Re: Identity crisis

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

SuEllen,

There are always trade-offs to be considered in these matters.

If you are a faculty member on tenure line, generally, you have to be
affiliated with a department where standards for evaluation for tenure are
defined and where at least part of the decision is made.  That means that,
even if the writing center itself is not housed in a department, your
professional fate is.  The department may or may not be willing to apply
appropriate criteria in evaluating your work. It is possible that you
would have to meet two different sets of criteria, one for a writing
center director and one for a faculty member in X department.  These
issues need to be sorted out very, very carefully. 

If you are not a faculty member, the issue of prestige among those who are
cannot be ignored, either.  Staff status can be, although it is not
always, a kind of 2nd class citizenship that causes problems for the Center.

I will finish these thoughts later. Our server is going down.

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu