A new study places Colby among 70 top colleges and universities targeted for criticism for the way they teach English. The report, "The Shakespeare File: What English Majors Are Really Studying," was produced by the National Alumni Forum. According to "The Shakespeare File," only 23 of the 70 colleges and universities surveyed --the 50 best according to U.S. News & World Report, plus 20 "added for regional balance"-- require a Shakespeare course for English majors. "The remaining 47 schools allow students to graduate with a B.A. in English without studying the language's greatest writer in any kind of depth," the report says. The NAF study was picked up by a variety of media outlets. The typical story lamented the ouster of Shakespeare for courses in "popular culture" and implied that the Bard's disappearance from lists of required English courses is a recent phenomenon. The last year that Colby English majors were compelled to take a course in Shakespeare was 1974. Since then, the department has required courses on critical theory and textual analysis, the historical context of literature, period and genre courses including three in literature written in English before 1800 and three after 1800, two advanced courses in English or American literature and a senior seminar. But it would be almost impossible for an English major not to encounter Shakespeare at Colby, says English Department Chair Cedric Bryant. "Eighty to ninety percent have taken at least one formal Shakespeare course, either here or abroad in Colby programs in London and Cork," he said. In addition, he said, "Many of us use Shakespeare in the introductory courses, 172 and 272." According to Registrar George Coleman, of 54 English majors who graduated in 1996, 87 percent took at least one formal Shakespeare course, 20 percent took two and others had seminars on Shakespeare that would not be listed in the registrar's records as such. Bryant says he is frustrated with the notion that classes on Shakespeare and other writers have been supplanted in the curriculum by trendier courses. For one thing, Colby's English Department offers more than a dozen more courses in 1996 than it did 20 years ago; many new classes have been added without replacing older ones. "The idea that new courses are pushing canonical literature out of the curriculum is nonsense," Bryant said. Colby students are grounded in basic literature--which gives them the tools they need to become critical readers and to study a wide range of writing. "Responsible people teach African-American literature [for example] as comparative literature, within the context of history and culture, in order to locate writers and their work legitimately," Bryant said. "There is nothing wrong with teaching entire courses on African-American women writers, for instance, but their works have to be read in the larger context of the culture."