There are now three new minors in the Department of English — English, Creative Writing, and Minority, Indigenous and Third World Studies. The minors are available to all current and incoming students at Cornell.

The English department will no longer require majors to take two “gateway” courses — classes designed to provide new English majors with an introduction to the discipline — according to Prof. Roger Gilbert, English, chair of the department. The change went into effect on Feb. 1, an email sent to English majors said.

The Sun reviews the Heroes and Villains from this week, including the Humans vs. Zombies game, the Occupy AEM Rally, and the lecture examining English majors career prospects.

Three Cornell professors, each with a B.A. in English, encouraged students at a panel discussion Wednesday to pursue their passion for studying English, even if the field’s career prospects are not necessarily lucrative.

Tony Manfred '11 predicts the resurgence of niche book markets.

Definitely ask Sun columnist Elana Dahlager '11 about her post-college plans. Then walk in front of her at a painfully slow pace ... That is if you're interested in getting punched in the face.

Next fall, the English Department will begin offering a new concentration in cultural studies to English majors.

A moment of silence —

due deference to the memory of the first two programs made martyrs in the name of cost-cutting, budget shortfall and the new “E” in education — not endowment, emergency or extra copies of former-president Lehman’s new book in the presidential suite in Day Hall, but Economy.

As the German Studies Department shuffles sadly off the platform with the remains of its Swedish and Dutch language programs — don’t forget to take those two staff jobs with you — and the hooded henchman of the administration sharpens the axe on a Redbud stump, who is the next in line for the cutting board? Viticulture, landscape architecture, American studies? Your major?

After nearly four semesters at Cornell, I’m finally getting going on the whole picking the major thing. I’ve engaged in the requisite flirtation in a variety of subjects, dipping my wick in everything humanities, from film to government to Africana studies. And now I’ll finally settle down, albeit carrying the scars and diseases of my academic promiscuity, with what I thought would be my major all along — English.