2017 Four-Year Institution Survey

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1. In AY 2018-2019, two Rhetoric faculty will facilitate a WAC Faculty Learning Community, funded by the Center for Teaching Excellence. This may jump start a WAC program. 2. The Graduate School of Nursing is actively trying to spread "WAC culture" throughout its programs.
We are currently doing a search for another full-time writing specialist, which will mean that we can more event distribute the administrative load. Ideally, one of us (of the three) will officially take on the WAC role and make that position and the program more formalized.
Various assessment projects might make the university aware of the value of restarting its WAC program. This program had a part-time director even when it was going well. Departments have continued to develop WID courses.
WAC is now part of the Office of Campus and Community Writing, which I direct. I have maintained my responsibilities as WAC director and am not technically an administrator. This has provided our WAC program with greater support, visibility, and stability. I anticipate growing and extending the program by working even more closely with programs, perhaps adding a WEC dimension, adding cross-disciplinary writing recognitions, and expanding the program to provide additional offerings to external constituents -- e.g., community college faculty.
We do not currently have a WAC program, but the university's strategic plan calls for an emphasis on writing that may result in support for WAC. Additionally, the process of revisiting general education has begun, and there is considerable sentiment for integrating writing within all programs instead of relying solely on writing service courses.
We added a writing required to a general education diversity course. More courses may add a writing intensive requirement.
We are about to undergo general studies reform
We are approaching accreditation review time (in 3 years) at which time I believe assessing writing across the institution will become more of a priority.
We are hiring a new assistant director and coordinator. The university is also hiring a director for a new teaching/learning center. These will bring some changes to programming, but the WI requirements at this point look to remain.
This is a bit confusing because we have only a WID program--if the question concerns WID, changes are always possible based on the faculty senate and sub-committee oevrsight, but the program has wide supprot at the unievrsity so nothing major will change.
We are hoping to build a regular faculty development curriculum, including a course design workshop in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning, and we hope to provide some sort of certification to incentivize faculty development.
We are hoping to get a University Writing Center (vs Writing Center housed in English). We hope to get a new PhD Director who we hope will have interests in WAC and developing it beyond a small faculty development program.
We are hoping to hire a TT general education WPA next year; this will allow me to focus fully on WAC. This has become even more urgent than in past years because of the merger with another university; there are now 11 colleges instead of just 3, so overseeing WAC for the entire institution is now a much bigger job than it was in the past.
We are hoping to re-think our three-course required WI approach, moving toward either a Writing-Rich or Writing-Focused curriculum in each program based on programmatic needs.
We are in an accreditation year; it may depend on accreditors' recommendations.
We are in the midst of a core curriculum revision, so we shall see...
We are in the process of designing and implementing a formal WAC Program
This is up to the Core Curriculum Committee. Some assessment has begun and that may spur changes. Or not.
There will be more support (grading, embedded tutoring, workshops) for writing in disciplinary courses
We are in the process of revising our Core Curriculum and the WAC Working Group is advocating for Writing Intensive courses to be taught throughout the Core curriculum, with PD provided for participating faculty (who will probably be the faculty participating in the WAC Working Group). As a solo WPA, I'm also advocating for a new tenure line in Rhet/Comp to help with administrative overload.
The WI requirement is part of the relatively new upper-division core curriculum. There are no real WI requirements in place for these courses, which means that the execution of the WI element varies radically form course to course. I have been working on some ad hoc training workshops for faculty through the Center for Teaching Excellence, which I hope to develop into a more formal WAC program.
The guidelines defining a CIC are currently in review for a long-overdue update. Also, the many years of testing various configurations of folks who hold the title of University-wide WAC Co-coordinator will soon come to a close, with (I hope) the conclusion that these positions are ensconced as no more than 2 faculty, subordinated to the WAC Director/Director of the Communication Institute, and drawn from across the curriculum, rather than just English.
The long-time director will probably retire. This makes the program vulnerable to upper administrators' visions for using the money elsewhere. At 25+ years, this is one of the longest-surviving programs nationally, and it has a strong local reputation with faculty and in the state. But nothing is guaranteed.
