Re: Identity crisis

[Katie Fischer <kfischer@keller.clarke.edu>]

Jeanne and All,
	What difference does it make?  Credibility, I'd say.  On many 
campuses, w.c. could be perceived as threatening to faculty.  If these 
centers are run by 'staff persons' or 'administrative persons' or 
'student affairs' rather than by a bonafide faculty contracted person, 
they are less likely to advise their students to visit.  And although I'd 
love to believe that the crowds will come because they are drawn to 
improving their writing like the crowds came to receive scraps of loaves 
and fishes, I know it would take someone more miraculous than me to run the 
place.  
	Faculty status puts w.c. directors in the faculty 'network' which 
also means faculty are more likely to seek out the center when it comes 
to WAC needs.  I doubt that any of the faculty at our college would 
invite us into their classrooms during class time to work with their 
students if we were not part of the chosen.  As faculty, we also work on 
several college committees and projects which can directly or indirectly 
effect both our services and our budgets.
	So, I think that depending on the particular college, faulty 
status can have a great deal to do with the success of the w.c.  
Generally, too, faculty status entitles one to grants, sabaticals, 
fellowships, etc. which enable the director to improve professionally.  
I'd like to believe that this also has an impact on the center.
	So until I learn to walk on water, I guess I'd vote for full 
faculty status.  Certainly w.c. offer services to students.  But what 
class doesn't?  Both are academic.  Naive though it may seem, I think a 
thing should be called what it is.  If directing and tutoring in a w.c. 
is mainly a teaching function, it should be recognized as such legally.
					Katie
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Katherine M. Fischer      Box 1569               319-588-8115
English Department        Clarke College         319-588-6445
Writing Center            Dubuque IA 52001       kfischer@keller.clarke.edu

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On Thu, 8 Dec 1994, Jeanne H. Simpson wrote:

> Sharon, others,
> 
> I keep reading--and have written--on the issue of faculty attitudes toward
> the status and/or rank of the writing center director.  My question: since
> the writing center is, by definition, largely a student service, how
> important is faculty perception of these issues, when you get right down to
> it?  That faculty need to think the center does its job? Yes. But that is
> not clearly connected to status or rank, as the evidence on this list
> demonstrates.  The quality of a center is as much a function of its tutors as
> it is of the status/rank of the director, maybe more.
> 
> If the writing center is affected directly by curricular decisions made by
> faculty, I can see the issue there. Or if the writing center offers credit
> (which is also a curricular issue).  
> 
> But if faculty don't write the checks or assign the space or attend the
> center, why is their opinion so important?
> 
> I reiterate my point that I don't think students care a whit whether the
> director of the writing center is faculty or not, tenure-track or not.
> I think the writing center director cares a lot. I don't know what faculty
> actually think about this. Not convinced they care that much. 
> 
> And has any real research been done on this? How do we know if it matters
> or how much?  Anybody done a survey?
> 
> Jeanne Simpson
> csjhs@eiu.edu
>