Hey Roger (and all CASLLers) A few weeks ago I enjoyed watching your online video of your November 2006 presentation at McGill University. http://publish.uwo.ca/~rgraves3/ Thank you for sharing that online. I just wanted to advertise it on the list and give you some public praise for the good job you did at outlining the history and present state of Writing Studies in Canada. There's a lot of interesting strategic stuff there regarding the structure of writing courses and programs at universities. The quality of the videorecording was marginal ... but the content was great. Roger, you talked about having Writing centers, a Writing across the curriculum program, and a disciplinary home -- the U of Alberta 3-part proposal recipe. Like you, I am also watching what is happening at U of A just north of us with some interest, especially since my chapter in your book really goes into U of A's recent history as a case study... And this spring a U of C colleague in Science is bringing Chris Anson to our campus to speak about WAC and writing instruction in Science. Watching the presentation also brought back memories. It was at U of A dept. of English as a PhD student in 1997 that I found your 1994 book on their Salter Reading Room, and that was one of many influences that got me to leave U of A's program in 1998 to do my PhD at Ohio State just like you did ... the best 4 years of my education !!! Now who says scholarly publishing can't make a difference in anyone's life? (It's something I have often doubted myself.) Roger, you talked about the NSSE survey a lot, and here it is very important in the administration's mindset too. I worry a little that the NSSE is going to be criticized by "rigorous" yet cynical professors as merely another customer satisfaction survey, a way of dumbing down education so that it is more "engaging" (read: synonym for entertaining). It could certainly be used that way. Companies are also talking about "employee engagement" so there is also a tinge of managerialism in there. Of course, I think the potential goes the other way too: the influence of the NSSE on the teaching of oral and written communication and rhetoric could be very positive, depending on how it's used. The active community engagement and academic engagement of scholars and students could be viewed as a civic responsibility and a way of participating in the discovery of knowledge. Who knows. ... Let's see how it plays out in the next few years. I am planning to reconnect at the Inkshed conference this year... looking forward to it! Smiles, -- Tania S. Smith Assistant Professor Faculty of Communication & Culture University of Calgary http://www.ucalgary.ca/~smit -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask] For the list archives and information about the organization, its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-