13-16 July
Charlotte, North Carolina
Host: University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Local Arrangements: Meg Morgan, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Program Chair: Doug Hesse, Illinois State U
Program Committee: Carol Rutz, Carleton College; Shirley Rose, Purdue University, Meg Morgan, Doug Hesse
Thursday, July 13
2:00-4:30 Meeting of the WPA Executive Board
2:00-3:30 Open House, Department of English, UNCC
5:00 Opening Keynote Session, Omni Ballroom
Welcome: Meg Morgan, Cy Knoblauch, Doug Hesse
Richard Lloyd-Jones, University of Iowa, "The
More Things Change. . . "
The first 25 years of CCCC, the first 25 years of WPA.
Introduced by: Doug Hesse, Illinois State
Reception to follow the opening session.
Friday, July 14
7:30 Breakfast
8:30 Plenary Session.
Jeanne Gunner, Santa Clara University, "Heroic
Bodies"
Introduced by Meg Morgan, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
9:15 Discussion Groups
Leaders: Martha A. Townsend, University of Missouri; Dennis Lynch,
Michigan Tech University; Alice Gillam, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;
Bill Condon, Washington State University; Kathleen Yancey, Clemson
University; Irvin Peckham, University of Nebraska-Omaha; Jennie
Dautermann, Miami University; Chet Pryor, Montgomery College-Germantown
9:45 Plenary Discussion. Moderator: Chris Anson, North Carolina State University
10:15 Break
10:45: In Memory of Bob Connors
"How Each of Us Got Here: 'Little Narratives' in the spirit of Bob Connors' Life and Work"
Bob Connors died in a motorcycle accident on June 22, 2000. He was 48 and at the height of his life as a teacher and scholar, yes, but also as friend and husband and father. Professionally, we knew him as perhaps the most astute current historian of composition studies, his award-winning book Composition-Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Theory, and Pedagogy being but one of his contributions to our grasping where we and the field have been. We knew him, too, from his generous, wise, and witty comments to the WPA listserv, where his postings often took the form of small essays themselves and where he was never to busy to furnish a citation when someone asked, often even giving an annotation. In the brief time since his death, I've been struck by the number of stories I've heard and read of Bob helping scholars, veteran and new, with various projects, in ways that should be examples to us all.
Bob long directed a writing center at the University of New Hampshire, and he was so visibly involved in WPA issues that it might surprise some to know that he had never been able to attend a regular WPA summer conference. The Charlotte meeting was to have been his first, and in an email to me last September, he wrote
"Though going to North Carolina from coastal Maine in the middle of July sounds like some sort of masochism, I have always wanted to go to WPA. How many days is it? I don't have anything specific in mind right now, though I'm reading a new book on the possibilities of various advanced writing curricula that's about to come out from B/C, and perhaps I could bounce off that--"On Beyond Abolitionism" or something like that. At CCCC this year I'm on a panel discussing the potentially problematic relations between FYC programs and WAC programs, so perhaps I could thumb in a pinch of that. . .resurrect a little abolition history. . .three tablespoons of tech writing history, cook over slow fire until glaze forms on eyeballs. . .Anyhow, as you can see, I'm thinking about it hard. Put me down as a yes. . . . Best, Bob"
Bob, of course, spoke at WPA's Composition in the Twenty-First Century conference. And he almost never missed a WPA breakfast at 4C's. Last April in Minneapolis he joined several of us at a table in a glassy corner atop the IDS building. As the sun came up over the paved prairie fifty stories below, on out to the horizon, he mentioned it would be a good day to ride, if a little cold. I suspect for Bob it was a rare day when it was not good to ride. We might all aspire to chase our passions, for learning and for life, with the fervor he did.
--Doug Hesse
Conference participants will record, on tape or in writing, brief accounts of how they got involved, eventually, in writing program administration.
11:30 Lunch (on your own)
1:00 A Sessions
UNC Charlotte Uptown Center
Panel
A.1 In the Rich Middle: WPA Work at Small Colleges
Chair: Anita Guynn, Beloit College
Presenters: Dominic Delli Carpini, York College of Pennsylvania,
"(Ad)Ministering Composition to the Small College: Spreading
the Word Through Faculty Enhancement"
Tom Amorose, Seattle Pacific University, "The Powerful, Invisible
Middle: The Small School WPA's Position on Campus and in the Profession"
Jeff Cain, Sacred Heart University, "Ex Corde Eccleasiae
and Writing Program Administration"
Panel
A.2 Assessment Wars, or "Why Can't We Use the ACT to Place
Writers?"
