
The club’s goals for its first year are relatively simple. In addition to trying to bring English students together as a class, a number of activities geared toward the discipline or involving the department have been scheduled. The club has planned poetry and prose readings, a film series and a bowling night with a student versus faculty tournament. This past week, the club sponsored a reading and talk with English faculty member and author Richard Burgin about his latest work-an event that inaugurated the department’s new creative writing program. Next on the docket is a group viewing of the newest film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
The club’s membership is not limited to English students. English majors or minors, book buffs or anyone with an interest in literature, film or writing is encouraged to join. With an array of social and academic events coming up, students will have many opportunities to get to know the faculty and students of the English department.
The club will also help English students with their degree progress, offering support for students who are applying to English graduate programs. Upperclassmen in the club also have the opportunity to join the national English academic honor society Sigma Tau Delta, which can offer academic prestige, avenues to publishing and even academic scholarships. The club also offers a more direct link to the English department at SLU with writing center resources and academic tutoring.
To get involved in Sigma Tau Delta or the English club, or to find out more about the activities and events the club is sponsoring, contact the club’s president, Mike McShane, at [email protected]. The club has organizational meetings the first Tuesday of every month at 4:30 p.m. in Humanities 142.
