Newsletters
WPA publishes newsletters in electronic form twice per year.
Fall 2006 Newsletter of the Council of Writing Program Administrators
Newsletter Contents:From the President
by Shirley Rose
Dear WPA Member and Friends,
I hope the 2006-2007 academic year is off to a happy start for all of you. I'm pleased to be able to send you this newsletter with updates on recent WPA activities and announcements about some upcoming events and deadlines.
It's a great privilege to be addressing you as the WPA President now, as the organization is celebrating several important anniversaries this year. This past July, at the 2006 WPA Summer Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first WPA conference, which was held in 1986 at Miami University of Ohio. In a 1987 WPA journal article, Lynn Bloom noted that 80 WPAs attended that first conference. In the past 20 years the conference has become our major organizational event, and this year it drew a record-breaking 250-plus people for the four-day workshop, the assessment institute, the technology institute, and/or the 3-day conference itself. Elsewhere in this newsletter you will find reports on the conference plenary speakers' talks, professional development workshops and work-group sessions, and special WPA awards and recognitions announced at the conference banquet.
This year also marked the close of a twenty-year term of service for Miami University of Ohio as the WPA's Institutional Home. For two decades, faculty and staff in the English Department there have been responsible for organizational communications and records-keeping; and the organization's continuing viability is due in large part to their stewardship. Chris Anson's article about the relocation of our Institutional Home follows this letter.
In a few months, we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The organization was started by a group of WPAs who attended a 1976 MLA convention session sponsored by the Division on the Teaching of Writing. If you'd like to read more about that kairotic moment, see Edward P. J. Corbett's "A History of Writing Program Administration " in Theresa Enos' collection Learning from the Histories of Rhetoric: Essays in Honor of Winifred Bryan Horner (Carbondale, Southern Illinois UP, 1993. 60-71). To mark this significant milestone in the life of the organization, our WPA-sponsored sessions at the 2006 MLA convention will focus on our efforts to meet our commitments to diversity (for details, see the article "Help Celebrate the WPA's 30 th Anniversary" in this newsletter). With the help of our Philadelphia Writing Program Administrators affiliate, Temple University, and York College of Pennsylvania, we will also be hosting a special reception for WPAs at MLA (see details elsewhere in this newsletter). If you will be attending the MLA convention, be sure to come to the party, and bring a potential new member with you.
If you won't be at MLA, I look forward to seeing you at the WPA Breakfast at CCCC in New York City -- 7:00 Thursday morning, March 22, at the 3 West Club (3 West 51st Street). Our thanks to Joe Bizzup (Columbia University) for making the arrangements.
Best wishes for a great school year!
Shirley K Rose
President
WPA Relocates to New Institutional Home
by Chris Anson
Although mostly invisible to WPA members, its institutional home is the backbone of the organization's operations. It serves as the main contact point for communications, the place where all the money is handled, and the place where materials are mailed to and from. Faculty at the institutional home serve the WPA in the role of Secretary and Treasurer, and staff members are involved in answering phones, forwarding inquiries, sending and receiving faxes, taking and distributing minutes of meetings, producing and disseminating flyers and newsletters, mailing journals, filing materials and maintaining archives, and doing a host of other things that keep the organization running. Increasingly, this work has taken digital forms and requires constant upkeep of Web sites and digitally coordinated organizational support services. It's a big job, and much of it is done with little or no remuneration.
Earlier this year, a team of past presidents was formed to serve as an ad hoc Institutional Siting Committee: Barbara Cambridge, Doug Hesse, Chuck Schuster, and Kathi Yancey. After a careful review of applications, the committee presented its recommendation to the Executive Board to offer Purdue University the opportunity to become the WPA's next institutional home, starting this month. This recommendation was approved by the Executive Board in a unanimous vote. In order to avoid a conflict of interest between WPA President Shirley Rose (of Purdue) and the organization, Immediate Past President Chris Anson was asked to negotiate the final arrangements of the relationship between Purdue and the WPA, and an agreement was signed at the end of August.
During the closing Town Hall meeting at the annual summer conference in Chattanooga, Chris Anson gave official thanks and praise to the English Department of Miami University of Ohio, which has served as the organization's institutional home for 20 years--spanning almost the entire history of the WPA. A plaque with the instricption below was presented to John Heyda, retiring CWPA Treasurer:
"Presented to the Department of English at the Miami University of Ohio by the Council of Writing Program Administrators as a token of our gratitude for their generous and unstinted support as the first WPA Institutional Home, from 1987 to 2006, and in recognition of the trustworthy and reliable service of their faculty members who have served as our Secretary and Treasurer, whose names are listed below.
Donald Daiker, Secretary-Treasurer 1987-1989
Jeffrey Sommers, Secretary-Treasurer 1990-1996
Robert Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer 1997-1998
Jennie Dautermann, Secretary 1999-2005
John Heyda, Treasurer 1999-2006
John Tassoni, Secretary pro tem July 2005- June 2006July 17, 2006"
In addition, several WPA members, including past presidents, spoke in praise of Miami 's steadfast support of the organization over so many years. Following the conference, a special page was set up at the WPA Web site for further thanks and commentary, and members are welcome to add their own posts: (node/491).
Thanks to Retiring Board Members and
Welcome to New Executive Board Members
by Joe Janangelo, Vice President
With gratitude and applause at our conference banquet, we said thank you and farewell to our three retiring Executive Board members: Lauren Fitzgerald (Yeshiva University), Greg Glau (Arizona State University), and Raul Sanchez (University of Florida). We thank them for their fine work.
We also welcomed three new Board members: Joe Marshall Hardin (Western Kentucky University), Rita Malenczyk (Eastern Connecticut State University), and Carol Rutz (Carleton College). We look forward to working with these colleagues. Their terms will continue until June 30,2009
2006 Technology Institute
by Joe Janangelo, Vice President
The Technology Institute was lead by Darsie Bowden and Peter Vandenberg, both from DePaul University in Chicago . The focus was on new media, and the workshop leaders led participants through a number of exercises to help students use digital images and sounds to create visual arguments. The workshop covered a range of topics from theory, to pedagogy, to hands-on practice designed to help participants gain experience incorporating new media into literacy instruction. Participants drafted their own projects, and were treated to an advance screening of the Workshop leaders' film of The WPA 2005 Conference in Anchorage, Alaska.
2006 Assessment Institute
The fifth WPA Assessment Institute "Electronic Portfolios, Writing Classrooms, and College Programs: Practices, Theories, Issues, and Challenges" was led by J. Elizabeth Clark (La Guardia Community College--CUNY), Michael Day (Northern Illinois University), and Kathleen Blake Yancey (Florida State University). Over 30 participants discussed issues in planning and implementing electronic portfolios, addressing questions such as "How are E-portfolios similar to and different from print portfolios?" "What are the options for software, and how do they compare?" "How are eports assessed? Once implemented, how can digital portfolios change an institution's understanding and expectations of assessment? What role might they play in a long-term assessment plan?" and "What are likely to be the questions around electronic portfolios in the next five years?"
Call for Nominations for WPA Executive Board Members
WPA will hold elections for three Executive Board members this fall.
Executive Board members Rebecca Moore Howard (Syracuse University), Martha Patton (University of Missouri), and Susan Miller-Cochran (North Carolina State University) will complete their terms in June of 2007. We invite your nominations for three Executive Board members to replace those rotating off. The Executive Board oversees the WPA, its events, and its activities, creates policies and procedures for its management, and engages in special projects and initiatives. The new Board members will serve for three years, with terms beginning in July of 2007.
Nominees should have a demonstrated commitment to the work of the Council and a background in writing program administration, and should be willing to attend Board meetings at the CCCC and at the WPA summer conference. Self-nominations as well as nominations of others are welcome. To be considered, a nomination should include all contact information, a C.V. (attached or posted on a web site) or a description of the nominee's work as a WPA, and a statement explaining why the nominee makes a strong candidate for membership on the WPA Executive Board. If possible, please secure the nominee's permission before submitting the nomination. All nominators and nominees must be current members of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. Nominations are reviewed by the WPA Nominating Committee, which creates a slate for vote by the membership.
Please send your nominations to the Chair of the WPA Nominating Committee, Joe Janangelo (jjanang@luc.edu) by November 15, 2006.
This fall WPA will also elect a new Vice-President. Nominees for Vice-President make a six-year commitment to WPA, first serving as vice-president for two years, as president for the next two years, and as immediate past president for a final two years.
The nominating committee chooses Vice-Presidential candidates from among recent Executive Board members. Nominating Committee members are Joe Janangelo, Susan Miller-Cochran and Chris Anson.
