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Articles Conference Reviews |
H.32 Independent Programs in Challenging Economic TimesH.32 Exploring Space in Challenging Economic Times: How Independent Writing Programs Have Crossed Boundaries, Built Relations and Prospered During the Great Recession Chair: Randall McClure, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia This fine panel started with Randall McClure introducing his fellow speakers as “the two people who got me started in composition.” This confession enabled a sense of good fellowship and mutual understanding that influenced the interactions of the panelists from the start of the presentation. Scott Payne, “Growing Together in the Garden of Fine Arts and Communication: A Case Study of a Writing Department” Scott Payne started his presentation with a nice run down of what could happen when a writing program becomes an independent writing program: breaking free, feeling wonderful, and then “turning on each other.” Payne was not being serious, but he was, with good humor, pointing out the possible pitfalls in the process of becoming an independent writing program. After this amusing and apt introduction, Payne went on to explain the program that he now runs. Composed of 35 faculty, The Writing Program at Central Arkansas, Conway has created a creative writing major, a linguistics degree, a fully developed General Education Writing Program, and an English Language Arts Masters (which is a collaboration with the Literature Program). In the fall of 2012, they will have a professional writing program and an MFA in Creative Writing. This extensive program, which also includes a writing center, is well-supported by the administration at the University of Central Arkansas. Payne then rhetorically asked, “How did this happen?” From 1996 to 2007, some key things that kept the program together and growing were that first year composition came with the program in 1996—along with the writing center and a WAC program; Creative Writing came along with the program at its inception as an independent writing program, and, as the program grew, the full-time and tenure-line faculty grew. In fact, out of 25 positions in the program, there is only one part-time instructor. Hearteningly, Payne said that a rhetoric and composition emphasis is the “glue” that holds the program together, and that the program, with its wide-ranging emphases, is still coherent and committed to working collectively. Donna Nelson-Beene, “YourSpace, MySpace, OurSpace: A First-Year Writing Program Maintains Separate Spaces without Building Walls or Going Broke” After the interesting institutional history that Scott Payne provided, Donna Nelson-Beene gave an equally compelling account of her program at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). What I found particularly interesting was the way that Nelson-Beene foregrounded her institutional history in terms of the current economic problems facing all colleges and universities in the United States. Nelson-Beene pointed out that “big budget cuts” are on the horizon in Ohio, and that having control of a budget, and tracking it, is key to her program’s health and survival. In fact, a good knowledge of her program’s budget, and how budgeting works across BGSU, has allowed her to argue, using statistics, that raising class size and cutting positions in the BGSU Writing Program would end up reducing student retention and creating students less prepared to succeed at BGSU. She also added that she made good use of program statistics, a report from WPA consultant-evaluators, and NCTE position statements to argue for the effectiveness and centrality of her program’s work to BGSU. Finally, Nelson-Beene pointed out that independent writing programs, like the one at BGSU, must make allies across the campus and keep developing faculty. What really interested me about Nelson-Beene’s presentation was the way she clearly articulated how data collection, at the department level, was crucial to the growth of the Writing Program at Bowling Green State University, and, even more significantly, that this data was going to be hugely important going forward into a tough, uncertain economic future. Although she didn’t say this directly, Nelson-Beene seemed to be encouraging folks involved in Writing Programs to think very seriously about how statistics and data would make convincing arguments about programmatic worth to upper-level administrators. Randall McClure, “The Final Frontier: Independent Writing Units as Campus Leaders” Randall McClure was even more direct than Donna Nelson-Beene about the need to use data to argue for the importance of independent writing programs. McClure also shared a sobering but important story about how the current state of university finances might play out. Just before the 4Cs, the Task Force on Undergraduate Programs at Georgia Southern University (GSU) came out with a request that department chairs come up with enrollment history and degrees awarded data for the last six years. This occurred in the context of budget cutting, so the implications seemed pretty clear: that you needed to justify your program’s effectiveness in terms of data about degrees awarded and enrollment history. Fortunately for McClure and his program, they had the necessary data; thus, they could communicate with administrators and the task force using data-driven arguments that upper-level administrators tend to value. However, data is not the whole story. McClure pointed out that being “visible” is incredibly important to independent writing programs. Thus, celebrations of writing, writing contests, continuing education, and hybrid writing classes become increasingly important because they make Writing Programs visible on, and off, campus. McClure ended his thought-provoking presentation by calling for creating, via increased visibility, a “culture of resistance” to budget cutting and under-valuing the contributions of independent writing programs. Also, McClure believed that despite economic problems, there are opportunities that independent writing programs are well positioned to pursue. Barry Maid, Respondent Barry Maid started by mentioning how “strange” it was to have been invoked by all of the presenters, and then he rapidly and wisely moved onto highlighting some of the key issues that the presenters brought up. Maid pointed out that institutional missions tend to remain “pretty consistent,” and that a good course for any independent writing program to follow is to align its work with the institutional mission of its given university. Then, he mentioned that there seems to be a big push from upper-level administrators for “efficiency,” but that writing program administrators often needed to remind upper-level administrators that “efficient” is not always synonymous with “cheap.” However, as Maid said, “if we can create new revenue streams, we are the good guys.” Maid’s point being that it is likely that the economic model of universities has changed, and we are going to have to get used to a new economic reality where there are “no state matching funds” and folks funding education are going to be looking for “a return on investment” from universities and colleges. Conclusion The panel ended with a question and answer session that allowed panelists to expound on notions of how, ultimately, to position independent writing programs for continued growth or, at the very least, continued existence in a time of budgetary constraints at colleges and universities. After listening to the collective wisdom of the panelists, I walked away with a better understanding of why data collection is increasingly important to the growth, and even survival, of independent writing programs. As Barry Maid pointed out in the question and answer session, we may “not always share the same values” of our central administrators, but we have to communicate with them in ways that they will understand. That, increasingly, means that we will have to make arguments based on data that we collect. This notion, of the primacy of data, left me (a failed humanist) a bit down in the dumps at the end of the session. However, I quickly recovered from my largely emotional response to understand a deeper truth: that independent writing programs can make good arguments via data—and these arguments can rest on the shared values of our discipline. Ultimately, I left the room a bit wiser about the challenges that independent writing programs face in the new millennium, and how to effectively meet those challenges. I appreciated the panel’s willingness to share their stories, strategies and experiences with me. |