The number of students capped at 35 is a big problem; however, many students in our urban school drop WAC courses, so the actual number of students realistically is much lower. It's not easy to argue to lessen the cap when the reality is that the number is more like 25, which is fairly reasonable.
The program has been trying to get off the ground the last two years, but administrative support has been minimal to begin and dwindling. It may not be possible to continue the program formally. Reassigned time for the director(s) has been cut completely.
The relative housing and responsibility to assess WI courses may shift from the Gen Ed to Departments.
The University has convened a General Education review committee, which started its work earlier this year. This semester, the committee will start circulating potential proposals, and some proposal will probably be put up for a vote in the faculty senate in the coming year. It's not clear at this point what changes, if any, will be made to the writing requirements.
the WI requirement will no longer be required, again, in conjunction with a redesigned gen ed program to be launched in fall 2020
There may be a formalized position separate from the Writing Center and Writing Fellows for first year writing and WAC with the new general education curriculum. We don't know yet.
There has been increased discussion of upper-level writing requirements, but it is unclear what form those might take.
There has long been discussion of the need for WAC. There is a movement to make WAC the next institutional quality improvement project of our accreditation board.
There is consternation over the loss of liberal arts courses designated writing-intensive in the new core curriculum, but I don't know what action will be taken (if any) as a result.
There is currently discussion on the GE Committee and the writing program committee to change the name from Written Inquiry to Rhetorical Inquiry. This, however, might open the available courses (and departments who offer the courses) to Communication Studies and Oral Communication.
There is interest in a WI requirement, so it is possible we will begin one.
There is some discussion of adding a second required WI course. Many of the courses currently offered under WAC are really more WID focused and are offered at the upper level. I have concerns that how our program is structured can sometimes fail to support writing as a developmental process. In some cases, students go from writing at a first-year level and jump right to a junior level WI course without anything in between and they (not surprisingly) struggle.
There isn't a formal WAC program, but there are faculty members who have an interested in teaching discipline-specific writing. College Writing Programs is looking to develop upper-level WAC/WID-oriented courses to accommodate students who want to learn about writing in areas beyond the humanities and social sciences. Individual programs, if they offer such courses, are typically linked to an honors thesis (a practicum of sorts) for students, but it seems to be more of a formalized advisor/student forum, rather than a writing class per se
We are in the process of responding to an Executive Order from the Chancellor's Office to reconfigure our writing requirements so that English 214, the 2nd year writing requirement is no longer a university requirement outside of General Education requirements. We are working hard with the Department of English Language and Literature and others who are developing new First Year Experience (FYE) seminars so that we can fold our first year writing requirement into the FYE seminars and keep the 2nd year writing requirement.
We are on the cusp of passing a requirement that all students participate in undergraduate research, which means all students will have a writing-in-the-disciplines course followed by a senior research thesis.
The director will get will 12 month, better salary, course reassignment.
We'd like to establish a WAC program but there is currently no institutional support (in the form of course release for faculty coordinators, staff position, etc. as well as WAC credit hours within major disciplines and programs) for formalized WAC on campus.
We hope to develop a journal of exemplary student writing which will showcase WAC work on campus.
We intend to design more writing-intensive courses outside the English department, with support from the Director of Writing and other faculty who have experience integrating writing into their non-English courses.
We now offer more/better support for writing through the writing center. It used to be a program in name only.
We received an internal grant to run summer WAC/WID trainings for faculty teaching disciplinary writing courses, which we're hoping to institutionalize.
We will have a new university president soon and their agenda may or may not include a focus on writing across the disciplines support.
We will implement more campus-wide assessment and faculty development for WAC
We'll be implementing our new WAC/WI program during that time.
We have submitted a proposal to radically revise our WAC Program to include required WI courses, ramping up of our Writing Enriched Curriculum Program, and increase student writing support (i.e. creating a writing studio). All of these moves are dependent on a radical increase in funding and staffing, which we do not expect to happen.
We're a polytechnic, so engineering is the largest college in the university. However, there's growing recognition of the shortcomings of the writing training engineers and other STEM majors are receiving -- so individual faculty in those programs and departments have reached out to the Rhet/Comp faculty in the English department for consultation on how to help their students. We're plotting moves on the WAC/WID front, but it's slow going.