2004-2005 WPA Book Award
At the summer conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Council of Writing Program Administrators announced its 2004-2005 Award for Best Book on Writing Program Administration . The Awards Committee selected Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration: Individuals, Communities, and the Formation of a Discipline, edited by Barbara L'Eplattenier and Lisa Mastrangelo (Parlor Press, 2004).
The Council of Writing Program Administrators has established this award as part of its efforts to develop and promote an understanding of writing program administration as intellectual work of depth, sophistication, and significance. The Awards Committee employed the following criteria for selection:
1. The book addresses one or more issues of long-term interest to administrators of writing programs in higher education.
2. The book presents outcomes of the intellectual work of one or more writing program administrators.
3. The book discusses theories, practices, or policies that contribute to a richer understanding of writing program administration work.
4. The book shows sensitivity toward the situated contexts in which writing program administrators work.
5. The book makes a significant contribution to the scholarship of writing program administration.
6. The book will serve as a strong representative of the scholarship of and research on writing program administration.
One faculty member nominating the book for this award noted that L'Eplattenier and Mastrangelo offer the first "sustained examination of the historical roots of Writing Program Administration." Another praised the text's archival work and the editors' ability to "tell us how WPAs worked to professionalize and intellectualize their programmatic work, often in the face of unsupportive, unreflective, and/or uninterested administration personnel. They give us disciplinary heroes and leaders."
Members of the Award Committee were Lauren Fitzgerald ( Yeshiva University ), Gregory Glau ( Arizona State University ), and Stephen Wilhoit, Chair ( University of Dayton ).
Report on Professional Development Workshops at
Summer Conference
by Rita Malenczyk
The 2005 WPA conference in Anchorage introduced a new feature: interactive mini-workshops scattered throughout the conference program and focused on particular topics ranging from fiction writing (no, not in one's annual reports) to developing an administrative philosophy. Following the success of those workshops, this year's conference in Chattanooga also featured several interactive sessions. Subtitled "Professional Development Focus," they enabled participants to talk with WPA leaders and with each other about common issues of concern.
For example, in a workshop entitled "The JIL, Position Descriptions, and The Job Itself: How to Unpack What a Job Ad Describes," Kathleen Blake Yancey (Florida State) and Greg Colomb (University of Virginia) worked with participants on decoding what position descriptions, often cryptic, are really asking one to do. In another session entitled "Administering from a Point of Principle," Linda Adler-Kassner (Eastern Michigan) and Eli Goldblatt (Temple University) discussed with participants what it means to enact principles within one's work. Sharing principles that governed their own actions--for Linda, the Jewish principle of tikkun olam ("transforming the world") and, for Eli, the ideas of John Dewey--the leaders discussed with participants strategies for putting those principles into practice. Discussion was wide-ranging, leading to (among other things) talk about the role of faith and religion in the work of WPAs. In the "Assistant Professor Administrators' Mentoring Workshop," the intrepid and as-yet-untenured Melissa Ianetta (University of Delaware) and Doug Downs (Utah Valley State College) recruited senior colleagues Barry Maid and Linda Bergmann to talk in groups with untenured WPAs about strategies for producing tenure-file documents and about what Doug calls "the rhetorical situation imposed by tenure" (or, perhaps, lack of it). Workshop leaders reported good attendance and great discussion. Let's continue these next year.
SIGs and Workgroups meet in Chattanooga
Several established allied groups met at the summer convention in Chattanooga this year, including the APA (Assistant Program Administrators), the GWPA (Graduate Writing Program Administrators), and the Technology Plank Task Force.
Doug Downs reports that the APA SIG, which focuses on issues of interest to assistant professors who work in program administration, was attended by nearly a dozen folks this year. This group focused its work at the conference on discussing tenure-file preparation and power relations inherent in the position, the establishment of a listserv, and the possibility of setting up a workshop at future conferences. The APA hopes to increase its presence within the Council and to delineate more clearly the nature of APA work. Melissa Ianetta was honored at the SIG as outgoing chair.
Marc Pietrzykowski reports that the GWPA SIG conducted most of its business prior to and after the conference, as many GWPA's were unable to attend the conference itself. Still, the group worked through its listserv to further define the issues and problems of the graduate student administrator. A survey has been suggested as a way to clarify the roles that GWPA's occupy.
The Technology Plank Task Force meeting at the conference was attended by over 45 people, according to Kathleen Yancey. This group reviewed the history of the Outcomes Statement, discussed the utility of such statements in general, and reviewed discussion that had taken place on the techno-plank blog, which was started at last year's convention in Alaska . Briefly, the group is working on the wording of the plank and hopes to have a draft ready soon. The goal is then to gather comments about the draft and revise before submission as early as this Fall.
Two newer task forces also met during the conference: the WPA Internationalization Task Force, led by Chris Anson (North Carolina State University), Immediate Past Presdient of WPA, and the WPA Task Force on Students' Research and Human-Subjects Issues, led by Tony Baker (Tennessee Tech University). Watch for news coming from these groups soon.
Plenary Talks at WPA Conference in Chattanooga
Reflect on Our Past,
Provide Challenges and Opportunities for our Future
by Dominic Delli Carpini
In keeping with the conference theme at the 2006 WPA Conference in Chattanooga our three plenary speakers presented us with perspectives on the past of the organization, and provided us with an overview of some possible opportunities to look out for in the future. Jacqueline Jones Royster asked us to consider the "lessons hopefully learned" over the course of the organization's 30 year history. Chris Anson challenged the membership to increase our focus on the types of research that will give us a firm foundation from which to do (and make public) our work. And Pamela Childers outlined for us the many reasons why collaborations between college and secondary school writing teachers are so crucial. These three panels, taken as a group, form a call to action for the organization to continue its work, to extend our research base, and to build bridges with community constituencies toward the advancement of literacy.
The work outlined by our plenary speakers was continued in breakout sessions following the plenary talks, and can be further extended via Digital WPA. To see comments on the plenary addresses, and to add your own thoughts to the issues raised there, WPA members can visit the discussion board at http://wpacouncil.org/node/470 . These forums can further serve as a location to build alliances with other WPA members interested in taking up the challenges presented to us by the three plenary speakers.
Digital Demonstrations in Chattanooga
Two sessions of the conference featured digital environments for WPAs' professional work. Glenn Blalock (Baylor University) and Rich Haswell (Texas A&M Corpus Christi, retired) demonstrated and led a discussion of the CompPile bibliographic database (http://comppile.tamucc.edu/) and the CompFAQS wiki (http://comppile.tamucc.edu/wiki/CompFAQs/Home). Charlie Lowe (Grand Valley State University) demonstrated the special features of the WPA website (http://wpacouncil.org) and disucussed ideas for future development of the website.
Help Celebrate the WPA's 30th Anniversary:
Join Us for WPA Panels and Social at MLA, 2006 in Philadelphia, PA
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The Council of Writing Program Administrators will sponsor two panels and a social at the 2006 MLA Convention in Philadelphia .
WPA at MLA Panels: On the occasion of WPA's 30th anniversary, two WPA-sponsored panels at the Modern Language Association meeting in Philadelphia will focus upon diversity issues. The panels will look back at our efforts at inclusion over the past thirty years and discuss the great potential that increasing diversity provides for us, both as an organization and within our writing classes. The first panel, " Moving toward Inclusion: Thirty Years of the Council of Writing Program Administrators ," chaired by Shirley Rose (who will also act as a respondent), will be held on Friday, December 29th, 1:45–3:00 p.m., in Room 307 of the Philadelphia Marriott. Presentations include
- Chris Anson, North Carolina State University, Drawing in, Reaching Out: The Problems and Prospects of Internationalization
- Joe Janangelo, Loyola University, Chicago, Why Diversify?
- M. Elizabeth Sargent, University of Alberta, On the Trail of the Outcomes Statement: Increasing the Work of the WPA in Canada
- Joseph S. Eng, California State University, Monterey Bay, WPA and Diversity: The Asian-American Locations in the Modern University
The second panel, entitled "Challenges of the Future: Foregrounding Diversity in the WPA Palette" and chaired by Dominic Delli Carpini, will be held on Saturday, December 30th , noon to 1:15, in Room 302 of the Philadelphia Marriott. Presentations include
- Juanita Comfort, West Chester University, Framing Diversity Issues for College Writers: Listening to a Multi-Vocal Writing Program
- Wendy Olson, Washington State University, Pullman, Writing Programs, Diversity, and the Knowledge Economy: Some Implications
- Ellen Strenski, University of California, Irvine, Electronic Equity or Exclusion: Four Campus Digital Divides
- Jonathan Alexander, University of Cincinnati, and William Banks, East Carolina University, Queer Eye for the Comp Program: Towards a Queer Critique of WPA Work
WPA Social
WPA, the Philadelphia Writing Program Administrators (PWPA),Temple University, and York College of Pennsylvania will be sponsoring a social event at MLA 5:00 to 7:00 on Friday evening, December 29 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Philadelphia. More information on the event will be provided soon on Digital WPA and WPA-L. All WPA members are cordially invited. Save the date!
