MWCA
Midwest Writing Centers
Volume 32
Number 2
March 2011
Letter from The Chair
iding the bus to work at the
University of Minnesota last
week, I was delighted to see the
combination of silliness and optimism
embodied in this snowperson. It’s a bleak and
lonely time of year in Minnesota, so this was a
welcome communiqué from the residents of the
apartment building near the entrance to I-94 East.
I’m pleased, too, that this optimism (and a
sustaining sense of humor) is in full effect 270
miles farther along I-94 East, in Madison,
Wisconsin. Battling a special kind of bleakness
and scarcity, friends, colleagues, and fellow
citizens gather at the Capitol, in body or in spirit.
Their collective work to ensure rights for
everyone is truly inspiring, and makes me all the
more excited for our upcoming conference there.
Talking to Brad Hughes at the University of
Wisconsin and reading Facebook updates from
my friends and colleagues make me feel strongly
connected to this vital part of our region.
Connection and communication are important
for writing center work. Beyond the one-to-one
work of our consulting sessions, writing center
professionals need to connect and communicate
with people who can support and sustain them.
From recent Twitter Revolutions overseas, as well
as from the use of social media to organize and
inform about what’s going on in Madison, we
know that social media and web technology can
do much to create powerful connections among
far-flung people. (They can even make for
creative and unexpected acts of generosity: people
have used the web to order pizza for protestors
—even from as far away as Egypt). I want to take
advantage of this all-digital edition of the MWCA
Newsletter to remind our membership of the many
ways in which we can use digital tools to
communicate with and nourish each other in our
own work, locally, regionally, and nationally.
MWCA is, of course, a regional organization
within the larger International Writing Centers
Association (IWCA), whose website contains a
wealth of resources and opportunities for learning
from each other. One of those resources
(unaffiliated with IWCA) is the wcenter listserv,
which provides a forum for all of us in the global
writing center community to share—and
productively question—our diverse ideas, goals,
and values. Closer to home, however, may be
listservs for each MWCA state or local region:
Minnesota, for example, has a lively listserv
specifically for members of our state consortium
and another for the E–12 Writing Centers
R
Collective, a sub-group of MWCA members who
run, work in, and/or are supporters of E(arly
education)–12 writing centers in Minnesota. I
encourage you to visit the newly redesigned
MWCA website and, after admiring the design
and implementation work of MWCA Vice Chair
and Web Guru Greg Dyer, click on your state
link at the top of the home page. There you will
find your state’s Consortium Coordinator, who
will gladly connect you with other writing
centers in your region—many of which you will
find listed there. (If your writing center is
missing from the list, please contact Greg to get
it added.)
Collaboration is also possible for us on wikis
and blogs. As a recent discussion on the wcenter
listserv revealed, many writing centers have
Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts.
Thanks again to the work of Greg Dyer, MWCA
has its own wiki, where members can find
information on past conferences and plan for the
upcoming one. For consultants interested in
knowledge-sharing and reflection through
blogging and podcasting, there is Clint Gardner’s
PeerCentered, among many other sites where
folks can connect and communicate.
Not only our professional but our writing
selves can benefit from online connections.There
is a wealth of free collaborative writing and
conversation spaces, from Google to Dropbox.
The dissertators among us who seek community,
accountability, strategy-sharing, and the
occasional commiserator might try sites like
Phinished; those of us who need some external
pressure to produce (or just want a good laugh)
should pay at least one visit to Dr. Wicked’s
Write or Die.
Speaking of a good laugh, I frequently rely on
the power of humor in our writing center world to
create community and stretch our thinking.
Friends and colleagues near and far have recently
shared with me the Film School Thesis
Generator, the PoMo English Title Generator,
Dissertation Haiku, the Writing Lab Hulk, and
the hilarious (and surprisingly comforting)
Journal of Universal Rejection.
Of course, digital connections are great—but
they cannot substitute for the warmth of a group
of people gathered together to work and play.
With that in mind, I am hopeful that we will all
see each other in the face-to-face environment of
the MWCA conference in Madison this coming
fall.
♦
Katie Levin
Photo by Chris Wiley
Table of Contents
Letter from the Chair.......... …..1
State Consortium……….……...2
Mini-Regional News .... ……….3
The New Face of the MWCA
Website ................... …………...4
Good news!
