WRITING CENTER

Strategic Plan

2002-2007

Mission Statement ……………………………………………………………………...	3

Internal Situational Analysis …………………………………………………………...	3

SWOT Analysis ………………………………………………………………………...	3

Strengths……………………………………………………….……………….	3

Weaknesses …………………………………………………………………….	4

Opportunities ……………………………………………………….…………..	4

Threats ………………………………………………………………………….	5

External Situational Analysis ……………………………………………………….….	5

Goals and Objectives ...…………………………………………………………………	6

Future Budgeting Requests ………………………………………………………….…	8

Timeline of Writing Center Goals and Tasks ……………………………………...…...	8

Mission Statement

The SAU Writing Center is a full-time, on campus, student-centered facility designed to encourage peer interaction, to establish writing as a multi-disciplinary goal, and to support the idea that writing enhances learning. It offers students from all backgrounds and disciplines the opportunity to confer at any stage of the writing process with trained writing consultants. Writers are guaranteed not only an establishment that respects their opinions, needs, and abilities but also consultants who are trained to be compassionate, interested, active readers of a variety of papers. Writing consultants are not required to be experts in any single subject but rather serve as generalists who can read, write, and comment on a variety of topics and ideas. Although the Writing Center works in conjunction with faculty across campus, the center derives the majority of its clientele from a voluntary student body of writers who—whether at the encouragement of faculty or on the basis of self-motivation—seek out the writing center as a means of improving their writing.

Internal Situational Analysis

In the two and one-half years that the SAU Writing Center has been open, it has proven its worth to students, faculty, administration, and staff. Faculty awareness (as evidenced by increased faculty visits to and recommendations of the center) and student use have increased dramatically over its tenure. In 2000-01, the new center attracted 193 students, who conferenced 386 times; of those conferences, 192 (49.7%) were with students who returned for one or more visits. During the 2001-02 academic year, those numbers more than doubled, with 380 students visiting the center 894 times—and repeat conferences climbed to 514, or 57.5% of our total conferences. These statistics suggest not only that word of the center’s services is spreading but also that students find the help valuable (as demonstrated by their willingness to return with other writing tasks). The center currently employs eight consultants (seven undergraduates and one graduate assistant) for a total of 102 hours to staff 45 daily and evening weekday hours. In addition to consultations, the Writing Center offers students such important resources as instructor assignment files, handbooks and other writing skills texts, and computers and printers.

The current director of the Writing Center is a full-time, tenure-track faculty member with the Department of English and Foreign Languages in addition to her appointment as director; this situation poses problems and advantages for the center and the director herself (as described in the SWOT analysis).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The Writing Center aids and provides a support system for students and faculty who are engaged in the writing process in their classes.
The location of the Writing Center on the first floor of Magale Library is an ideal setting for productive one-to-one interaction, as well as larger meetings and presentations, and cements a partnership between the center and the library.
The center provides a non-threatening, peer-oriented atmosphere.
Writing consultants, who come from a variety of majors and backgrounds, offer a broad array of experiences and appeal to a wide range of student personalities.
It ensures that consultants are well trained through the Practicum of Writing Consultation course and a one-hour weekly meeting.
The center invites students, faculty, and staff to use the center in capacities beyond conferencing, including its use for class visits, during organizational meetings, as a resource area, and during a yearly open house.
The current director’s status as a faculty member allows unique opportunities to promote the center, to speak with colleagues, and to gather suggestions and feedback. The director can also recruit potential writing consultants based on first-hand experience of their performance in classes.
The center enjoys the constant support of the Department of English and Foreign Languages, which releases the director for between three-six hours each semester in order to facilitate the Writing Center’s existence.

