Direct Assessment Methods
Master’s Theses
The following student completeda Master’s theses in history:
Jill Ingram
The following student defended proposals for Master’s theses in history:
Christie Fulcher
Internships
The following students completed public history internships:
John Bell Travel Money:
The following students each received $100 from the John Bell graduate student fund:
Jill Ingram, to present a paper at a conference in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Childers, to present a paper in Philadelphia
Comprehensive Exams
Five students took comprehensive exams in the fall: 2 passed, 3 failed.
Seven students took comprehensive exams in the spring: 5 passed, 2 failed.
Student Publications and Presentations
Jill Ingram, “Will West Long: Man in the Middle,” American Anthropological
Association, Washington, D.C., Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2007.
Christie Fulcher, “Oh the Tangled Webs We Weave: Resolving Issues in Student-
Generated Web Projects,” UNCA Cause, Dec. 5, 2007.
Christine Nugent, “The Fischer Controversy: Historiographical Revolution or Just
Another Historians’ Quarrel?” Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians,
Vol. 16 (April 2008): 77-114.
Angela Ragan, “Continuing a Proud Tradition: World War II and the Eastern
Band of the Cherokee Indians,” Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians,
Vol. 16 (April 2008) [Angela Ragan earned her MA at WCU in 2007]
Kevin Childers presented a paper at WCU’s spring Graduate Research
Symposium
The “Tuck” has completed its fourteenth (in 2008) continous year of publication.
Christie Fulcher edited it this new: Chris Bishop is assistant editor. Due to glitches in the production process, the Tuck has not yet been published. (Otherwise the above list of student publications would be longer.)

Student Curriculum Vita
[23] are on file in the History Department office.
Indirect Assessment Methods
Data on employment and graduate placement
[2] students were accepted into doctoral or other professional programs, one to a history doctoral programs at University of New Mexico; one went to law school at
Florida State University
[2] students found employment in fields relating to their Master’s training; one is
Executive Director of the Cashiers Historical Society (Susan Moody, MA in Public
History, is the Curator at the same institution), another has been hired fulltime at AB
Technical Community College.
Recruitment, Retention and Graduation Data
[12] new students entered the program in the fall of 2007
[2] new students entered the program in the spring of 2008
[3] student left the program (one flunked out, one died, one will go to law school)
[3] students graduated with their Master’s degrees
[28] individuals enquired about the program at the time of this report
[19] students applied for admission to the fall 2008 class
[18] students were accepted for admission to the fall 2008 class.
[1] student was denied admission.
Student Demographics
[25] students were actively enrolled in the program, [8] of them part-time
[13] are male, [12] are female
[23] are in-state,[2 ] are out-of-state, [0] are international
[0] are African-American; [0] are Asian American; [23] are Caucasians; [0] are of
Hispanic descent [1] are Native American, [1] are other
Recruitment Efforts:
Our top pick was recommended to come here by the University of Georgia. We recruited her heavily, offering both out of state waiver and GA, but we were simply not competive. We lost another student to Indiana University, which still had GA’s to offer after we had none.
The Craft Revival project has recruited at least one student to our public history program.
Propinquity, word-of-mouth and the program’s website continue to be the best recruiters to our program.
Changes to Program, based on last year’s recommendations
:
Did not succeed in regaining promised in-state tuition waiver

Added additional 600-level seminars and now require 18 graduate hours be in these courses
Revised and rescheduled the comprehensive exam, to be given in new form fall
‘08 courses
Banned adding graduate seats to 300 level classes
Changed advisement process to get parttime students immediately into core
Issues for 2008-2009:
Incorporating three new faculty into the department and graduate teaching
Revisiting comprehensive exam questions
Maintaining (at least) or increasing (at best) our current number of students supported by graduate assistantships
Gaining at least one in-state tuition waiver
Generating new reading lists, course numbers and course descriptions for graduate seminars
Considering how to count 699’s as part of faculty work load
Reconsider core courses, especially 631, in light of all of the new graduate seminars. Do we still need a course on historiography?
Contact person: Dr. Gael Graham, Program Director, graham@email.wcu.edu