Presenters: Maurice Scharton, Illinois State
University, "History Lessons: How to Design and Redesign
a Test"
Janice Witherspoon Neuleib, Illinois State University, "Tactics
and Strategies, Plans for Attack"
Claire Lamonica, Illinois State University, "Practical Results,
Instructor Training"
Panel
A.3 Forces Affecting Courses and Programs
Chair: Chet Pryor, Montgomery College-Germantown
Presenters: Alice Horning, Oakland University, and Margaret
Willard-Traub, Oakland University, "The WPA Consultant-Evaluator
Visit and the "Wars" Over Writing"
Nicole Amare and Charlotte Brammer, University of Alabama, "English
for Engineers or Engineering English? Applying WAC Principles
to a Traditional Freshman Writing Program"
Mary G. Jackson, St. Mary's University, "Composition as a
Service Course: Service to Whom?"
Panel
A.4 Responding to Diminished Institutional Support
Chair: Marvin Diogenes, University of Arizona
Bille J. Jones, Penn State-Capital College, "Adjunts and
Their WPA's: Stuck in the Middle of an Increasingly Tenured World"
Greg Bowe, Florida International University, "The Upside-down
English Department"
Irwin Weiser, Purdue University, "How Being a WPA Has Made
Me a New Abolitionist"
Panel
A.5 Professional Concerns of the WPA
Chair: Rita Malenczyk, Eastern Connecticut State
University
Presenters: Shirley Rose, Purdue University, "Making
Memory: Documentation Strategies for the Intellectual Work of
Writing Program Administration"
Irene Ward, Kansas State University, Practicing Leadership: Thriving
at the Writing Program Administrator's "Inside Game"
Roundtable
A.6 Is There Hope for These Inconvenient Marriages? WPAs, Trustees,
and Legislators
Presenters Carol P. Haviland, California State
University-San Bernardino
David Schwalm, Arizona State University-East
Workshop
A.7 Writing with Computers: Issues and Implications for WPA
and IT Staff
Presenters: Gene Baer, Mt. Mary College, and Martin Moldenhauer, Wisconsin Lutheran College
2:15 Break and Book Display
2:30 B Sessions
Panel
B.1 Using the WPA Outcomes Statement
Chair: Gordon Thomas, University of Idaho
Presenters: Shawn Hellman, University of Arizona, "Using
the WPA Outcomes Statement to Assess Computer Use in First Year
Composition"
Duane Roen, Arizona State University, Gregory Glau, Arizona State
University, and Alice Gillam, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
"Using the WPA Outcomes Statement to Guide Students' Portfolio
Construction"
Workshop
B.2 FYC, WAC, and Program Assessment: How Faculty Outside English
Re/View First-Year Comp
Presenters: Meg Morgan, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, and Kathleen Yancey, Clemson
Panel
B.3 Reading Teachers, Reading Students
Chair: Marcy Trianosky, Hollins University
Presenters: Carol Rutz, Carleton College, "The Messiness
of Response: What Teachers Say about What They Do and What Students
Make of It""
Ellen Quandahl, San Diego State University, "Between Students'
Writing and Teachers' Reading: Grading Practices as Observable
Objects"
Joe Marshall Hardin, Northwestern State U, "Dangerous Curves:
What You Can('t) Tell from Grade Distributions"
Panel
B.4 A New Blueprint for Graduate Studies: Real Training for
the Real WPA World
Presenters: Susan Romano, University of Texas
at San Antonio, "Prepartion and Performance: An Inquiry into
the Intersections of Doctoral Training, Programmatic Visions,
and Work Worlds of Junior Level WPAs"
Virginia Anderson, Indiana University Southwest, "And What
More Can we Do? A Hit-the-Ground-Running Doctoral Curriculum for
Junior Level WPAs"
Thomas P. Miller, University of Arizona, "Preparing WPAs
and Other Expert Learners to Be Institutional Leaders"
Panel
B.5 From Portfolios to Computers: Assessing the Intellectual
Work of Evolving Domains in Writing Program Administration
Presenters: Shane Borrowman, University of Arizona,
"Portfolios for Placement and Outreach"
Daphne Desser, University of South Carolina, "The WPA, the
'Fourth Wave,' and New Technologies"
Darin Payne, University of South Carolina, "Assessing Cyberspace:
Developing a Critical Methodology for Incorporating New Technologies
into Writing Programs"
Panel
B.6 Teachers, TAs, and WPAs in the Middle
Chair: Lauren Fitzgerald, Yeshiva University
Presenters: Diane Boehm, Saginaw Valley State University,
"Teachers in the Center: A Research Study"
Dana Kinnison, University of Missouri, and Reinhold Hill, University
of Missouri, "Neither This Nor That: New Contributors to
Writing Program Administration"
Richard Bullock, Wright State University, "In the Middle
of TA Conflict: WPA as Counselor, Referee, House Mother, Target,
and Other Roles We Weren't Trained For"
4:15 Issue Groups
All participants elected to join one of the following discussion groups, arranged by Doug Hesse
A. What issues and innovations confront WAC
and WID programs?