The deadline for
proposal submission
for the MWCA Conference
in Madison
has been extended
to March 25.
Submissions should be
made via
https//c4w.cla.umn.edu/mwca/
Midwest Writing Centers
2
State Consortium News
The Iowa Writing Center Consortium met for the first time in September 2010 at Grand View University in
Des Moines to form this fledging state-level organization. Sixteen Iowa colleges and universities were represented by directors, staff and tutors. Our next retreat will take place Friday, April 15, 2011, in Iowa City. Our
location is Iowa City, sponsored by the University of Iowa Rhetoric Writing Center which is directed by Carol
Severino. The program will include individual writing center updates, a business meeting, a session to discuss
plans for the upcoming MWCA conference in Madison, and four one-hour breakout sessions. Assessments from
the fall retreat indicated the need for more tutor involvement. Consequently, a tutor panel was established to
develop two tutor-planned and -led breakout sessions for the April retreat. The tutors from several writing
centers are collaborating on the sessions. After the April gathering, we will meet annually each spring. Anyone
wishing further information should contact
Keith Reins at Kirkwood Community College, kreNebraska Consortium News: In September, Tanya Cochran of Union College in Lincoln, NE, hosted our 4th Annual state consortium meeting. We enjoyed a full day of
break-out sessions (essentially special interest group
discussions) and Rasha Diab of UT-Texas, along with
Tanya Cochran, presented a keynote address over lunch
titled: "Toward a Peaceable Rhetoric and Pedagogy: An
Academic Dialogue." It was another fabulous professional development experience for all involved. And the
5th Annual meeting is in the works--being planned by
Tony Jasnowski of Bellevue University.
Members of the Writing Center Professionals of Minnesota
(WCPM) group met on January 14 at Macalester College,
where Becky Graham and Jenny White hosted 31 people from
17 institutions for a stimulating discussion about working with
multilingual writers. We drew on the expertise of our colleagues and shared tools and strategies that have worked well
in our diverse centers and institutions. The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities's Kirsten Jamsen, Debra Hartley, and Katie
Levin presented the results of their "Technology Across Borders" grant project as a resource or project idea for other institutions. With support from the University of Minnesota's CLA
Student Technology Fee Committee, a group of administrators
and consultants at the Center for Writing developed tools and
resources to make the Student Writing Support program more
welcoming and accessible for all writers, including the many
multilingual writers at the University and beyond. Viewable at
http://writing.umn.edu/sws/multilingual/, the tools and resources include two videos introducing Student Writing Support to students and faculty; "Voices of Minnesota's Multilingual Writers," a series of videos inspired by Wayne Robertson's
"Writing Across Borders"; and an online self-study module
designed to help students make informed choices about the
trickiest part of English: the articles.
Kansas Writing Center Consortium
Friday, March 11 meeting at Kansas State University
(Manhattan Kansas).
Featured Speaker: Thomas Ferrell, University of Missouri at KC.
Topic: sharing information about the collaborative tutor training program conducted by Kansas City area Writing Centers
each Fall.
Nearly fifty writing center staff and peer writing tutors received a warm welcome and a nice breakfast at the Chicagoland Winter Mini-Conference for
Writing Center Tutors which took place at College of Lake County on Saturday, February 12, 2011. Six break-out sessions intoned the conference
theme, Empowering Choices, which explored, instructed, and analyzed empowering scenarios that might transpire in a writing center. Session topics
included rapport building, a tutor’s skill set, self-assessment for writing tutors, tutoring ESL writers and students with disabilities, and possibilities for
developing heterophenomenological research in writing centers. Besides a
tasty lunch, attendees enjoyed an anecdotal, entertaining, and resource rich
keynote from Jud Curry, North Park University, who spoke on “Improvising,
Writing, and DIY Learning” as a means to “Choose Your Own Adventure” in
the changing higher ed marketplace. Final thoughts with hot chocolate and
treats gave everyone a chance to network and to thank Jenny Staben and
the CLC writing center staff for hosting. The final Empowering Choice…
planning the next CWCA conference! Anyone interested in more information on the Chicagoland Writing Centers Association should contact Jenny
Staben (jstaben@clcillinois.edu).
Midwest Writing Centers
3
MiniMini-Regional News
Mini-regional organizations have a lively cycle of their own.