We're in a GE revision process at the moment. How this will end up is quite uncertain.
We're in the middle of a curriculum review, so anything is possible at this juncture
We're trying to implement more professional development for faculty. We also have a new department-centered model for WAC assessment that we are piloting now.
We've been offering more courses on writing for public audiences. I'd like for us to do more assessment / research. Also would like to re-propose a minor in Writing and Rhetoric (our first proposal was rejected).
With other WPAs and upper administration on campus, we have been discussing instituting a second writing requirement, which would require all students to take a WI course and necessitate expansion of the Writing Intensive Program and its administration.
With support from provost, we may be able to cap writing courses and institute clearer and more meaningful requirements.
We hope to begin a WAC/WID program.
We have started WAC work and discussions, and I hope that there will be a WAC program in four years.
We are proposing many changes now with the ultimate goal of achieving more consistency in instruction across the college and giving departments more autonomy (with appropriate support/resources to justify this). We are proposing course caps and vertical progression, and will eventually propose a late-stage portfolio. Also on the agenda: reliable assessment mechanisms, better support for Basic Writers.
We are transitioning to campus wide electronic portfolios to facilitate the graduation requirements and institutional assessment
We are restarting the WAC program beginning in the fall of 2018.
We are revamping part of our first-year writing curriculum and are exploring the feasibility of a writing-intensive designation for courses outside of the first-year sequence. The existing WAC/WID program might be reorganized to provide additional support and incentives for faculty across disciplines to teach writing-intensive classes.
We are reviewing assessment data collected over recent years and are certain that, whether in the form of changes to the WAC requirement or new kinds of faculty development, some changes are called for.
We are revising General Education, which may include replacing the somewhat randomly distributed WI courses with four focused writing intensive breadth courses that parallel the structure and focus of our writing enriched first year seminars and allow more intentional scaffolding of writing skills.
We are revising our gen ed program and expect that the requirement will change.
We are revisiting and possibly changing the Core curriculum, and the formalization of a WAC program might be part of those changes.
We are trying to establish a Writing Fellows program.
We have one administrator of our campus learning & teaching center who leads workshops on writing across the curriculum; however, we do not have a WAC program nor do we foresee one developing in the next four years.
We are undergoing general education revision.
We are working to establish a Writing Intensive requirement, as many faculty across disciplines are already teaching courses that would qualify supported by a Writing Fellows program. However, there is no formal approval or support mechanism (beyond fellows) in place, nor is there a graduation requirement.
We continue to expand our CI course development into experiential learning and cross-program approaches such as global engagement, service learning, expanded connections with the University Writing Program (1st and 2nd year writing requirements). We'll also continue to build on our community-based experiential learning programs that foster practical communication about research and professional experiences. We're looking at adjusting our student certificate program to expand student access to CxC programming.
We don't have a WAC at present, but our general education revision currently underway suggests that by fall 2020, we will have shifted to that model -- at least to the extent that writing instruction will occur in specified, multiple course locations in the general education curriculum.
We have a new universal core being developed. I assume, though I don't know for certain, that there will be some WAC component.
We have been delayed in implementation by changes in University leadership. Hopefully we have a stable group now who will recognize the need for some infrastructure.
We have just started our WAC Program, so this year will involve branding and awareness outreach. We hope to acquire funding in the next fours years so that we may hire more staff.
The General Education committee will look to revise the second-writing requirement.
The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences has expressed interest in developing a WAC program to help facilitate professional development for teaching writing in the disciplines; however, we do not currently have enough personnel or resources to fulfill this desire.
A Faculty Senate committee has been formed to envision a Communication Across the Curriculum program, which would include WAC.
Hopefully, WAC will be codified as an official and compensated position
For the first time in many years, the courses approved as writing-intensive (or "communication intensive" at our school) will be reviewed to see if they still satisfy the requirements. Also we have JUST approved a change in the requirements for communication intensive courses.
Gen ed under further revision; results pending.
General education revisions look like they're likely to include more writing instruction distributed across the university in some (not yet settled) way.
Growth from 3,000 seats per year and a dozen courses to 4,000 seats per year and 16-18 courses (or more)
Hopefully we will get a director of GE and and director of EP.
