But Marius himself has repeatedly said thatpracticing writers make the best teachers.

"It is assumed that every preceptor in theExpository Writing Program be seriously engaged inwriting prose," Marius wrote in a January 29, 1990memo to teachers. "The fundamental policy of thisprogram is that the best teachers of writing arethose who write themselves."

And some teachers say the change represents anobstacle to creativity in the classroom. They,too, say the best teachers of writing areprofessional writers.

Statistics to show the value of hiring Ph.Dsare scarce, but the available numbers show thatmany of the best teachers in Expos are thosewithout PhDs. Of the 41 awards given to Exposteachers over the past five semesters for CUEguide ratings of 4.5 or higher, only 11 werepresented to Ph.Ds, according to documentsobtained by The Crimson.

Other teachers and administrators argue thatteachers with Ph.Ds are more likely to stick tothe academic writing that will serve students bestin their other classes.

"The advantage of having Ph.Ds is that they'reused to doing analytical writing," says formerExpos teacher Laura Otis, herself a Ph.D incomparative literature. "I wonder about someonewho's a novelist teaching writing to people. Isthat going to help them on a history of philosophyessay?"

A smaller group of teachers say the debate issilly. The basis for hiring Expos teachers shouldbe teaching ability, not educational background,they say. But there is general concern that Ph.Dsmay be too worried about making themselvesattractive to future tenure-track employers.

One second-year teacher says he is hoping toleave after this year.

"I hope this will be my last year at Expos,"says the teacher. "That's not anythingduplicitous. Nancy Sommers and Richard Mariusactually thought of this more like apost-doctorate fellowship than as a faculty job."

Whatever its impact on the quality of teaching,the shift toward Ph.Ds has had the unintendedconsequence of making it nearly impossible forExpos to hire instructors of color: The pool ofminorities with Ph.Ds is small, and qualifiedminority candidates can find tenure-track jobselsewhere.

"The criteria for general hiring has gotten sorigid," says a current teacher. "They used to hirewriters. There are plenty of working Blackwriters. Now they hire newly minted Ph.Ds."

The lack of cultural diversity, teachers say,limits the perspectives students may encounter inExpos. Cross cultural, feminist and otherapproaches to writing that might interest somestudents have been neglected, some teachers say.

Sommers disputes that charge, saying thatsearches for minorities have been intense. Some ofthe program's basic structures--including a lowstarting salary of $25,500 a year--have cost themminority candidates.

"It's a serious problem," says Sommers. "We tryvery hard. One of the reasons I read everyapplication so carefully and closely is because Iwant to make sure that we have every minoritycandidate we can."

But the minority candidates Expos does hiredon't necessarily stay very long. Evelyn White,now a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle,says she left Expos after one semester in thespring of 1991 because she was disappointed withthe program and its efforts to forge a diversefaculty.