Regional Affiliates Help Diversify Membership
by Marty Patton, University of Missouri
WPA is reaching out to new folks in multiple directions: While some initiatives are international, involving more voices from more distant places; other initiatives are concentrated in a given US region, involving connections with WPAs who might not be active in the national organization. WPA has welcomed four US regional affiliates:
- Carolinas WPA (CWPA, founded informally in 1999 and formally in 2003, with about 75 members; see http://facstaff.elon.edu/peeples/cwpa/index.htm),
- Michigan WPA (founded in 2001, with about 25 members; see http://writing.msu.edu/miwpa/ ),
- Mid-America WPA (MAWPA, founded in 2004 with about 40 members; website in the planning stage), and
- Philadelphia Area WPA (PAWPA, founded in 2000, with about 45 members; see http://www.english.udel.edu/pwpa/ ).
WPA-related conversations in Southern California are formally organized under a writing center umbrella (WCA), not WPA.
In 2005-06, one affiliate had quarterly meetings; the others had an annual meeting. For two affiliates, the annual meeting took shape as a conference, with CWPA featuring Joe Harris and MAWPA featuring Gail Hawisher and Darsie Bowden.
Groups wishing to become affiliates of WPA should send a letter to the WPA Executive Board requesting affiliation and providing basic information such as the group's name, a roster of officers, an estimate of membership, and a list of schools represented by members. The Executive Board will consider the application and communicate a decision to the group.
WPA Breakfast at CCCC
A Culinary, Artistic, and Community Triumph
by Carol Rutz, Carleton College
What could be better than breakfast in the Loop? Not too much, if the record attendance at this year's WPA Breakfast is any indication. Two hundred twenty of us, including over thirty graduate students, powered up for the first day of sessions at CCCC as guests of DePaul's downtown facility. Local hosts Darsie Bowden and Pete Vandenberg and their able assistants worked with the Breakfast Committee (Lauren Fitzgerald, Chair, Clyde Moneyhun and Carol Rutz) and the indefatigable Chet Pryor to arrange a scrumptious menu, party favors, and plenty of social delights.
Most of the reservations were completed on Digital WPA, which streamlined the paperwork. WPA members' donations remained strong to the Connors Fund, named after the late Bob Connors, a major WPA Breakfast fan. Thanks to the generosity of donors, WPA can subsidize graduate students who attend the breakfast. Thank you!
In addition to important announcements and introductions, attendees were treated to the very first screening of the trailer for the film shot at the July 2005 WPA Conference in Alaska . Filmmakers Bowden & Vandenberg could not have missed the many thumbs up in the crowd. (No doubt the trailer improved attendance at the workshop and conference in Chattanooga.)
Plans are underway for the next WPA breakfast gathering in New York on March 22, 2007. If you don't have a lapel pin with "WPA at 30" on it, you missed the Chicago breakfast. Show up in New York and be ready to sport the latest WPA finery.
WPA Renews Affiliate Status with AACU
Last March, the Executive Board renewed the Council of Writing Program Administrators' application for membership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as an affiliate organization. Our affiliate status with AAC&U aligns us with an organization that focuses on addressing issues of assessment, civic engagement, diversity, general education, globalization, integrative learning and educational outcomes. As part of WPA's affiliate status, we have proposed a special session at the AAC&U annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana in January 2007. The conference is themed "The Real Test: Liberal Education and Democracy's Big Questions," and we will announce details of the panel should it be accepted for inclusion on the program.
Change Media Message about our Work:
Join the WPA Network for Media Action!
by Dominic Delli Carpini, York College of Pennsylvania
WPAs cannot ignore media and government reports that almost daily inform public perceptions about writing and writing instruction. The National Commission on Writing, the Spelling Commission Report, and many other groups and documents highlighted in the media, not only influence public opinion (often negatively), but affect policies that influence our ability to do our work. The Network for Media Action provides a space wherein those interested in changing the public conversation about writing and writing instruction can converse, share resources, and find support in publicizing the positive facets of the work we do.
This group is committed to developing media messages that can accurately portray the goals and methods of writing instruction, illustrate the crucial importance of a literate public, and foreground the efforts of writing programs in providing high quality instruction in writing. Recent efforts include the formation of message frameworks, which provide us with cogent statements of issues like plagiarism, machine scoring of writing, high-stakes testing, and the role of grammar instruction--all concerns that often become issues for the media. The NMA is also in the early stages of developing a "National Conversation on Writing" (NCoW). NCoW is a documentary project wherein we will encourage public conversations on how writing and other forms of composition--including visual and multi-modal composing--influence the day-to-day lives of individuals. These conversations will be videotaped and brought together toward the formation of a documentary about the public and private uses of writing.
Also, look for our NMA calendar, co-sponsored by the WPA-NMA and Bedford/St. Martin, which will this year focus upon the theme "Writing Makes Democracy Happen." This, and our fall campaign on the work of writing instruction, will continue the work of the NMA toward changing the messages about our work that is heard in the media.
To participate in NCoW or other initiatives of the NMA, or to find out more information on this work, visit our site on Digital WPA (http://wpacouncil.org/nma) or contact Linda Adler-Kassner (Linda.Adler-Kassner@emich.edu) or Dominic Delli Carpini (dcarpini@ycp.edu).
WPA Journal to be Included in EBSCO Database
In a few days, WPA members will be receiving the Fall 2006 (Volume x, Number YY) issue of WPA: Writing Program Administration . Under the direction of the Editorial Team, Greg Glau, Barry Maid, and Duane Roen, the journal has developed and circulated increasingly influential WPA scholarship. Just one reflection of this increased visibility is our recently negotiated contract with EBSCO to provide our journal content for inclusion in online bibliographic databases, bringing our work to the attention of a much broader audience and making it much more accessible. Content from the two most recent years will continue to be available only to individual members and institutional subscribers. If you've allowed your membership to lapse, be sure to renew in time to receive the Fall 2006 issue, which will be mailed in a few days.
More WPA Journal News
by Duane Roen, Barry Maid, and Greg Glau, Managing Editors
At the annual conference in Chattanooga this July, journal editors met with members of the Editorial Board to conduct an anchoring session, focusing on an essay that's been submitted to the journal - and we got to meet in a train car! Comments from this session will be sent to the author, along with reviewer comments. The editors also held an "open meeting" to answer questions about the journal, the reviewing process, to discuss possible essay ideas, and so on. Another Editorial Board meeting will be scheduled for CCCC in New York in March, 2007. Also in Chattanooga, we met with members of the prospective new editorial team. You will soon be hearing news of the outcome of that search, chaired by Carrie Leverenz (Texas Christian University) The fall 2006 issue of the journal is a special ESL issue, with guest editors Paul Kei Matsuda, Tamara Lee Burton, Maria Fruit, and Jay Jordan. The theme is "Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Integrating a Second-Language Perspective into Writing Programs." This issue is in press. If you've allowed your membership to lapse, be sure to renew in time to receive the Fall 2006 issue, which will be mailed in a few days. The spring 2007 issue is nearly complete and currently is being edited. In addition, guest editors, Catherine Chaput, Danika Brown, and MJ Braun will edit a special issue (currently scheduled for spring 2008) that addresses new and innovative program design in rhetoric and composition. They are asking for articles that explore programs in all aspects of writing administration--first-year writing, undergraduate writing, masters, and doctoral programs, as well as writing centers, writing across the curriculum, and writing in the disciplines. They are especially interested in articles that not only outline new programmatic trends, but also place those trends within both an historical context of the field and within evolving theoretical conversations about the field.Membership Benefits
- Unrestricted access to information, resources, forums, newsletters, and journal archives at the Digital WPA website, including your own blog, and much more.
- A subscription to WPA: Writing Program Administration , a semi-annual refereed journal
- Invitations to the annual WPA Summer Workshops and Conferences
- Invitations to submit papers for sessions that WPA sponsors at MLA and CCCC
- Participation in the WPA Research Grants Program, which distributes several $1000 to $2000 awards
- Invitations to the annual WPA breakfast at CCCC and the annual WPA party at MLA
- Information about the WPA Consultant-Evaluator program
- Participation on WPA Committees and Task Forces
To Join CWPA for the First Time or When Your Membership Has Lapsed
Visit http://wpacouncil.org/membership to find the appropriate membership and pay for your new membership online using our secure PayPal credit card processing system. (You don't need to have a PayPal account to charge your membership dues to your credit card.) Use the "add to cart" link found on each page to add the specific membership to the shopping cart.