convened by Bill Condon and Deb Bosley
WAC and WID programs have arguably entered a period of maturity,
even late maturity. What makes them viable--or threatens their
viability? Topics might include program requirements and resources,
faculty development, support for the WPA, successes, challenges,
changes, and so on.
B. What are working conditions for WPAs?
convened by Jennie Dautermann and Chris Anson
What kinds of support are WPAs receiving--or do they need
to receive? What are current pressures on the position? Have these
changed over the years? How about tenure and promotion? How about
burnout? How about success stories and strategies for improving
working conditions? These are but some suggested lines of discussion.
C. What are working conditions for writing
teachers?
convened by Shirley Rose and Joseph Harris
The status of nontenure-line faculty and teaching assistants
continues to be a hot topic on WPA-L and elsewhere. Are things
improving? Are there strategies WPAs can pursue? Is there any
substance to anecdotes that the "labor pool" of such
"contingent faculty" members is contracting, making
it more difficult to staff programs? What about alternative hiring
practices? And what about conditions for tenure-line writing teachers?
Has professional life for them changed over the past several years?
D. Can--or should--the required freshman writing
course persist?
convened by Alice Gillam and Dennis Lynch
Arguments to abolish the freshman writing requirement have
existed for a decade at least, driven both by theoretical arguments
and political concerns (about, for example, how the course is
staffed). What is the state, in 2000, of freshman writing courses?
Are they subtly waxing or subtly waning on individual campuses?
What are characteristics of currently strong programs? What alternatives
are being pursued?
E. How do--or should--histories of writing
and writing programs inform WPA work?
convened by Tom Miller
People who would like to discuss Robert Connors' contributions
to the profession are especially invited to this discussion.
F. What is the climate for writing programs?
convened by Duan Roen and Chuck Schuster
Any number of developments affect writing programs across
the country: general education reform, distance learning, articulation
agreements, assessment and accreditation, funding, testing in
the schools, legislative agendas, student agendas, and so on.
What environmental forces are affecting your writing program?
What opportunities do these create or limit?
G. What should the Council of Writing Program
Administrators be doing?
convened by Chet Pryor and Jeanne Gunner
How should WPA marshal its resources? What initiatives should
the organization take up--or shun? How should the organization
use whatever bully pulpit it has? How might we better involve
more members directly in activities of the organization?
H. How does the world today appear beyond traditional
freshman composition?
convened by Irv Peckham and Rebecca Moore Howard
What issues confront WPAs in writing centers? In distance
learning initatives? In campus tutoring arrangements, including
those outside the writing program (even athletic departments)?
In writing majors? In elective writing courses?