Hopefully, growth and positive impact as it reaches colleges other than Humanities and Social Science.
I am hoping to create an administrative unit for the writing programs to provide some real oversight and "quality control" (in the Dean's words) for the writing classes.
Explained in "Sites of Writing"
I am hoping we will develop a WAC program over the next four years
I am moving to the Provosts office, so the WAC committee, comprised of the three associate deans and three faculty members from participating colleges, will have to elect a new chair or revise the charter. None of the other current members has expertise in WAC so they have relied on me for past 12 years.
I am new to this institution, and I have a background in WAC. Next semester I've been invited to talk about WAC during our weekly teacher training sessions. I'd like to create a formal WAC program where the WI requirement is consistently defined and applied between departments. I also want to create training for instructors of WI courses. Some of this discussion has been delayed, as we are currently revisiting our general education requirements and WI courses have been part of this discussion.
I am working to realign our WI courses to align with WPA outcomes, while also working to develop faculty development summer workshops.
I do not know
I have submitted a white paper for our campus Academic Futures providing economic, educational, and research motives for WAC. Our recent program review, including external reviewers from Rhetoric and Composition, strongly endorsed forming a WAC/WID program, proposed in our self study. We'll see.
I hope that we are given space to house the program. Right now we only have my office. I'd also like to see the number of our fellows doubled.
Faculty have expressed interest in revising the institutional writing requirement and adopting university writing outcomes.
Expansion--more faculty development and more specialized tutoring for WI students
I hope to regain funding and implement more WEC-type initiatives.
As more academic units engage with the Writing-Enriched Curriculum process and the Writing Fellows program, I anticipate positive changes to the teaching of writing, the production of student writing, the discourse around writing, and the overall culture of writing on our campus.
A WAC Working Group met last year to put together a proposal for a WAC program. Although it has not been officially approved yet, we are moving forward under the auspices of the Center for Faculty Development and the Core Curriculum Committee to do writing assessment during students' first three years and to support that assessment work through faculty development. That is, we will be able to assess papers submitted by students taking writing-proficiency-infused courses. Faculty development will support both writing instruction and assessment work.
A “Clear Communication Outcome” was mandated in 2017/2018. By 2018/2019, the Clear Communication Outcome Team Leader (also the director of First Year Composition) and the Clear Communication Outcome Team had convinced the college administrators that the school needs to move toward a formal WAC/WID program. At this time, we have no specific requirements but have begun to work toward a formal program, which we hope will come to fruition (in some small part) within the next 4 years.
All campus writing programs will be reviewed by the academic senate in 2019.
An English faculty member got some internal grant money to do research about WAC on campus
As a member of the Gen Ed council, I have been tasked with creating guidelines for writing intensive classes (mostly related to course caps at this point), and this may lead to requiring writing intensive courses in the future, although I think it is further off than four years.
As a new WPA, I have begun working with the Math and Writing Center Director to develop WASC on our campus. We plan to develop workshops, work with faculty who teach writing intensive courses, and push the administration to hire a full-time director for WASC. We also plan to make the campus part of the National Writing Project, working with community partners who teach a large percentage of our future undergraduates.
As our WI program was developed in connection with a previous QEP and we have new administration that would like to redesign general education, I suspect requirements may be lowered or eliminated. In case there is nowhere else to write this out, I wanted to state that administration and assessment of WI courses are administered through our office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness along with the General Education Assessment Committee (of which both myself--equivalent of Dir. of Writing Program and/or FYW--and the Dir. of the Writing Center are members of the committee). Although the title of the committee might imply that we only deal with Gen Ed writing intensive classes, that is not true; the dept and committee also deal with and assess capstone assignments across departments and majors.
Expansion of the program, including a full WI curriculum, additional training, and assessment responsibilities is being proposed to senate this spring. If it passes, it effectively doubles the size of the program and the director's responsibilities.
As the new WPA on campus, I have discussed implementing development and assessment of WI/WAC courses with the English department chair and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. At this point in time, however, no firm plan has been set into place.
As the program develops, we will be creating and implementing writing plans
As the recently hired WPA, I have been charged with developing the writing program, which includes (in my vision) creating WAC initiatives. We are small, so there will likely not be a separate WAC Director. There are WAC-like things happening here. I will take the next couple of years to assess what's already happening and then move toward a more formal offering/organization, and then provide support (workshops, etc.) and assessment.
