Rethinking The Academy:

Writing Program Administrators


The Council for Writing Program Administrators has released the Portland Resolution ("Guidelines for Writing Program Administrator Positions") which advocates that "the institution must be prepared to provide for and fund [specialized] training" which is "outside the purview of rhetoric and composition studies."

Further, the guidelines also state that the institution

is responsible for providing a clear formula for determining 'equivalence' for a WPA: What responsibilities are equivalent to teaching a full load (as determined by that institution)? What release time will be given for administration and staff development? What administrative work will be counted as 'scholarship' in tenure and promotion decisions?

These questions are directly applicable to the concerns of those professionals who work in electronic environments, and who are often, like our colleagues in writing centers, seen as of only secondary importance in many departments.


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Last Modified: August 2, 1996

Copyright © 1996 by Keith Dorwick