Since September, the PWR committees have been hard at work to support the lecturers, students, and the program -- sometimes through major initiatives and sometimes through other smaller-scale, but nevertheless important, projects. Read on below to see what they've been working on so far this year.
Committee for Professional and Intellectual Development (CPIC)
This fall, CPIC worked to support PWR fellows by clarifying their access to academic and non-academic job market advising at BEAM and across campus, offering to organize practice job talks and interviews, and providing feedback on draft written job materials. CPIC continues to see supporting informal opportunities for PWR instructors to visit and connect outside 3rd floor Sweet Hall as essential to our mission. To support PWR community and morale we organized well-attended PWR Happy Hours during September Sessions and during fall quarter. Another happy hour is coming right up March 9, 4-7pm at Pampas in Palo Alto. Stay tuned for a spring quarter Happy Hour in the East Bay or the City. We will also have a kid friendly opportunity to socialize and build community at a Freaky Friday, April 13 PJ Story and Game Night. Watch your email for the invite! Also this spring, we will be building and supporting a visible, collaborative writing community in PWR through pilot workshops offering PWR instructors the opportunity to give and receive feedback on writing in progress.
Curriculum Committee
This year the Curriculum Committee has supported work on the PWR minor proposal. Our main focus has been gathering data from students about their interest in a PWR minor. Through our meetings with students we’ve found:
- Students were interested in different tracks, and while a PWR minor should stand alone, students felt it would be beneficial if the minor also supported their majors
- Students were very interested in pragmatic writing opportunities for public audiences and multimodal genres, perhaps through a publication focused course or a PWR-run journal / publication
- One challenge the minor will need to address is the connection between the required PWR courses and the PWR courses for the minor (a challenge we already face with the existing advanced PWR courses)
This information will be included in the proposal to show evidence of student interest and support for a PWR minor. As we move into spring quarter, we hope to continue our work with students by reconstituting the PWR Undergraduate Advisory Board, or UAB. This group will help us gather feedback on all aspects of the PWR curriculum. Look for information from the Committee early in Spring quarter about how your students can participate.
Lecturer Advisory Committee (LAC)
The Lecturer Advisory Committee has engaged a varied agenda this year, beginning with sending out a new survey of our faculty to determine our top concerns at this time. The survey showed that 80% of our faculty feel that their most pressing concern, still, is salary and cost-of-living. The next “most important” concern was “Engagement with Stanford Committee on Lecturers” (40% said this was their top concern). Additional concerns carry over from last year about the role of and pay raise of the Advanced Lecturer designation, and the VPUE research policy.
In early December Marvin and Adam were present for the LAC meeting to discuss the above concerns and also to talk about how LAC could be part of a consultation process when policy initiatives are in development, rather than being reactive. Adam and Marvin agreed that LAC should be involved at the development stage for any new program policy. On the other concerns—salary, and contract length for ALs—they were not able to promise any changes. They did assure LAC that we would be informed on the progress of the Committee on Lecturers.
In a subsequent LAC meeting, in early February, Marvin attended to consult LAC about starting a WPA reading group (opt in), to ask for thoughts on the upcoming lunch with the Provost, and, to discuss the prospect of “aligning terms” for “admin roles” such as the Notation and PWR1/2 Coordinators; Writing Specialists; and Associate Directors. A discussion on term limits for these roles followed after Marvin left, and LAC decided to survey our faculty to get everyone’s input (“term limit survey” is forthcoming).
In the near future, LAC has plans to write a more definitive description of the role of the Advanced Lecturer and to ask again for a 5 year contract for anyone appointed to AL. Finally, we are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the COL, especially when it comes to addressing our financial concerns. The outcome of the COL is important for helping us to determine a longterm LAC agenda regarding our overarching concerns.
Publications Committee
Publications and Prizes, as usual, has been hard at work on the Boothe, Lunsford, and Hoefer prizes! Beyond our usual tasks, this year, we have also been focusing on generating some pedagogical materials for the TeachingWriting site on using student samples, Boothe essays, and Lunsford presentations in our teaching. Our discussions have revolved around the goals we might have in using such samples, what to look out for when we do, and how to implement their use in the classroom. Part of this has also involved updating our existing archive of student samples and bringing them in line with our current learning management systems. Additionally, we're working with the newsletter team to explore ways we can expand PWR's social media footprint -- stay tuned for details!
Teaching & Tutoring Practices Committee
As part of TTP’s investigation of low-scoring elements in course evaluations (for peer review, in-class activities, and class readings), we analyzed the phrasing of relevant questions on the course evaluations and recommended revisions. PWR administrators are considering our recommendations for next academic year. In other news, we’ve gathered the special collection of “cultural rhetorics” class activities from PWR instructors featured in this newsletter. We’re also planning a second special collection of class activities related to how we can use our colleagues’ research and publications in our teaching. In addition, we’re revising our proposal for a pilot to consider alternative methods of conferencing.
