WAC Committee Minutes
Monday, May 1, 2006

Present: Matthews, Schulze, Shaw, Snavely, Steege, Wallace, Bonn, Ross, Varvodic

Ross and Varvodic were introduced as the student representatives to the committee.

Snavely discussed what he planned to say at the faculty meeting: a) what the committee has accomplished so far, b) what needs to be done. Snavely said he would stress to the faculty that the first workshop must be attended by faculty teaching the new Heritage next year, that there would be a meeting for department chairs to help them plan for the following years, and that other faculty interested in teaching a WI course would be strongly encouraged to attend the first workshop. He also will announce that faculty who participate will be paid a $50 stipend for each half day session.

Schulze reported that the Heritage Outreach Subcommittee is working with the Heritage Oversight Committee on the details of making Heritage writing intensive. Wallace stated that questions directed to him concerning the new Heritage would be passed to Schulze’s subcommittee.

Matthews summarized the report his subcommittee prepared. Add link? Matthews stressed that a) this report is a work in progress, and b) something similar will need to be done with SPSS to help them prepare for next year. Matthews agreed to set up a time to meet with Keller before the end of the semester.

Shaw expressed concerns about budgetary strains that may be created by the new WAC requirements; i.e., with an increase in the number of courses where writing is a significant component, there will likely be a greater need to hire more tutors in the writing center. Shaw also expressed that the writing tutors should be given more compensation than students who occupy other positions at the College, and the committee agreed with this position.

Wallace raised the possibility of the entire committee meeting again before the end of the semester, but it was decided that subcommittees could meet to do their work independently and report back to the committee. There will likely be a need to meet as a committee before the workshop in the fall, and to also have a working dinner with Marty Townsend in August.

The meeting adjourned at 12:45

The draft proposal form is available at this link.