To Renew an Existing Membership
Log in to the WPA website at http://wpacouncil.org. Go to "my account" and then click on "View your subscriptions." If you have an active subscription, you will see it listed. Click on "renew" and then follow the directions to complete your order. Alternatively, if you received an automatic renewal notice, you can use the URL in that message to update your account. Be sure not to buy a new membership if you already have an active one.
To join by mail
Send your name, address, institutional affiliation, email address and dues to:
Richard Johnson-Sheehan
Treasurer, WPA
Department of English
Purdue University
500 Oval Dr.
West Lafayette, IN 47907
rjohnso@cla.purdue.edu
Dues are as follows: $30 (Regular Members); $10 (Graduate Students); $40 (Libraries
Summer 2005 Newsletter of the Council of Writing Program Administrators
From the Outgoing President Chris Anson
As the Executive Board makes its transition in membership this month, I want to take this opportunity to say how much it has meant to me to lead this remarkable organization over the past two years.
As you'll see in this newsletter, the Council's work continues to expand, both in the number of its programs and services and in its reach. This year we moved from a mainly paper and snail-mail based organization to one that is fully digitized. Our Web site is now highly interactive, and as Dave Blakesley, its architect, is fond of pointing out, its potential is almost limitless. The new capacities the WPA portal has yielded now allow us to provide more convenient membership services, such as electronic membership renewals, links to all aspects of the organization, and opportunities for membership interaction. A newly constituted Membership Committee will be studying possibilities for enhanced benefits, especially those that can be provided online. Dave's work electronically archiving past issues of the WPA Journal makes a significant scholarly resource available to WPAs and others with a few keystrokes.
The WPA's Network for Media Action, thanks to a large number of participants but especially to the pioneering work of Linda Adler-Kassner, is giving us many new ways to track issues in the press that are relevant to our work, and to make available to broader constituencies some of the research and expert advice that emerge from our field and allied fields. As Linda says elsewhere in this newsletter, to be successful, the NMA needs your contributions--as writers, as conveyors of information, and as mediators between our organization and other publics.
Meanwhile, our longstanding programs and services are thriving. Our conferences have been uniformly successful. The addition of a new Assessment Institute several years ago is now a permanent part of our summer conferences, and this year we added the first Technology Institute, which we hope follows suit. The WPA Journal is especially healthy, thanks to the leadership of its editorial team at Arizona State. The Consultant-Evaluator Service, under the guidance of Deb Holdstein, has its hands full. Our grants program steadfastly attracts excellent projects, and we continue to find it hard to choose among the field's books and the articles in the WPA Journal for our annual awards. Last year's WPA reception at the Modern Language Association Conference appeared to break all records for attendance, thanks the support of the Temple University Writing Program and McGraw-Hill. And our annual WPA breakfast continues to attract a healthy crowd (well, maybe healthy on the way in: our breakfast committee ensures that no one leaves that event needing to eat anything for a day or so).
Increasing global interest in writing continues to show promise for the WPA's move toward internationalization. Over the past two years, the WPA's Consultant-Evaluator Service conducted its first two international visits, to Cairo, Egypt and to Beirut, Lebanon. There is interest in the formation of a Southeast Asian WPA affiliate based in Thailand. And new connections with those in WPA-like positions overseas continue to develop. Over the next year, we will be studying the issue of internationalization to define ways that the WPA can be more inclusive of those beyond the United States and more responsive to their needs and interests.
We're also clearly aware that WPA is not a very diverse organization. We have made strides over the past few years reaching out to WPAs at small colleges, community colleges, and private colleges and universities. A new graduate student SIG and the approval of a parallel listserv will, we hope, begin responding more fully to the needs of graduate students. An additional SIG and place on the summer conference program will provide a forum for WPAs who are not yet tenured. But these efforts are not enough. Our members do not adequately represent HBCs and Tribal Colleges, our two-year college involvement remains limited, and our conferences do not attract enough members of underrepresented groups. We suffer, of course, from a more general problem of diversity in higher education, but we must do our part. I am especially pleased that in the past few months the Board approved a new grant program designed to fund the attendance at the WPA Summer Workshop of new WPAs who are members of underrepresented groups. Thanks to contributions by Robert Eddy (Washington State University) and the University of Dayton, the program is launched. Over the years and with vigorous fundraising, we hope to make this program as successful as our Connors Fund, which underwrites the cost of attending the annual WPA breakfast for graduate students.
These and other activities are described in more detail in this--our third electronic issue of the WPA Newsletter. But programming and activities are only one part of what makes me proud to be associated with the WPA. This organization would not be as vibrant and successful as it is without its members and leaders. I have been blessed to preside over an outstanding Executive Board made up of some of the finest people in our profession--hard workers, insightful and caring administrators, and terrific friends. In 2001, I wrote in my election statement that the WPA "has been for me a source of much professional and personal support--in good times and in bad, in my development as an administrator and in my sense of belonging to a community of good people working extraordinarily hard to do good things." The last four years on the Board have only anchored those feelings more firmly in my affection for the WPA and for all who are part of it. I look forward to my continuing role on the Board as Immediate Past President. Thanks to all of you for the opportunity to serve.
From Incoming President Shirley K. Rose
It's a great privilege for me to be providing leadership for this organization at this time. As Chris' letter makes clear, the Council of Writing Program Administrators has been moving into new spheres of activity that will allow us to provide more kinds of support for a more diverse membership. For these recent initiatives to be as successful as possible, it is especially important that our organizational operations--those things we do to keep the longer-standing but still important activities going and to maintain the organization itself--be carried out as effectively as possible and not distract us from opportunities to extend our influence on college-level writing instruction and our contributions to broader change in higher education.
Currently two major organizational tasks face us: selecting CWPA's Institutional Home for the next several years and considerations of amendments to our constitution that will reflect necessary structural changes in governance, such as identifying long-term responsibility for Digital WPA and long-term oversight of NMA activities. Closely related to these organizational projects, the activities of a new ad hoc committee, the WPA Archives Committee, will include inventorying the current archival holdings and developing collection goals and policies. The work of the organization is of interest to historical researchers and it's critically important that we make information and records accessible. Some of that historical work will be featured at the 2006 WPA Conference in Chattanooga, highlighting the theme "Keeping on Track: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Out for New Opportunities." It's no doubt obvious that the priorities I've set for my term as President reflect my own scholarly interests and experience to some degree. There's enough work to be done within and by the organization for the same to be true of all of the members. You all can expect to be invited and urged to volunteer for service on our standing committees, special committees, and ad-hoc committees. Please watch for these announcements and invitations forthcoming on Digital WPA.
Alaska Conference a Success
by Shirley Rose, President
The
theme "Writing as Writing Program Administrators" focused the activities of
the WPA's 2005 summer conference, workshop, and institutes at the University
of Alaska Anchorage, July 3-10. The conference, which began after the conclusion
of the four-day summer workshop and all-day assessment institute and technology
institute (all reported on elsewhere in this newsletter), brought together over
150 participants from Alaska and the "Lower 48" (and a few from other countries)
to participate in roundtables, panels, problem-solving sessions, forums, and
collaborative writing sessions in addition to a series of professional development
mini-workshops on various genres of WPA writing. After a Thursday evening reception
and orientation session opened the conference, the program kicked into high
gear with Malea Powell's Friday morning plenary address. At the Friday evening
banquet, conference participants and guests were both entertained and informed
by the after-dinner remarks of UAA Chancellor Elaine Maimon and UC-Berkeley
Vice Provost Donald McQuade--both founding members of the Council of Writing
Program Administrators. Paul Prior's plenary address kept participants focused
and energized through Saturday afternoon. Though the formal conference program
ended with the traditional Sunday morning Town Hall Meeting, a number of conference-goers
were overheard still discussing the issues with one another on hikes, cruises,
and other recreational trips afterwards.