I. A meeting of North Carolina WPAs.
6:00 Banquet: Omni Ballroom
Presiding: Doug Hesse
7:30 Open Meeting of WPA Executive Board
9:00 Closed Meeting of WPA Board
Saturday, July 15
7:30 Breakfast
8:30 Plenary Session, Omni Ballroom
Patricia Bizzell, College of the Holy Cross, "The
WPA Without a Program, or, Memoirs of a Local 'Writing Expert'"
Introduction: Kathleen Yancey, Clemson University
9:15 Group Discussions, UNC Charlotte Uptown Center
Leaders: Eli Goldblatt, Temple University; Chris Anson, North Carolina State University; Shirley Rose, Purdue University; John Heyda, Miami University-Middletown; Carol Rutz, Carleton College; Irwin Weiser, Purdue University; Irene Ward, Kansas State University; Rita Malenczyk, Eastern Connecticut State University
9:45 Plenary Discussion
Moderated by Duane Roen, Arizona State University
10:30 Break and Book Display
11:00 C Sessions
Panel
C.1 Stuck in the Middle with You: The Perils and Pleasures
of a Collaborative Model of Writing Program Administration
Chair: Kay Halasek, The Ohio State University
Presenters: Brenda Boyle, The Ohio State University
Jennie Clark, The Ohio State University
Kay Halasek, The Ohio State University
Mike Sasso, The Ohio State University
Eddie Singleton, The Ohio State University
Panel
C.2 Complications in Assessment
Chair: Sarah Dangelantonio, Franklin Pierce College
Presenters: Tim Peeples, Elon College, "Managing the
Messy Middle of an Electronic Portfolio Initiative: A Critical
Management Analysis"
Charlotte Brammer, University of Alabama, and Nicole Amare, University
of Alabama, "Writing Assessments: Evaluating Engineering
Students' Writing from Multiple Perspectives"
Lynn A. Rhodes, U South Carolina Aiken, "Between a Rock and
a Hard Place: Resistant Students, Resistant Colleagues, and Other
Opportunities with Institutional Writing Portfolios"
Panel
C.3 "Culture" and Critical Pedagogy: Exploring the
Role of the WPA in a Religious Culture
Presenters: Bonnie Lenore Kyburz, Utah Valley
State College, "Orthoparadoxa: Critical Pedagogy in a Religious
Culture"
Barry Maid, Arizona State U-East, "Keeping the Faith"
Elizabeth Vander Lei, Calvin College, "Students of Faith
in a Critical Pedagogy"
Nancy L. Christiansen, Brigham Young University, "The Culture
of Cultures: Rhetoric as an Art of Civilization"
Roundtable
C.4 When Everything is New, What Does "Change" Mean
and How Does it Happen?
Chair: Glenn Blalock
Presenters: Glenn Blalock, Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi
Paul Hain, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Robb Jackson, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Avis Rupert, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Panel
C.5 Technology in Writing Programs: Responsible Development,
Responsible Implementation, Responsible Assessment
Presenters: Rebecca Rickly, Texas Tech University,
"Responsible Development of Writing Technology"
Susan Lang, Texas Tech University, "Responsible Implementation
of Writing Technology"
Fred Kemp, Texas Tech Univesity, "Responsible Assessment
of/using Writing Technology"
Workshop
C.6 Listening, Learning, and Leading: How Things Get Done (Sometimes)
Presenter: Charles I. Schuster, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
12:15 Lunch
2:00 D Sessions
Roundtable
D.1 WAC and the WC: What to Do When You Find Your Writing Center
in the Thick of General Education Reform
Chair: Robert A. Hogue, Youngstown State U
Presenters: Clyde Moneyhun, University of Delaware, and
Gilda Kelsey, University of Delaware, "WAC, WIC, WID, and
WIP in the WC: Revising Our Mission"
Denise Stephenson, Grand Valley State University, "New Reforms
Forget What Former Reforms Have Wrought"
Sarah Dangelantonio, Franklin Pierce College
Marcy Trianosky, Hollins University
Eli Goldblatt, Temple University
Marvin Diogenes, University of Arizona
Panel
D.2 The Philosopher WPA: Placement, Personnel, Programs and
Pragmatism
Presenters:, Dan Royer, Grand Valley State University,
"A Placement Problem Pragmatically Considered"
Don Bushman, U North Carolina-Wilmington, "Experience, Reflection,
and Intelligent Action: Pragmatism and Personnel 'Problems'"
Keith Rhodes, Missouri Western State College, "Provisional
Optimism in the Uses of Theory: Pragmatic Program Direction"
Panel
D.3 Class, Service, and Scholarship
Chair: Jeff Cain, Sacred Heart University
Presenters: Irvin Peckham, U Nebraska at Omaha, "Social
Class and the WPA"
Amy Rupiper Taggart, Texas Christian University, "One or
Many? Reconciling Academic Authorship and Service Learning"
Jena Burges, Longwood College, "Writing Assessment as Service
Learning"
Roundtable