Weaknesses

The director teaches between six and nine hours per semester and is therefore not a consistently visible entity in the center. At times, this results in less supervision of consultants and may mean that consultants and clients have no mediator present during potentially confusing, tense, or hostile situations.
Consultants record information about conferences on paper before the staff enters those records into a computer database; this sometimes creates confusion, increases the risk of faulty data, and makes reporting difficult.
As a “new” (three-year-old) facility on campus, the Writing Center must advertise more frequently than other student services and must continually keep in contact with faculty members to remind faculty and students of its presence; the consultants and director are responsible for portraying the services accurately and attractively in response to confusion or misinformation about the center.
The Writing Center can provide only two consultants at most times, resulting in overworked consultants and students being turned away during peak hours. The center cannot guarantee that these students will return at another time.

Opportunities

The director can apply for grant money for the center, reducing its reliance on the university and on the Student Support Services grant; this reduction or redirection of funds will allow the center to hire additional consultants and a secretary, to improve the usability and appearance of the center, and to increase and improve the quality of the resources (including additional or improved computer equipment, resource materials, etc.) available to writers and staff.
The university can seek a full-time director who will be responsible for the hiring, training, supervision, and evaluation of the writing consultants, as well as assessing the writing center’s effectiveness and providing consulting hours himself or herself.
The director would better prepare consultants for their work by making it possible for consultants to attend regional or national conferences for writing consultants/peer tutors. This might also allow the consultants an opportunity to increase their own scholarship by presenting at such events.
The statistics outlining the Writing Center’s consistently increasing contact with students could be presented to the university as rationale for increasing the staff (consultants) and services.
The Writing Center could establish an on-line writing lab (OWL) as a means of reaching students who are not on campus in the evenings or during weekends. The recent addition of six computers to the center enhances this opportunity.

Threats

The center is in constant danger of being moved and has twice been portioned off for other uses, weakening the center’s ability to use its space effectively and confidently.
Students and faculty often initially perceive the center’s services as “proofreading” and grammar-related, equate our services with remedial skills, or do not use the center to its full capability. In the face of such misperceptions, the center must constantly define itself.
Some faculty and staff are confused about the mission of the center because of its current designation as a student support service; this creates some confusion about whether it can also function as a support system for faculty and staff.
The director’s contract does not guarantee a regulated amount of release time or a formal acknowledgement of that person’s position as Writing Center Director. If the current director’s time were redirected back to full-time teaching, the Writing Center would be without a viable director.
The university must encourage an increased level of writing activity in all classrooms on the SAU campus through a more formalized approach to writing across the curriculum. Without such a plan in place, the Writing Center does not attract writers from as many disciplines as its mission implies.

External Situational Analysis

The Writing Center benefits the university primarily by expanding what the University Institutional Values and Goals statement refers to as the “larger classroom.” The Center supports the belief that writing enhances learning. Students who speak English as a second language (ESL), who have limited experience in writing, or whose writing skills endanger their participation or continuation at SAU find the center a lifeline. Yet even the strongest writers benefit from conferencing about their writing, and thus the center’s services are not limited to any group of students. SAU challenges all students to take responsibility for their own learning (Institutional Values and Goals statement); the writing center helps students to meet that challenge by offering a place where students can exercise the initiative, contribute the writing, and set the agenda for their own learning. Because the ability to communicate effectively is a skill prized by both the professional and scholastic communities, SAU better prepares its graduates by providing a facility whose driving purpose is to promote proficient communication.

When the National Survey on Student Engagement for 2000 rated SAU low in terms of the amount of writing required of students, the university realized the need to encourage faculty to assign writing in all disciplines and at all levels. The SAU Writing Center—which administrators supported and helped to implement as one means by which to address the survey’s results—anticipates an increased interest in writing across the curriculum to counteract the trend identified by this survey; the center will continue to host workshop such as the Fall 2000 luncheon featuring faculty writing assignments and continues to expand its efforts to support student writers and faculty on campus.