Knotted Threads from WPA-L
by Carol Rutz, Carleton College
In addition to some annual topics (e.g., highlights of the Sundance Film Festival by Bonnie Kyburz, the lowdown on the conference site and environs in advance of the WPA Conference in Anchorage [thanks to Trish Jenkins, Jeff White, and many more!], a query about good readings for TA training posed by Sue McLeod), a couple of topics dominated discussion on our favorite listserv this spring and summer. The new SAT writing test became a cultural phenom the moment that high school juniors sat for the first administration last spring. Led by Les Perelman, Dennis Baron, Doug Hesse, and others, the national media joined a thoughtful discussion that went beyond wit and parody to serious considerations of techniques of writing assessment. As always, WPAs, including Ed White, David Jolliffe, and Kathi Yancey, drew on assessment literature and current research, and some who participated in the scoring, including Becky Taylor, described their experience with incisive commentary. Anyone interested in the theorizing accompanying this debate should contact Les for the text of Perelman's Conjecture. Ask him to send you the illustrated version. A question from John Gravener about how to decode job ads that request familiarity with "technology" spawned a wide-ranging discussion on hardware, software, pedagogy, orality and literacy. Among the wise contributors were Dennis Baron, Rich Haswell, C.J. Jeney, Chet Pryor, Fred Kemp, Kathy Fitch, Beth Daniell, Chris Anson, John Walter, and Elizabeth Wardle. The discussion about the pencil as a technology (not to mention Wendell Berry's writing habits) spun this thread into the equivalent of Rumpelstiltskin's straw into gold. "Never start a sentence with 'A.'" This advice was quoted by Karen Lunsford, responding to a student's memory of being taught this rule. A fascinating discussion ensued, featuring detailed exposition by Rich Haswell and Joe Williams that touched on genre, rhetorical context, and much more. (A quick scan reveals three such sentences in this column, including this one. If they violate any laws, natural or otherwise, I plead guilty. Cheerfully.)
Check the WPA-L archives <http://lists.asu.edu/archives/wpa-l.html> for instructions for joining the list as well details on these and other threads, including reciprocal jibes about and praise for the quality of two-year and four-year programs, ways to articulate the distinction between writing to learn and writing to perform, and the technology/outcomes discussion at the WPA conference.
San Francisco Breakfast Reaches a High
by Lauren Fitzgerald, WPA Breakfast Committee
High above the San Francisco skyline, on the 52nd floor of the Bank America Building, the WPA held its annual CCCC breakfast at the Carnelian Room. If you missed the chance to catch up on news of the organization while dining with fellow WPAs and enjoying the panoramic views, many of the announcements can be found in this newsletter. We were especially happy to honor Chet Pryor with a Certificate of Commendation for outstanding service to the WPA for his years of supporting the annual breakfast, and for being such a welcoming presence to new and continuing WPAs. Clyde Moneyhun and Carol Rutz also deserve a hearty thanks for their ongoing service to the Breakfast Committee.
Reaching Out with WPA-NMA
The WPA Media Committee has been in the process of developing the Network for Media Action (WPA-NMA) for several months. At the Delaware conference, the NMA held a SIG; attendees agreed that the NMA should continue to develop through the NMA web site, but also try to begin working on our charge of shifting the tenor of public discussions about college-level writing/writing instruction in mainstream media even without the site. To begin working on this goal, we decided we would launch a small, focused campaign around a particular issue in conjunction with the beginning of school. SIG attendees decided that "plagiarism," since it's always hot (as recent discussions on this list have demonstrated), would be attractive to mainstream media/audiences. We decided that the best approach would be to draft a generic document -- something like a press release, but something that would require "doctoring" to incorporate the NMA's strategy of always tailoring our outreach efforts (like letters to the editor, op-ed columns, interviews, and so on) to local sources and local audiences. For that purpose, Joel Wingard put together a template document--something like an extended press release--which was distributed via the NMA listserv. NMA members have used the document, tailored to their local concerns and issues, for various purposes. Some, for instance, have distributed to their institutional public relations staff, who have in turn sent it to local media. Others have used it as the basis for appearances in local media for discussions about student writing and defining and preventing plagiarism through good teaching. The NMA web site should be up and running in the next 2-3 months. In the meantime, if WPA members are interested in learning more about the WPA-NMA, contact Linda Adler-Kassner, NMA Coordinator, at Linda.Adler-Kassner@emich.edu, or subscribe to the NMA listserv by going to https://list.emich.edu/mailman/listinfo/nma and following the prompts.
Best Book and Article Awards
by Joe Janangelo, Book and Article Awards Committee
At the WPA conference in Anchorage, the Best Article Award was given posthumously to Candace Spigelman for "Politics, Rhetoric and Service Learning." Her article appeared in the Fall 2004 (Vol. 28, No. 1-2) issue of WPA: Writing Program Administration. The award-winning article was chosen from those published in the CWPA's journal in 2003 and 2004.
The CWPA has established this award as part of our efforts to develop and promote an understanding of writing program administration as intellectual work of depth, sophistication, and significance. The Awards Committee developed the following criteria for selection:
1) The article has an informed methodological or theoretical perspective.
2) The article is generative, suggesting ways of thinking beyond its immediate
context so others can use, build on, or transform the ideas.
3) The article is useful to people in multiple settings and multiple contexts.
4) The article is connected to writing and writing instruction itself and helps
the writing program administrator to think about these.
5) The Article helps WPAs get inside of and reflect on real practices in programs
and institutions.
6) The article is interventionist, stimulating thought about a plan of action.
7) The article suggests potential for replication in other profession and institutional
contexts.
8) The article has potential for continuing relevance for many years to come.
The Best Article Award Committee was composed of Duane Roen (Chair) Joe Janangelo, Libby Miles, and Joel Wingard. CWPA has made a donation to the Penn State Berks-Candace Spigelman Memorial Fund.
WPA Journal
Duane Roen, Barry Maid, and Greg Glau, Managing Editors
At the annual conference in Anchorage this July, journal editors met with members of the Editorial Board to conduct an anchoring session, focusing on an essay that's been submitted to the journal. Comments from this session will be sent to the author, along with reviewer comments. The editors also held an "open meeting" to answer questions about the journal, the reviewing process, to discuss possible essay ideas, and so on. Another Editorial Board meeting will be scheduled for CCCC in Chicago in March, 2006.
The fall 2005 issue (29.1/2) is in production, and includes Neal Lerner, "Internal Outsourcing of Academic Support: The Lessons of Supervised Study"; Judy Hebb, "Re-Envisioning WPAs in Small Colleges as Writing People Advocates"; Anthony Baker, Karen Bishop, Suellynn Duffey, Jeanne Gunner, Rich Miller, Shelley Reid, "The Progress of Generations"; Carl Lovitt, "Literature Requirements in the Curricula of Writing Degrees and Concentrations: Examining a Shifting Institutional Relationship"; Joseph Eng, "Beyond Quality Control: Writing Assessment and Adjunct Accountability at a Small Public University"; Lisa Cahill, Review of The Writing Program Administrator's Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice; and Larry Beason, Review of What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing
In January 2005 we announced a special issue of the journal, which is scheduled to appear in spring 2007. The theme is "Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Integrating a Second-Language Perspective into Writing Programs." The guest editors are Paul Kei Matsuda, Tamara Lee Burton, Maria Fruit, and Jay Jordan.
3rd Annual Assessment Institute Focuses on Outcomes
by Meg Morgan, UNC Charlotte, Institute Co-Leader
Led by George Meese, of Eckerd College, and me, the 2005 Assessment Institute, which took place all day before the opening of the Alaska WPA conference, focused on designing outcomes for program assessment. In the spirit of the WPA Conference, with its focus on administrative writing, the Institute asked its 27 participants to map the complexities of program assessment by considering the purposes and stakeholders of the assessment. We also asked them to describe where they were in the assessment process and to write specific outcomes for their writing programs. Based on participant feedback, there is a strong interest in these and other assessment issues, perhaps even enough that the Institute ought to be expanded to two full days in order to more fully orient the less experienced participants and then lead up to more advanced and complex issues.
We also note with much sadness the absence of the third member of our team, John Lovas of DeAnza College. Former chair of CCCC, John had already made substantial contributions to our planning when he was suddenly diagnosed with advanced, terminal cancer. In spite of this dire prognosis, John expressed sincere regrets at being unable to join us in Alaska. We are deeply saddened to lose this gracious friend and important voice in the field of composition. In many ways, his spirit was very much with us at the Institute.
Digital WPA
by David Blakesley, WPA Web Developer
More than a year in development, Digital WPA made its debut on April 11, 2005 at http://www.wpacouncil.org. The new website features a wide variety of tools for WPA members to stay in touch with Council news, events, journal archives, and much more. Members are encouraged to browse the Network for Media Action site, featuring new campaigns and message frameworks on the SAT/ACT, Plagiarism, and Machine Scoring. Several more are in their final stages of approval. Active members can access journal archives, with plans for the complete archives to be available in September, 2005. Active members can also access the most current issue of the journal electronically. Every WPA member can now start a weblog, complete contact and program profile information, active daily notifications about new content, contact other WPA members from the site, and find links to updated writing program websites. In the fall of 2005, new features to be added will include a chatroom and photo galleries. Executive Board members and other committees can share drafts, vote on motions, and store important content at the site, all in a secure space that allows for different user roles and permissions. We hope to conduct Council elections in Digital WPA in the future.