D.4 WPA and the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific
Communication--A New Relationship
Presenters: Barry M. Maid, Arizona State U--East
Deborah Bosley, U North Carolina-Charlotte
Michael Keene, University of Tennessee
Panel
D.5 Issues Beyond Freshman Composition
Chair: Lynn Rhodes, University of South Carolina-Aiken
Presenters: Michael B. Strickland, Elon College, "Holding
the Line while Changing the Field: Professional Writing Programs
at Liberal Arts Colleges"
Paula K. Garrett, Millsaps College, "Building Consensus Through
a Common Language: Analytical Writing on a Small College Campus"
Julie Neff-Lippman, University of Puget Sound, "When the
Accreditors Call: Assessing Writing in a Liberal Arts College"
Panel
D.6 Theorizing Teaching and Program Administration
Chair: David Harvey, University of Central Arkansas
Presenters: Stephen Wilhoit, University of Dayton, "Responding
to TA Classroom Performance: An Application of Booth's 'Rhetorical
Stance'"
Sandra Jamieson, Drew University, and Rebecca Moore Howard, Syracuse
University, "The Effects of Theory on Assumptions about Pedagogy"
Christine Norris, Purdue University, "The Existent, the Good,
and the Possible: Adjunct WPA Narratives"
3:15 Break and Book Display
3:45 E Sessions
Panel
E.1 Assessing Writing and Writing Programs
Chair: Jená Burges, Longwood College
Presenters: Deborah Bosley, U North Carolina-Charlotte,
"Assessing Writing Intensive Courses in the Disciplines"
Iris T. Chapman, Elon College, "Assessing the Assessed: Discoveries,
Practices, and Designs"
Paula K. Garrett, Millsaps College, and Kimberly G. Burke, Millsaps
College, "The Distance Between Intention and Perception:
A Model of Assessment for Writing Centers"
Presentation/Workshop
E.2 Issues in Writing Across the Curriculum
Chair: Irene Ward, Kansas State University
Presenters: Yvonne Merrill, University of Arizona, "Will
WPA's Become WAC Leaders in the New Millennium?"
Gail F. Wood. College of Staten Island/CUNY, "Something for
Everyone: Staff Development Strategies in Writing Across the Curriculum"
Panel
E.3 Institutional Contexts and Implications for Writing Programs
Chair: Clyde A. Moneyhun. University of Delaware
Presenters: Katy Gottschalk, Cornell University, "Cornell's
Writing Program: In the Thick of Things"
Lynee Lewis Gaillet, Georgia State U, "Bridging Two Worlds:
Writing Program Administration in the Metropolitan University"
Presenters: Brooke Hessler, Texas Christian University, "Task Force
Report: Distance Education and the Writing Program"
Panel
E.4 Thick Issues in Writing Center Administration
Chair: Dean Hinnen, University of North Carolina
at Pembroke
Presenters: Becky Nugent, Governors State University, "Mapping
the Messy Middle: Writing Center Coordinating Work and Writing
Policy"
Stephen R. Newton, William Paterson University, "The Secrets
We Cannot Tell: Defending Ambiguity in Writing Center Administration"
Irene L. Clark, University of Southern California, "Perspectives
on the Directive/nonDirective Continuum: Implications for Writing
Center and Classroom Pedagogy"
Workshop/Discussion
E.5 Outcomes and Identity for Writing Courses: Locating the
Field in the Thicket
Presenters: Barbara Gordon, Elon College, Rita Pollard, Elon College, and Denise David, Niagara Community College
Panel
E.6 Takes on the Politics of Location: A Cultural Analysis
of Teaching in the South
Presenters: Chris Anson, North Carolina State University, and Kathleen Yancey, Clemson University
5:00 Dinner on your own
7:00 to 9:30 Discovery Center Social
including the Composition Blues Band
Sunday, July 16
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Executive Board report
9:30-11:30 Town Hall Meeting: Issues Confronting WPA's --and WPA.
Issue group summaries
Organization into task forces and ad hoc committees
Local Arrangements Committee
Meg Morgan, Chair
Lil Brannon
Monica Ferguson
Shane Peagler
Erin Pushman
Lynn Raymond
Kim Stallings
Council of Writing Program Administrators Executive Committee
Doug Hesse, Illinois State, President
Kathleen Blake Yancey, Clemson, Vice
President
Jennie Dautermann, Miami, Secretary
John Heyda, Miami-Middletown, Treasurer
Theresa Enos, Arizona, Immediate Past
President
Chris M. Anson, North Carolina State
Bill Condon, Washington State
Beth Daniell, Clemson
Alice Gillam, Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Jeanne Gunner, Santa Clara
Irvin Peckham, Nebraska-Omaha
Chet Pryor, Montgomery College
Duane Roen, Arizona State
Shirley Rose, Purdue
Marguerite Helmers, Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Editor, WPA
Dennis Lynch, Michigan Tech, Editor, WPA
Deborah Holdstein, Governors State
Edward White, Arizona