[Download] "So, You Helped Create a New Writing Center--Now What?: Lessons and Reflections from a First-Year Director" by Writing Lab Newsletter # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: So, You Helped Create a New Writing Center--Now What?: Lessons and Reflections from a First-Year Director
- Author : Writing Lab Newsletter
- Release Date : January 01, 2008
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
As first- and second-year junior faculty members, my colleague and I were thrilled when our chancellor, amid yet another tight budget year, enthusiastically accepted our proposal for a new campus writing center. As one of just three four-year institutions in the University of Wisconsin System without a writing center, the establishment of our own center had been long awaited by many of our campus colleagues. For a brief "honeymoon" period, my new fellow co-director and I basked in the glory of what we had accomplished; the chancellor, after all, had agreed to our full budget request for staff stipends, furniture, and supplies; precious course release time for both of us; and training support and print resources/materials for our center. This honeymoon phase began to wear off quickly, however, as the reality of the work that lay ahead of us began to unfold. This reality became even more daunting when we discovered that when it came to directing a brand new writing center, our previous graduate training at large research institutions with established, thriving centers didn't serve as a very helpful blueprint. Further, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. the IWCA website's section on "Starting a Center" and Bobbie Silk's (ed.) The Writing Center Resource Manual), we found that much of the recent literature on writing center administration seemed more focused on existing centers rather than on brand-new facilities. (1) Truthfully, though, even if more resources and literature had existed, as new directors of a brand new center, we had precious little time to scour through such material. What we yearned for was to hear stories and practical advice from other relatively new directors who had recently been in our shoes: firsthand accounts of "what I know now that I wish I'd known then" or surefire tips for "starting off on the right foot."