Members can now renew their memberships online with a credit card, in addition to joining or renewing by mail. Since April 11, 2005, online renewals or new memberships have generated $3,800 in revenue to support the Council's activities. Charlie Lowe (Purdue) was the chief consultant on the project and deserves much credit. Matt Westbrook (Iowa State) wrote the original program for the subscription and payment module. Jennie Dautermann and now John Tassoni process mail-in subscriptions and keep the membership database up-to-date.
If you have questions about how to use Digital WPA, please contact Dave via Digital WPA (search on Blakesley, then click on his name) or by emailing him at blakesle@purdue.edu
Don't Miss the Train to Chattanooga!
The Chattanooga Choo Choo Convention Center will be the site of the 2006 Summer workshop, institutes, and conference of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The 4-day workshop will begin on Sunday, July 9, and continue through Thursday evening, July 13, and the day-long Technology Institute and Assessment Institute will be offered on Thursday. The Conference will begin Thursday evening and continue through Sunday morning, July 16. In addition to the plenary speakers and concurrent panel sessions addressing the conference theme, "Keeping on Track: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Out for New Opportunities," the program will repeat several of this year's professional development mini-workshops and a several new ones on such topics as Documenting a Writing Program, Preparing an Administrative Portfolio/WPA Promotion Case, and Planning for Publishing Program Research. Ask your department chair or dean for funding to attend these mini-workshops! We will also be inviting attendees to prepare poster presentations or other exhibits of their programs' special initiatives, research projects, or signature areas.
The local arrangements committee, headed by our colleagues at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Lauren Ingraham, Jennifer Beech, and James Inman, is already planning exciting opportunities in and around Chattanooga before, during, and after the conference. A reception on Thursday evening will introduce participants to all that Chattanooga has to offer, including a variety of museums, a vibrant riverfront area, rich historical sites, and excellent restaurants--all within walking or shuttle distance from the conference center and hotel. Post-conference outings may include organized trips to Chattanooga's African-American History Museum and Bessie Smith Hall, a whitewater rafting trip down the Olympic course on the nearby Ocoee River, guided hikes in the mountains around Chattanooga, or other excursions participants may request. To allow conference attendees to begin planning as soon as possible, review of proposals for concurrent session panels, roundtables, poster sessions, and multimedia presentations will begin on October 15 and continue until the program is filled. A formal Call for Proposals for concurrent sessions will be posted on the Digital WPA website at http://wpacouncil.org.
New WPA Institute Addresses Teaching Writing with Technology
The CWPA’s first day-long Technology Institute addressed issues including the basics of hardware and access, teacher preparation, funding, and intellectual property. Led by Samantha Blackmon (Purdue University), Will Banks (East Carolina University), and Barbara Schneider (University of Toledo), the institute participants explored both practical and theoretical sides of teaching writing with technology, worked hands-on with several new technologies, and discussed ways to set appropriate technology goals for a variety of writing programs in diverse institutional settings. We hope this institute will become a regular feature of CWPA’s summer activities.
Welcome New Board Members!
In July, three newly elected members to the Executive Board began their three-year terms. Dominic Delli Carpini joins us from York College of Pennsylvania, where he is director of the writing program. Carrie Leverenz hails from Texas Christian University, where she is Director of Composition. Steve Wilhoit brings experiences as a WPA and a director of TA education at the University of Dayton. And in a special election, Susan Kay Miller from Mesa Community College (AZ) will be serving in the position left open by Cynthia Martin, who resigned in order to pursue her new responsibilities as a dean. Susan's term will end June 30, 2007. We welcome all of them to the Board and to the work of the WPA.
Summer Workshop Sees 24-Hour Days
by Lauren Fitzgerald, Workshop Co-Leader
Twenty-three administrators of a variety of programs, including first-year composition, writing centers, WAC, and comprehensive writing programs, participated in the 2005 WPA workshop at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Participants came from a range of institutions--large, medium, and small; public and private; secular and religiously affiliated; from the Lower 48 as well as the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Led by Irwin (Bud) Weiser (Purdue) and Lauren Fitzgerald (Yeshiva), participants spent three and a half days discussing and writing about WPA roles and responsibilities, program design, curriculum development and trends, assessment, staffing and professional development, and more. Local arrangements provided by Trish Jenkins and Jeff White helped to keep the post-workshop evenings action-packed, with suggestions for local restaurants and recreational activities. Many participants spent their Alaska "nights" hiking, fishing, and moose-spotting. Planning for next year's workshop, to be led by Lauren Fitzgerald and Greg Glau, Director of Writing Programs at Arizona State University, is already underway. Lauren and Greg invite you join them in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 9-13, for what promises to be a wonderful opportunity to network with other WPAs and learn more about the important work we do.
HOLD THE DATE AT THE 2005 MLA CONVENTION!
Two WPA-sponsored panels will be offered for those attending the Modern Language Association conference this December in Washington, D.C.
"Writing Program Administration and Civic Discourse" will feature papers by Dominic Delli Carpini, York College of Pennsylvania; Kelly Kinney, University of Notre Dame; and Bonnie Kyburz, Utah Valley State College. The panel will take place on Friday, Dec. 30, from 1:45-3:00 p.m., in the Park Tower Suite 8228, Marriott Wardman Park.
On Thursday, Dec. 29, from 7:15-8:30 p.m. in the Hoover Room of the Marriott Wardman Park, a panel on "Writing Program Administration and (Multi)Media" will feature papers by Shirley Rose, Purdue University; Deborah Holdstein, Northern Illinois University; Linda Adler-Kassner, Eastern Michigan University; and Todd Taylor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Also be on the lookout for announcements about the WPA's annual reception at the MLA. The reception will most likely take place on Friday, Dec. 30, from 5-7 p.m. As always, there will be refreshments and lots of good cheer. Look for more information on WPA-L.
Thanks and Praise
At the WPA conference banquet in Alaska, Board members and conference participants recognized the outstanding service of four Board members to the organization. We bade farewell to three members who had finished their three-year terms on the Board: Linda Adler-Kassner, Eastern Michigan University; Susanmarie Harrington, IUPUI; and Irwin "Bud" Weiser, Purdue University. Kathi Yancey, finishing six years on the Board as Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President, was recognized for her excellent leadership and accomplishments. While all these fine people have transitioned off the Board, we have no doubts that they will continue to serve the organization in countless ways. Our heartiest thanks to all of them for the energy and intelligence they have brought to the WPA.
Occasionally the WPA makes special awards to recognize those who have contributed in longstanding ways to the organization and its causes. At this summer's conference, Certificates of Commendation for outstanding service to the organization went to David Schwalm and Barry Maid for their steadfast attention to the national listserv WPA-L. As founder and original owner of the list, Dave has created something that hundreds of WPAs count on virtually every day of their lives for news, information, and interactions with other WPAs, scholars, and teachers. Barry's help after joining Dave in the effort some years ago has been invaluable. We thank them collectively for their efforts.
We also wish to thank and honor Jennie Dautermann for her years of wonderful and much-appreciated service as Secretary to CWPA. Since Jennie couldn't be in Alaska, a certificate of thanks and a gift from us are on their way to her at as she begins her new position with the SUNY Learning Environments project.
C-E Service Goes International--Again
by Deborah Holdstein, Director, CE Service
The Consultant-Evaluator Service has just completed another successful academic year. In 2003-2004, the Service sent teams to five institutions, one of which was the first overseas visit of a C-E team (to Cairo, Egypt). For AY 2004-2005, the Service extended its reach to The American University in Beirut, where the C-E team had a successful, extended visit that resulted in a useful report to the campus. During this term (Spring, 2005), there have been numerous inquiries, several requests, and, at this relatively early point in terms of inquiries, one confirmed visit for the fall for which a team will be identified.
For further information on the Consultant-Evaluator Service of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, contact Deborah H. Holdstein at holdstein@niu.edu.
WPA Allied Membership in MLA
Through our Allied Organization status with the MLA, the WPA offered two panels at the 2004 MLA convention in Philadelphia. Chris Anson, Doug Hesse, Kathi Yancey, and Irwin "Bud" Weiser gave papers on a panel titled, "Anything Goes? The Content of Composition." The following day, a panel on "Shaping Conversations about Writing and Reading" featured papers by Clyde Moneyhun, Stanford University; Patrice Gray, Fitchburg State College; and Christine Faye Ross, Quinnipiac University.
Nominations Invited
The WPA will be seeking nominations for a slate of three Executive Board members and a new Vice President, all of whom will begin their terms in July of 2006. Look for a call over the membership email list and on WPA-L soon.
