Re: Lines of Reporting

[cph@wiley.csusb.edu (Carol Haviland)]

The lines of reporting hang on two very different strings--the structure
that makes philosophical and pedagogical sense and who interprets/implements
that structure.

Our WC is a joint project of the English Dept and the Div of Undergrad
Studies.  My faculty appointment is in English with half of my time released
to WC direction.  The budget runs through UG Studies.  This arrangement
makes sense in that it links me to my academic home yet positions the WC as
an all-university project.  It worked extremely with the first UG dean who
believed in hiring people he trusted and turning them loose, expecting them
to consult as needed and to be proud of what they accomplished.  It has been
much more strained with a series of less competent, more controlling, more
hierarchical (other adjectives can be supplied) deans who divert more money
into their fiefdoms/black holes and thrive on wielding power.  

So, while the more important structure is the reporting line, one that is
consistent philosophically, the personnel are equally critical--I think that
silk can be woven into sows' ears.

Carol Haviland
>I always have difficulty with this question.  I report to an English Department
>and I cooperate with two deans and the academic vice-president (apparently 
>that's a provost).  I cope with budgeting through the department (it pays
>about half my salary and probably at least 40% of the tutor costs).  Budgets
>do get really confusing. I have some sympathy the Dean who years ago 
>metaphorically patted my head and told me not to worry my pretty little one
>about it.  I also have to report to another dean (university college) and
>the vice-president for financial affairs for that other part of my budget, but 
>the money kind of always comes through the department. A generalized howl 
>usually gets me more money when there is a real crisis.
>
>The point is that, yeah, I wish who is really in charge were clearer just
>because it would make my job easier.  It would not, however, get the Writing
>Center more money or respect.  I find no place to stand in the stories of
>deprivation and neglect that sometimes appear here.  The Writing Center is
>central to the success of so many students and supports so many ideas and
>programs and has such outstanding faculty and students tutoring in it and so
>many people pulling for it all the time that not succeeding is not an option.
>
>Obviously such unrelenting support from the university means that in many
>ways, the Writing Center here is the university's creature.  Somehow, like
>Hester Prynne, I say what we do has "a consecration of its own."  We feel
>it so.  (Eek!  My other life just crept in again.  Would I be at home 
>outside an ENglish department?)  
>
>If they give us lots of money and time and attention, don't we have to do what 
>they want?  Yep, but we also get to do what we want, and we get to convince 
>them that we're right.
>
>
>Linda Coblentz
>UH-Downtown
>coblentz@dt.uh.edu
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