Re: Starting a WC (fwd)

[EBOQUET@FAIR1.FAIRFIELD.EDU]

Hi, Diane--

Congratulations on the degree and the job and welcome aboard!

I can't offer you much help along the lines of tutoring writing and oral
communication in the same place (though, as you point out, most centers do
both, implicitly if not explicitly).  I might begin by finding out (if you
don't already know) what the rationale was for combining these two in the first
place.  That might help you to figure out what's expected of your center.  I'm
just brainstorming here, but I'm thinking about a discussion we had in our
English dept in the Spring when a journalism hire was proposed.  Several people
wanted to know whether journalism belonged in communications rather than in
English, etc., etc., turf, politics, you know the routine.  So, in writing up
the proposal for hire, we had to articulate very clearly how this position fit
the English dept's mission and goals.

Your situation is also interesting because your new center follows,
historically, from some of the first centers' set-ups, when writing clinics
were part of a communications skills approach that included speech clinics,
reading clinics, etc.  If you haven't seen it already, you might want to check
out Pete Carino's article in the (I think) Spring 1995 issue of the _Writing
Center Journal_.

All the best with your new everything--
Beth Boquet
eboquet@fair1.fairfield.edu