Because there is only one person to facilitate a WAC program (Writing Center Director), we are unsure of what may happen at this time. If the WC Director were to receive additional resources, this might be possible. The WC Director has spoken with the Composition Coordinator about the possibilities of building a robust WAC program; both are interested in doing the work.
Because we are only a few weeks into creating this new program, I think practically everything will be different in four years.
Changes need to happen, it it is unclear whether they will be a priority.
Currently we have a president who is interested in cutting programs to build up STEM based programs. Her presence has disrupted the campus balance and few administrators have autonomy to make any decisions. Therefore, it looks like the program that I built will be redesigned by others outside of rhetoric.
I hope to begin one (even informally, in the form of faculty development workshops) next year.
I recently got a small grant to pilot a Writing Fellows program.
The current Director of the Writing Center will retire in June, 2018. A national search will occur. New Writing Center facilities will be open in 2020. Current Reading Lab director will probably retire within the next two years. The Writing Lab's first external review will occur this month; the reviewers' report will probably contain suggestions for improvement or reorganization of writing support across campus.
Purdue has talked about a WAC program for a long time. With a new provost and may new deans, perhaps it will come to pass.
New workshop support, new director, new staff
No changes to the basics -- embedding significant writing experiences in all majors and supporting writing and the teaching of writing -- but our personnel and programs/events change slightly every year. We are offering more programs than previously and have begun faculty and staff writing groups. We expect to hire one additional full time position this year, replace vacancies this year and next. We will begin teaching a course (offered through the English Dept but of our design) called "Writing in a Research University" and are in discussions to offer a graduate level writing course as well. Locations of the writing center continue to expand as does the number of consulting hours offered.
On the assumption that we will in the near future begin creative writing and then other modes of writing, we hope that the incumbent in such a position can become administrative lead in a WAC program. We theoretically have such a program, but it has been so deeply in abeyance that in practical terms we do not have one.
Our core curriculum revision includes WAC principles and will require formal oversight. I hope to see a WAC director in the coming years.
Our department and College Dean would like to see greater formalization in WAC and WID support on our campus; however, we face state obstacles in gaining faculty and programmatic support.
Overall gen ed revision might make WAC-ish activities more prominent
Results of campus-wide assessment may lead to changes. The position was decreased from 6 credits (2 courses) of release time to 3 credits (1 course/year) release time due to financial constraints and due to assessment responsibilities being placed with an assessment committee, so there is not much time devoted to supporting these courses, and not much time that can be spent on revisions to the program.
New Gen. Ed. program may shift what we do with WAC. If we have a first year seminar (two semesters), we may choose to take the WAC part out and have the writing goals be specific solely to FYS, and then have 3 WRITI/ D courses post FYS.
revision of the W requirement
Sorry to be redundant :), but I will begin building a WAC program in spring 2019. I will be half time in English and half-time in the Center for Teaching and Learning (where my Director of WAC position will be held). I will maintain my 9-month faculty contract, and I will have a 1/1 teaching load. I also have money to hire one full time graduate student.
Starting next AY we are implementing new general education requirements. This changes the WI into two levels (intensive or practice) and will require more courses to meet this requirement.
Stronger focus on digital communication; shifting slightly toward more research/grant activity; possible renaming/rebranding of program; fundraising.
The campus program assessment team (not the writing program, nor writing scholars...) is conducting a campus-wide assessment of student writing; there is loose talk of finally hiring a WAC/WID scholar in the coming years to lead the WAC efforts on campus. Culture is slowly changing and if it is going to keep momentum and be meaningful, better trained WAC/WID practitioners & experts will be needed.
The college is considering creating a TT Writing Program Director position. In 2018-19 there will be no Writing Program Director.
The college is reviewing its general education curriculum, and changes are likely to impact WAC.
New grants available to fund initial WAC outreach via new Assistant Director position in Writing Center, grant support for individual faculty to convert courses to writing-intensive. Program in formation Fall '17 and should offer its first grants / support for faculty Spring '18.
