In January 2018, NSU will be launching “Write from the Start,” its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that is part of the reaccreditation process for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The focus of the QEP is to improve student writing at all levels.
The QEP team hopes to improve writing at NSU by creating the NSU Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center. This center will offer general writing assistance to all students – including online students and students at regional campuses, expand the undergraduate Writing Fellows Program, facilitate graduate student writing workshops and events, support faculty members in teaching discipline-specific writing and develop more online writing resources.
Barbara Packer-Muti, executive director of institutional and community engagement and director of the QEP, said that the QEP team hopes to create a culture of writing at NSU. According to Packer-Muti, surveys with NSU alumni found that writing skills were most useful outside of college, but NSU doesn’t provide adequate resources for students to become better writers.
“We have many different colleges, many different faculty teaching all kinds of things…but we get so entrenched in teaching our discipline that we don’t have the time or inclination or knowledge or skills to teach students how to write better,” she said. “If we can provide all of these services and places where people can access help, then soon writing becomes entrenched in everything that we do.”
In order to be re-accredited by SACSCOC, every 10 years NSU has to provide a five-year quality enhancement plan that aligns with the university’s mission and supports student learning. Members of SACSCOC will visit campus in early April to review the QEP and other aspects of the university used to determine accreditation. The plan will not be finalized until SACSCOC convenes in December.
Kevin Dvorak, professor in the department of writing and communication and writing center and Writing Across the Curriculum coordinator, has advised the QEP committee throughout the planning process. According to Dvorak, through focus groups with both faculty and students, writing and technology were identified as subjects for the plan, with writing eventually being selected.
“We’ve learned that there are too many students on this campus who believe that they do not have access to [writing] assistance, especially at the graduate level,” he said.
According to Dvorak, writing is critical to success not only at NSU but outside of it.
“Writing is the foundation for what we all do at the university,” he said. “[All students] write at some point during their academic careers, whether it’s an email to a professor or a course paper.”
Packer-Muti said she is confident that the plan will be approved and that NSU is using a lot of resources and personnel to improve student writing.
“We are extraordinarily excited about [the QEP],” she said.
Dvorak said he hopes students will utilize the resources the QEP will provide and understand that going to a writing center doesn’t necessarily mean their writing is bad.
“You go to a writing center because you write,” he said. “We all write.”
Photo Credit: G. Ducanis
Caption: A student at work at NSU’s current writing center in the Parker building, room 127C.