Your Membership
You are now able to renew your membership electronically, using a credit card. In the meantime, if you have questions about your current membership status, please contact WPA Secretary John Tassoni at tassonjp@muohio.edu.
About Us
The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national association of college and university faculty with professional responsibilities for (or interests in) directing writing programs. Members include directors of freshman composition, undergraduate writing, WAC/WID/CAC, and writing centers, as well as department chairs, division heads, deans, and so on. WPA publishes a journal and newsletter, holds an annual workshop and conference, makes grants and awards, develops position statements, offers consulting and program evaluation, and fosters extensive discussions about college writing and writing programs. Faculty and graduate students with professional interests in writing program administration are cordially invited to join WPA.
Looking for an article on a particular topic in composition studies? Try
CompPile, a search engine developed by
Rich Haswell at Texas A&M Corpus Christie: http://comppile.tamucc.edu/
Want to find information from a thread on WPA-L? Check out the searchable archives at:
http://lists.asu.edu/archives/wpa-l.html
WPA Institutional Headquarters:
C/O Dept. of English
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-5221
Fall 2004 Newsletter of the Council of Writing Program Administrators
From the President
Welcome to the second digital WPA newsletter! Last year, we created a pilot electronic newsletter and made it available through the WPA-L, which at the time was the only way we could reach the membership besides direct mail. Thanks to the painstaking work of Dave Blakesley (working with Jennie Dautermann), we now have an email membership database that will allow us to communicate with you electronically about news, events, and important organizational issues.
As you'll see in this newsletter, the Council is energetically working on its annual events, including the WPA reception at the MLA convention in Philadelphia, the WPA Breakfast in San Francisco, and next year's conference, workshop, and assessment institute to be held in Anchorage in July. A number of initiatives are in full swing, including the newly established Media Action Network, which just released its first public document. The WPA affiliates have been active, and we welcome a large new Midwest affiliate and have heard about others being planned. Recent WPA book and article awards have celebrated some fine new work, and a call for next year's research grants is soon to be released. Under the leadership of a large, dynamic team at Arizona State, the WPA Journal is making new scholarship and commentary available to subscribers and others. And the WPA Consultant-Evaluator Service continues to attract clients, including our first international institution.
In the midst of all this new and ongoing activity, higher education continues to face important challenges, some related to broader public and political trends. I hope that your involvement in the WPA has provided you with information, advice, and opportunity--I know that is has for me, and remains a constant source of collegiality and intellectual stimulation.
Look for new information about our digitally enhanced membership system soon. In the meantime, my best wishes to all of you for a productive and enjoyable academic year.
—Chris Anson, President
Alaska! Join us in July 2005
by Shirley Rose, Vice President
The University of Alaska at Anchorage will be the site of the 2005 Summer Workshop and Conference of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The Workshop will begin on Sunday afternoon, July 3, and continue through Thursday morning, July 7. The Conference will begin Thursday evening and continue through Sunday morning, July 10.
In addition to the plenary speakers and concurrent sessions addressing the conference theme, "Writing as Writing Program Administrators," the program will offer two special features. Back by popular demand, small-group breakout discussion sessions will follow plenary talks, giving us a chance to keep the conversation going. New this year, a series of professional development mini-workshops on writing as a writing program administrator will be presented by experienced WPAs. Planned workshop topics include Developing an Administrative Portfolio, Documenting a Writing Program, and Writing about Writing Programs for Public and Professional Audiences. Be sure to point out these professional development opportunities to your department chair or dean when you request funding!
Before, during, and after the conference, local conference chairs Jeff White and Trish Jenkins are planning a variety of recreational and cultural activities to introduce us to Alaska, including a Thursday evening orientation and outings on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. To enable conference attendees to begin planning as soon as possible, review of proposals for concurrent session panels, roundtables, poster sessions, and multimedia presentations will begin on October 15 and continue until the program is filled. A formal Call for Proposals for concurrent sessions will be posted on the conference website at http://moose.uaa.alaska.edu/wpa2005/
Knotted Threads from WPA-L
by Carol Rutz, Carleton College
Summer brings on many a pleasant fantasy, when even hard-working WPAs can take a well-deserved break. Among those fantasies is the classic desert island scenario, where one calculates the bare essentials one would need to survive--physically, emotionally, intellectually--on a desert island. Elizabeth VanderLei didn't really have a desert island in mind when she initiated a thread about the one text we would offer a student beginning graduate study in rhetoric and composition, but the responses from Wendy Strachan, Gerri McNenny, David Stacey, Tom Pace, and many more certainly exhibited a survival theme. Check the archives (URL below) for the list that Elizabeth compiled of the recommendations.
A number of published reports on literacy attracted attention on the list in recent months. For example, Raul Sanchez drew attention to a report called "The Hollow Core: Failure of the General Education Requirement," published in April by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative organization that offers support for the notion that teachers of general education courses in writing should be well prepared. In response, Jeanne Gunner distributed a piece from the LA Times decrying formulaic writing instruction to produce formulaic writing, noting that support for good teaching practices can come from some surprising sources. One can easily draw a connection to several threads in recent weeks about machine scoring of student essays, including the shared human/machine scoring responsibilities for the new SAT. This one ain't going away, folks. Another widely read report on a national trend of declining reading of fiction and literature led to a spirited defense of reading basically anything--whether in print, on line, or even CNN news crawls. Kathy Fitch, C.J. Jeney, Fred Kemp, Kenneth Wright, Katherine Oldmixon, and a cast of dozens weighed in. As that discussion developed, Rich Haswell wondered whether high school reading lists are tailored to popular testing programs, such as AP. David Jolliffe's explication of AP English text choices for their exams quieted that worry. Doug Hesse alerted the list to the College Board Review's special issue on The Art and Craft of Writing, <http://www.collegeboard.com/about/newss_info/publications.html> Given the fuss over the new writing portion of the SAT, we do well to be aware of how the College Board is presenting writing to its publics.
Keith Rhodes' departure (or defection or relapse) to law, he declares, bears no connection, none whatsoever, to his miserable performance over the years as Grand Poobah and High Commissioner of the WPA Golf Tour. Whether this flimsy assertion is to be accepted among the larger membership remains to be seen. In the interim, Greg Colomb gallantly declined to inherit the golf tour mantle. As he put it, "I lack the Poobah's skill in improving a lie"--yet another assertion that remains untested.
Check the WPA-L archives <http://lists.asu.edu/archives/wpa-l.html> for instructions for joining the list as well details on these and other threads, including recommendations on classroom texts, the ethics of job advertising, and creative definitions and geographical examples of "the middle of nowhere."
San Antonio Breakfast Yields No Ghost Sitings
by Lauren Fitzgerald, WPA Breakfast Committee
The WPA held its annual CCCC breakfast just across the street from the Alamo, in the historic (and reputedly haunted) Menger Hotel. We honored Edward M. White for his years of leadership in the Council's Consultant-Evaluator Service and distributed other awards as well. If you missed the chance to dine with fellow WPAs and to catch up with news of the organization, many of the announcements can be found in this newsletter. Thanks to the other members of the breakfast committee for helping to plan a terrific event: Clyde Moneyhun, Carol Rutz, and Chet Pryor. Even though Chet couldn't make it to the breakfast, his presence was felt in the excellent pens and key fobs he got for us. Thanks, Chet!
Reaching Out with WPA-NMA
The WPA Media Committee has been in the process of developing the Network for Media Action (WPA-NMA) for several months. At the Delaware conference, the NMA held a SIG; attendees agreed that the NMA should continue to develop through the NMA web site, but also try to begin working on our charge of shifting the tenor of public discussions about college-level writing/writing instruction in mainstream media even without the site. To begin working on this goal, we decided we would launch a small, focused campaign around a particular issue in conjunction with the beginning of school. SIG attendees decided that "plagiarism," since it's always hot (as recent discussions on this list have demonstrated), would be attractive to mainstream media/audiences. We decided that the best approach would be to draft a generic document -- something like a press release, but something that would require "doctoring" to incorporate the NMA's strategy of always tailoring our outreach efforts (like letters to the editor, op-ed columns, interviews, and so on) to local sources and local audiences. For that purpose, Joel Wingard put together a template document Ð something like an extended press release Ð which was distributed via the NMA listserv. NMA members have used the document, tailored to their local concerns and issues, for various purposes. Some, for instance, have distributed to their institutional public relations staff, who have in turn sent it to local media. Others have used it as the basis for appearances in local media for discussions about student writing and defining and preventing plagiarism through good teaching. The NMA web site should be up and running in the next 2-3 months. In the meantime, if WPA members are interested in learning more about the WPA-NMA, contact Linda Adler-Kassner, NMA Coordinator, at Linda.Adler-Kassner@emich.edu, or subscribe to the NMA listserv by going to https://list.emich.edu/mailman/listinfo/nma and following the prompts.