New Gen Ed requirements have added writing-intensive courses beyond the usual two first-year courses. This development may have effects on writing across the curriculum efforts, which are not formalized. We have a new WID director, but not a WAC director.
I see the potential for growth in the department model of creating communication enhanced curriculum and in our peer communication consultant program (akin to writing fellows).
Institution has undergone major changes in administration (i.e. president, vps, deans). Hard to predict in what direction we are going.
I started the program in 2008, working with 5 WAC consultants and an RA, but I'm retiring next year and anticipate some structural changes.
i would like to implement more WAC and WID courses, but I don't know if I will be successful
I'm going to start a newsletter that will come out twice a semester. The newsletter will feature, among other things, interviews with faculty who are doing interesting and useful work with writing in their courses. We are creating a space for a small library next to my office, and I will be scheduling WAC/WID office hours starting this fall -- time for faculty to come in and work on their courses or just ask questions. I'm going to be team-teaching with interested faculty to show them how to get WAC/WID up and running in their classrooms. I hope to be working with our new Tutoring Center director to ensure that our WAC/WID tutor program will continue. Until this January, I was the Writing Center coordinator; that position has now been merged into a single Tutoring Center position.
I'm hopeful that the university-wide requirement will re-evolve into a more systematic and tracked requirement. The deans of some colleges complained about the requirement without support for lower-enrollment in classes, so the provost has acquiesced and allowed each college to determine how it can best handle the W requirement. Some colleges moved from 12-hours beyond freshman comp to 9. The tracking has fallen onto the college's appointed member of the overall university writing committee. Compliance is all across the board, from those colleges that are truly invested to those who pay lip service. Additionally, the registrar's office has changed its methods of attaching the W to the courses in the schedule. That has caused some difficulty that we are still working through. Ultimately, I'm hopeful that we will have each department enter its W courses for each semester when the courses are populated on the class schedule. That's the plan; tracking remains with each college. My role at the university level becomes more of a mentor to each of the college representatives to the committee. Our committee became one of active engagement with implementation and assessment, broadly defined, rather than one of implementing best practices policy. I am hopeful this is just an bump we will overcome. When the university-wide writing assessment begins to show a lack of student engagement with writing in some colleges, I think the deans may decide it is best to deal with university-wide requirements and support as offered by the Provost. Our new Provost has indicated he would like to reinstate the university-wide requirements and will support the best practices.
If the Business, Health Science or Ed Programs need it
If the program is not moved back to reporting directly to the Provost's office, I foresee the program slowly diminishing and eventually ending - becoming just a writing center rather than a Writing Intensive program
If we can move forward with our plans to redesign the core curriculum, some of these programs will become more intentionally structured and supported within the university.
It appears that there is substantial administrative support for a unit, housed within our center for teaching and learning, that would take on many of the roles of WAC programs. This would hopefully include a much more focused effort to provide faculty development for writing instruction, a research component (including assessment/accreditation) ad increased support for grad students and faculty as writers as well as teachers of writing.
More Writing Intensive courses created across the curriculum and probably additional support added to Writing Center to support these courses and possibly to support writing intensive senior capstones as well.
It is likely that with some revisions to our general education program that oral communication will become a part of / aligned with the writing intensive requirements. Additionally, there is reason to think that capstone projects--many of which could involve a good deal of writing--might become a part of the curriculum.
It likely depends on the focus for community-engaged writing at UAF.
It's time for a review of the Writing in the Major requirement. There's general acknowledgement that the requirement is delivered unevenly across the majors. The Writing Specialist model placing PWR lecturers in departments and programs has helped support WIM courses in those locations, and expanding the model might be a way to go.
Many faculty (including myself) have been trying to get the college to implement a WAC program for decades, but so far to no avail.
Might be some interest in offering WAC training for faculty through Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning The composition program has conducted a WAC workshop nine-hour series (three, three-hour sessions) each year since 2012 for faculty in the College of Allied Health Sciences, but there is no formal WAC/WID/WAD program across the university.
More departments will shift to the WEC model and drop the writing-intensive course model.
More faculty are interested in building on the use of writing to learn, as well as creating more writing instruction across the curriculum. This may lead to developing a formal WAC program.
Within 4 years I expect that we will have designed and begun implementation of a WI-course system.

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