ASCRC Writing Committee Minutes, 2/4/13
TODD 203
Members Present: G. Burns, B. Chin, C. Corr, J. Glendening, J. Melcher, M. Triana, G. Wiex
Ex-Officio Members Present: C. Coder, D. Raiford, K. Ryan, K. Webster
Members Absent/Excused: J. Drew, M. Stark
Guest: J. Hanson
The meeting was called to order at 10:10 p.m.
The minutes from 12/3/12 were amended and approved.
Communication Items:

Jacob Hanson, Associate Director of the Writing Center was welcomed to the Committee. He will be
filling in for Director Webster starting in March.

Student member Joey Moore and Professor Sattler resigned from the committee.

The committee is meeting the first Monday of the month spring semester (March 4th, April 8th,
and May 6th .)

The Information Literacy Workshop is scheduled for Thursday, March 7, 11-12, MLIB 283.
The workshop is co-sponsored by the Writing Committee, the Faculty Development Office, and
the Mansfield Library. The focus will be to facilitate understanding of Information Literacy in a
broader way in terms of critical thinking and reading. Director Webster and Professor Stark
have been involved with the planning, but Sue Samson in the Mansfield Library is taking the
lead.

ASCRC did not approve the suggested labels of “Writing to Learn” and “Writing in the
Discipline.” Mostly the criticism was regarding “Writing to Learn.” All writing assigned in
courses is designed for students to learn, so is not a sufficient descriptor. The Committee
suggests “to learn” be dropped and sent back to ASCRC with the request for suggestions if not
acceptable. Chin Chair will attend ASCRC next week to make the argument for the change.

The Committee briefly discussed the Writing Symposium feedback comments. More outreach
is needed for faculty teaching English as a Second Language. The Committee should think
about offering an advanced writing workshop in the future. A podcast of the symposium is
available on the Faculty Development web page:
http://www.umt.edu/provost/fdo/profdev/fdseries%2011-12/Videos.aspx. It was suggested that
the link be sent to the attendees so they might share the information with colleagues. Members
suggest a website for faculty resources. It is believed that the Faculty Development Office is
the resources for this. Chair Chin will communicate with Director Amy Kinch.
Business Items

Professor Weix requested consideration of an issue with Anthropology courses listed
incorrectly in the catalog/ schedule. In 2010 ANTY 336 was granted a one-time-only writing
designation that was never removed. In addition ANTY 440 was accidently listed as an upperdivision writing course. She is willing to teach it as such so the students can graduate. The
Writing Committee would like to see a form for the course, but is willing to approve the writing
designation. The way the schedule is built is problematic for one-time-only designations. The
schedule rolls over from the previous year with the same listing of courses. The Registrar’s
Office adds and removes courses at the departments’ request.
Professor Weix is concerned that departments do not take ownership for teaching their majors
how to write. Her department has 300 majors and no lower-division writing courses. Many
faculty to not understand what is required for the upper-division writing courses that they teach.
She wonders how other departments are serving their students. Some have creative ways of
distributing the writing. Political Science, for example has a 1-credit writing only add on to
upper-division courses.

The Committee reviewed the survey and suggested several changes. The survey will be revised
and sent to members for comment.

Both the Writing Course Form and the Upper-division Writing Course Form were revised
based on feedback from last semesters review. Exemplary responses to the form questions,
syllabus, and handouts with comments /arrows would be helpful. Members should keep an eye
out for such example during next fall’s review.

The Committee reviewed the holistic rubric and suggested a few changes. Members should
apply the rubric to the student papers in the green folder as well as the two additional papers
that were distributed with the assignments. Please submit these by next Monday to allow for
processing. A workgroup consisting of Jill, Mark, Cathy, Jacob, Carl and Jody will help
annotate training papers.

Members are needed to help draft the interpretation of the data from the fall review of lowerdivision writing course forms. Professor Ryan agreed to help.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.