Goals and Objectives

Goal 1: To expand the role the director plays in the writing center and on campus

Objective 1: Hire a full-time director whose credentials will allow the Writing

Center to reach its full potential

Objective 2: Designate the director the WAC coordinator for the campus

· Measure: Approval by the administration and board of trustees for such a proposal

Objective 3: Use part of the director’s time for consultation and in the increased

evaluation of students

· Measure: Semester evaluations of consultants provided to the consultants themselves, as well as to administration

· Measure: Number of contact hours increased

Goal 2: To increase the number of students using the center

Objective 1: Increase outreach to students in classes not taught by members of

the Department of English, particularly in those areas that are traditionally writing-intensive (business, history, education, etc.)

· Measure: Analysis of statistics on the number and variety of classes represented by student clients

· Measure: Increased classroom visits to classrooms outside of composition classes; evidence of students and faculty from those classrooms making use of or recommending the Writing Center

Objective 2: Increase outreach to ESL students

· Measure: Statistics identifying an increased numbers of ESL students using the center

Objective 3: Create more effective advertising campaigns geared at motivating

first-time users

· Measure: Number of fliers, newspaper ads, etc. created each semester

Objective 4: Participate in student activities, including Spring Fling, Freshman

Orientation, and Parents Day

· Measure: Number of such activities attended; number of materials handed out to interested students at those events

Goal 3: To increase opportunities for writers to use the center as a “writing lab”

Objective 1: House a collection of ESL-friendly materials

· Measure: List of new materials

Objective 2: Offer on-line writing tutorials and other software geared toward

writers

· Measure: List of new software

Objective 3: Design workshops on common writing concerns

· Measure: Number of workshops hosted

Objective 4: Make writing center visually and ergonomically more appealing

· Measure: Improvement of furnishings and upgrade of other materials

Goal 4: To strengthen the practices and scholarship of writing consultants

Objective 1: Help consultants become active at regional and national

conferences on writing center practice and theory

· Measure: Number of students who attend conferences; number of presentations at such conferences by SAU consultants

Objective 2: Encourage consultants to apply their learning beyond the

Practicum of Writing Consultation classroom

· Measure: Number of student-led events hosted on campus or in the regular Writing Center meetings

Goal 5: To improve the scheduling and record-keeping procedures

Objective 1: Streamline record keeping so that students need not fill out the

same forms over and over again

· Measure: Purchase and use of software designed to facilitate scheduling, record-keeping, and report-making

Objective 2: Hire a part- or full-time secretary to assist with daily scheduling of

clients and consultants, to act as a liaison for faculty, to keep

records, to assist with assessment, and to generate reports

· Measure: Approval for such a position and the hiring of a qualified individual

· Measure: Improved and increased communication between consultants and faculty, students and the Writing Center, and the director and the university; additional reports and assessment

Goal 6: To make our mission better understood among students, faculty, and staff on

campus

Objective 1: Increase opportunities for interaction with students, faculty, and

staff

· Measure: Increased number of workshops, classroom visits, and other presentations made on campus

· Measure: Attendance at campus functions

· Measure: Types of informative materials created and presented at events on campus

Future Budgeting Requests

Travel	Projected Annual Expenses
	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007
International Writing Center Association Annual Convention	750	750	1000	1250	1250
Regional Peer Tutoring Conferences (including student travel, expenses)	1500	1500	1500	1500	1500
TOTAL	$2250	$2250	$2500	$2750	$2750

Supplies and Services	Projected Annual Expenses
	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007
Software	1000	500	0	500	0
Computer and Office Supplies	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Furnishings	1000	500	500	500	500
Copying	200	200	250	250	250
TOTAL	$3200	$2200	$1750	$2250	$1750

Personnel	Projected Annual Expenses
	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007
Consultants	16,500	16,500	19,800	19,800	19,800
Full-time director	28,000	28,900	29,800	30,700	31,700
Part-time secretary	0	0	6,000	6,200	6,500
TOTAL	$44,500	$45,400	$55,600	$56,700	$58,000

Timeline of Writing Center Goals and Tasks

2002-2003	Goal 1, Goal 4, Goal 5
2003-2004	Goal 2, Goal 6
2004-2005	Goal 3, Goal 5 (Objective 2)