The MLA has issued a report on the undergraduate major in language and literature (downloadable at http://www.mla.org/teaglereport_page).

It seems as if there is a noticeable current of acknowledgment of the challenges facing the English major running through the report. This shows up in a few ways:

• the placing of the major squarely within a liberal arts tradition,
• the emphasis on skills and outcomes related to the major,
• a focus on literacies, including technological and information literacies,
  

Inside Higher Education had this brief overview of curricular changes at Harvard. What's of interest in terms of saving English studies is perhaps the focus on pedagogy. Looking at English from the perspective of undergraduate education makes good sense, as do the adjustments coming at Harvard: smaller class sizes, more thematic emphases, less lockstep chronology, and a set of courses in some ways geared around process more than content bodes well

Just wanted to post this link to the latest ADE report on trends in undergraduate majors. The report shows that, despite reversal of negative trends for other arts and sciences disciplines, the number of majors in English continues to shrink. The report can be had at http://www.ade.org/ADE_143_3-7.pdf

You can also also look at an a more detailed ADE report from 2003.