Information on what has been happening or is about to happen:
The Greater Kansas City Writing Centers' Project will be holding its 6th Annual Tutor
Retreat Thursday, Aug. 11 (9 a.m.-4 p.m.). Last year's retreat set record attendance
numbers with 108 attendees from 11 different schools--two of which were local high
schools starting new writing centers! For additional information about the 2011
GKCWCP Tutor Retreat or our mini-regional, please email Thomas Ferrel at
ferrelt@umkc.edu.
The University Writing Center at UW-Eau Claire was recently awarded internal funds
(over $150,000/yr) to transform the tutoring center into the Center for Writing Excellence, which will offer both students and faculty a diverse array of writing support
services and programs. This money will allow the writing center to expand into a fullfledged WAC/WID center for faculty development and improved writing instruction in
the disciplines. The award will also fund 16 Writing Fellows to work in upper-level
disciplinary courses, as well as 10 ELL Fellows to work with English Language Learners
in courses across the campus. Finally, the money will support a full-time, tenure-track
Center Director to begin Fall 2012. Stay tuned!
After years of reporting, requesting, planning, dreaming UW-Milwaukee Director
Margaret Mika and tutors 'grandly opened' their new Writing Center is lovely, larger,
more visible and accessible at the lst floor main entrance of Curtin Hall. Despite several
nail-biting moments--the remodeling work and the opening day video production went
down to the wire--the new Center's celebration and first day of tutoring went off without a hitch. The UWM staff and a record number of writers are enjoying their beautiful
and sunny new digs. To read more and view photos:
http://www4.uwm.edu/news/stories/details.cfm?
customel_datapageid_11602=3872656&sms_ss=email
http://www4.uwm.edu/writingcenter/The%20Center%20Piece%202010.pdf
Director Crystal Mueller and her tutors from UW-Oshkosh have plenty of room in their new
shared space as well as their own offices where they can close the door for privacy or ADA concerns. Also, there are windows! Lots of south-facing windows. What a change. A glass floor in the
hallways lets natural light through to the first floor, just one of several green building features.
Offices have walls of windows to let in natural light. The building has geothermal heating and
cooling. More articles and photos about UW-Oshkosh's new Center are available at these links:
SSC.JPG
Two Offices.jpg
philfirstsession.jpg
glass ceiling.jpg
phil waving.jpg
whole suite.jpg
Before and After photos
from UW Milwaukee WC
Midwest Writing Centers
4
B
The New Face of the MWCA Website
By the time you receive this newsletter, you may already have discovered a new look on the
MWCA website (http://pages.usiouxfalls.edu/mwca). The site has retained its current design for
many years, and a facelift was long overdue. While the most noticeable changes will be cosmetic,
we hope you’ll also find the menus more user-friendly. A variety of links spread across various
locations on the old homepage will be consolidated into a convenient menu on the left-hand side
of the new page, and we’ll be inserting a list of “Quick Links” designed to provide easier access to
related resources, such as the MWCA Wiki, the MWCA Profile (our database-driven site for membership and conference activity), and the IWCA website.
In addition to providing the MWCA membership with a new look and increased convenience,
we’ll also be moving some of the content—such as the archive of conference websites and calls-for
-proposals—to the MWCA Wiki (http://mwca.pbworks.com), which offers untapped potential as a
site for on-going collaboration.
While the initial stage of the redesign will happen quickly, additional changes will taking place
in the months ahead. Behind the scenes (hopefully), we’ll be transitioning toward the use of CSS
throughout the website, and we’ll also be working to develop the MWCA Wiki and to increase the
numbers of MWCA members following our Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/m_w_c_a). These
resources may be particularly useful as folks prepare for the fall conference in Madison, Wisconsin.
Please drop in on the site and give it a test run. And, as always, if you find glitches or have
suggestions for additional revisions or increased functionality, please let us know. All suggestions
and questions can be sent to Greg Dyer at greg.dyer@usiouxfalls.edu.
Articles and news items for the next issue of the
Midwest Writing Centers Association Newsletter
should be sent to Carol Martin, North Park University,
3225 W Foster Ave., Chicago, IL 60625-4895
(e-mail address: Cmartin@northpark.edu).
Newsletter Editor: Jacquelyn L. Cuddeback
Coe College Writing Center