The real news in the article was the big grant from an outside
foundation. There are other examples at elite US universities (e.g.,
Cornell and Michigan have big individual donors). Has any Canadian
institution secured a grant like that for a writing initiative? The
McConnell Foundation has supported first-year initiatives in general --
any directed towards writing specifically?
== Margaret Procter
[log in to unmask] wrote:
> I saw this article last week and thought, why is this news? It's been
> happening at programs all over North America for more than a decade.
> The pioneer in the idea, so far as I know, was Cornell. It's what
> we've been doing in Engineering at Toronto for some time. I thought it
> was just a slow week in Education news for them to publish that.
>
> Rob Irish
>
> Quoting "Tania S. Smith" <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> Just wondering if any colleagues on CASLL have similar things going on
>> as are described here in this April 13th article... I got this link
>> through the WPA listserv
>>
>> http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/13/denver
>>
>> Excerpts:
>>
>> "At the University of Denver this year, a new writing program
>> <http://www.du.edu/writing/> is trying a combination of approaches.
>> Freshmen are taking a series of three courses in successive quarters
>> --- each with a distinct purpose. The first quarter courses are taught
>> by faculty members in a range of disciplines, and the next two by a new
>> cadre of lecturers hired this year.
>>
>> While not on the tenure track, the lecturers are far from the
>> semester-to-semester model of employment used to staff many a writing
>> course with adjuncts or graduate students. Their positions are full
>> time, with benefits, and they are paid in the first quarter of the
>> academic year to plan their courses, to work individually with students
>> in the writing center, and to work as in-class consultants and
>> one-on-one with professors on writing issues that come up in their
>> courses."
>>
>>
>> And here's why they were able to do this on such a large scale.
>>
>> "The Denver writing program is the outgrowth of a $10 million grant in
>> 2004 from the Marsico Foundation, which stipulated that the funds be
>> used to improve undergraduate education. Faculty committees studied
>> various possible uses for the money and the full faculty voted (79
>> percent in favor) to overhaul what had been a fairly traditional
>> program in which freshmen took writing, but without a university-wide
>> vision for what was supposed to be accomplished."
>>
>>
>> --Tania S. Smith
>> Assistant Professor
>> Faculty of Communication & Culture
>> University of Calgary
>> http://www.ucalgary.ca/~smit
>>
>>
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>>
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>
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> To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
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>
> For the list archives and information about the organization,
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> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
--
Dr. Margaret Procter
Coordinator, Writing Support
University of Toronto
15 King's College Circle
Toronto ON M5S 3H7
416 978-8109; FAX 416 971-2027
[log in to unmask]
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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/
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