In November, 2001, the Stanford Writing Center opened its doors. Or, door, to be more precise. To a room. Wendy Goldberg’s room in Margaret Jacks Hall. And writing support at Stanford was changed forever.
To celebrate the holidays and its 15th anniversary, last Friday the Hume Center hosted a Holliversary. Tutors and friends of the Center were invited to enjoy baked brie, crab cakes, cucumber water, coffee, and Justine de Silva’s Instagram-worthy melting snow man cookies.
All gathered in the Hume Center lounge. On the big display, a slide show illuminated the Center’s evolution: from the Stanford Writing Center, to the Hume Writing Center, to the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking. Photographs revealed the original speaking center in Sweet Hall was once just a closet! Computers in the basement of Margaret Jacks, where the Hume Writing Center was located, were the size of three basketballs! Illustrious past directors flashed before partygoers: Clyde Moneyhun, John Tinker, Wendy Goldberg, Sohui Lee, Patti Hanlon-Baker, and Julia Bleakney.
To kick off the festivities, the Stanford A Capella group "Everyday People" gathered in the lounge and performed a gorgeous rendition of Silent Night followed by Boyz to Men’s Thank You. Guests then settled in to listen to accounts of the Center’s past, present, and future. Marvin Diogenes described the founding of the Center by Professor Andrea Lunsford, its modest beginnings, and its ambition to serve all Stanford writers through tutoring and transformative workshops. Wendy detailed early days, narrating the invention of Project Write, an outreach program for local high schoolers that thrives to this day, as well as the origins of the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, founded by former students of hers at the Center. Doree Allen then came to the podium. The Oral Communication Program also celebrated an anniversary this year – its 20th! – and Doree talked about the merger of the speaking center with the writing center, arguing the two have flourished in close proximity in Bldg. 250. Sarah Pittock detailed the Hume Center’s growth in the last three years (18% growth in writing and speaking tutoring since 2013) as well as recent initiatives, including Bing Honors College, WIM Fellows, expanded graduate programming, and faculty retreats.
Adam Banks concluded by reminding us that writing and speaking are not just discrete skills, they are ways of being in the world. When we tutor writing and speaking at the Hume Center, we are also cultivating writers and speakers who will create new knowledge and enact change.
In May, a more formal 15th Anniversary celebration will take place. It will include more presentations from past directors as well as from Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, who is building an archive to document the rhetorical strategies used to convince a skeptical campus of the importance of our work. Be on the lookout for your invitation!