Best Book and Article Awards
At the CCCC breakfast in San Antonio, Mary E. Hocks accepted an award for Best Article for "Using Multimedia to Teach Communication Across the Curriculum." The article appears in WPA: Writing Program Administration 25.1/2 (Fall/ Winter 2001). The award was given for articles published in 2001 and 2002. The Best Article Committee was composed of Clyde Moneyhun (Chair), Joe Janangelo, Dennis Lynch and Elizabeth Vander Lei.
WPA Journal
Duane Roen, Barry Maid, and Greg Glau, Managing Editors
At the annual conference in Delaware this July, journal editors met with members of the Editorial Board to conduct an anchoring session. In addition to discussing a manuscript, reviewers also discussed more general procedures for processing submissions. Another Editorial Board meeting will be scheduled for CCCC in San Francisco on Saturday, March 19, 2005.The fall issue is nearing production. Editorial work has been completed on all the manuscripts for the forthcoming articles and reviews. Barry Maid has started converting the Word files to Adobe InDesign format before sending them to the printer.
The fall issue will include, in alphabetical order, the following articles: Pamela Bedore and Deborah F. Rossen-Knill, "Informed Self-Placement: Is a Choice Offered a Choice Received?"; Darsie Bowden, "Small Group Instructional Diagnosis: A Method for Enhancing Writing Instruction"; Laura Brady, "A Case for Writing Program Evaluation"; Risa P. Gorelick, "Review of Noise from the Writing Center"; Morgan Gresham and Kathleen Blake Yancey, "New Studio Composition: New Sites for Writing, New Forms of Composition, New Cultures of Learning"; Kristine Hansen, Suzanne Reeve, Richard Sudweeks, Gary L. Hatch, Jennifer Gonzalez, Patricia Esplin, William S. Bradshaw, "An Argument for Changing Institutional Policy on Granting AP Credit in English: An Empirical Study of College Sophomores' Writing"; and Candace Spigelman, "Politics, Rhetoric, and Service-Learning. " Keep those manuscripts coming in, folks.
3rd Annual Assessment Institute Highly Assessed
by Susanmarie Harrington, Institute Leader and Board Member Twenty-five enthusiastic participants made the 2004 Assessment Institute a great success! Focusing on "Practical Assessment: Entrance, Placement, and Transfer," institute leaders Susanmarie Harrington, Marlene Miner and Dan Royer led participants through structured discussion and group activities designed to foster an understanding of the practical options for placement testing, strategies for evaluating the level of campus and program support for placement testing, sources for additional reading about placement testing, understanding of the main issues involved in instituting reform of placement practices, and support for validation of existing placement programs. Participants' responses credited the Institute success to the breadth of information provided on varied assessment options (such as directed self-placement and online testing, and on scoring approaches such as expert-scoring or dynamic criteria mapping), as well as to a well-designed resource packet that should help them apply their day's worth of learning to new projects back home.
Digital WPA
by David Blakesley, WPA Web Developer
Dave will be asking the Executive Board and the WPA Network for Media Action Committee to begin user-testing a prototype of the new WPA website during October. We expect to make a more formal announcement to the membership about the new site by the end of the year. In the meantime, we now have a new "Announcements Only" distribution list for WPA members that will be used to distribute newsletters and information about WPA events and initiatives. The archives of the WPA journal will be published when the new WPA site goes "live." Members will be kept up-to-date by email and with printed announcements. If you have suggestions for Digital WPA, please contact Dave at blakesle@purdue.edu.
Delighting in Delaware
The WPA held its annual summer conference, workshop, and assessment institute at the University of Delaware July 11-18, focusing on the theme "Re-envisioning Writing Program Administration: Knowledge, Roles, and Authority." The conference, which began after the conclusion of the week-long summer workshop and all-day assessment institute (both reported on elsewhere in this newsletter), brought together almost two hundred participants from across the country to participate in workshops and panel sessions, hear three excellent plenary addresses by Kathi Yancey, Eli Goldblatt, and Joan Mullin, celebrate accomplishments, and continue to work on the pressing issues facing us as teachers, administrators, and scholars. A delightful reception with the Libby McDowell Jazz Band followed the opening address. Friday's suite of sessions culminated in a reception featuring the Composition Blues Band, and a Saturday evening banquet gave way to dancing to retro rock 'n roll band The Juveniles. Lest it appear that attendees only ate, drank and partied, serious conferencing began early in the morning, continued throughout the day at well-attended sessions, and survived into the social activities in the evening. This year marked the first WPA conference poster session--modestly, for starters, but a venue that we intend to develop further and make a permanent part of the conference. Our deepest thanks go to local conference co-chairs Barb Lutz and Clyde Moneyhun, and also to members of the conference program committee, Raul Sanchez, Lauren Fitzgerald, and Chris Anson.
Welcome New Board Members
Summer Workshop Brings Fun in the Sun
by Irwin "Bud" Weiser, Workshop Leader The 2004 WPA Workshop attracted twenty participants from institutions spanning the higher education spectrum, from community colleges to small liberal arts schools, elite private universities, and regional, comprehensive, and research public universities to Lewes, Delaware and the University of Delaware's Virden Center. Led by Kathleen Yancey (Clemson) and Irwin (Bud) Weiser (Purdue), participants who direct first-year writing programs, writing centers, WAC programs, and comprehensive writing programs spent three and a half days in discussions, writing, and individual consultations with Kathi and Bud. Workshop topics included WPA roles and responsibilities, program design, curriculum development and trends, assessment, staffing and professional development, and more. Local arrangements, including terrific meals and snacks and suggestions for recreational activities, were provided by Clyde "It's the beach!" Moneyhun and Barbara "We can do that!" Lutz.
Planning for next year's workshop, to be led by Bud Weiser and Lauren Fitzgerald, Director of the Yeshiva College Composition Program and the Writing Center, is already underway. Bud and Lauren invite new and continuing WPAs to join them in Anchorage, Alaska, from July 3-7 for what promises to be a useful and enjoyable opportunity to meet other WPAs and learn more about the work we do.
JOIN US AT MLA!
The WPA invites you to its annual reception at the MLA convention in Philadelphia. The reception will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 29, from 5-7 p.m., in the Hilton Garden Inn, 1100 Arch Street, Philadelphia (next to the convention center). There will be free wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres, as well as a cash bar for mixed drinks. Look for more information on WPA-L. Thanks to Eli Goldblatt and Vanessa Allen-Smith of Temple University for helping with arrangements.
Thanks and Praise
In July, the Executive Board said goodbye to three terrific people who had finished their three-year terms on the board: Clyde Moneyhun (now at Stanford University), Meg Morgan (UNC-Charlotte), and Elizabeth Vander Lei (Calvin College). In addition to their service in multiple capacities on the Board, all three had coordinated WPA summer conferences: Clyde at this year's Delaware conference, Elizabeth at last year's conference in Grand Rapids, and Meg in 2000 at the conference in Charlotte.
C-E Service Goes International
by Deborah Holdstein, Director, CE Service The Consultant-Evaluator Service has just completed another successful academic year. In 2003-2004, the Service sent teams to five institutions, one of which was the first overseas visit of a C-E team (to Cairo, Egypt). For AY 2004-2005, there have been numerous inquiries, several requests, and, even at this early point in the academic year, two confirmed visits for which teams will be identified. For further information on the Consultant-Evaluator Service of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, contact Deborah Holdstein at d-holdstein@govst.edu.
WPA Allied Membership in MLA
by Chris Anson, President The WPA's allied membership status in the Modern Language Association was renewed this year, following a thorough review of the WPA's activities, membership, and organizational leadership. The review is conducted every seven years. Allied membership provides the WPA with two guaranteed events on the MLA's annual conference program. These are typically used to sponsor panels on issues relating to writing programs and writing instruction. The WPA also hosts a reception at the MLA, but it is not part of the official program.
Nominations Invited
Your Membership
About Us
The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national association of college and university faculty with professional responsibilities for (or interests in) directing writing programs. Members include directors of freshman composition, undergraduate writing, WAC/WID/CAC, and writing centers, as well as department chairs, division heads, deans, and so on. WPA publishes a journal and newsletter, holds an annual workshop and conference, makes grants and awards, develops position statements, offers consulting and program evaluation, and fosters extensive discussions about college writing and writing programs. Faculty and graduate students with professional interests in writing program administration are cordially invited to join WPA.
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