Salisbury, MD – The Salisbury University Writing Program has been announced as one of only three winners of the 2023-24 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Writing Program Certificate of Excellence.
The SU Writing Program is composed of the First Year Writing program, University Writing Center (UWC) and Writing Across the Curriculum program. It is the work of three faculty members: Drs. Melissa Bugdal, Carolyne King, and Beth Towle, all of the English Department in the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts.
“Writing, and writing education, are a necessary part of building a sense of belonging on a college campus” said King, director of First Year Writing.
More than 1,100 students enroll in English 103 each year. In this general education course, students investigate who they are as writers, and learn and experience the process of completing inquiry-based research projects.
Collectively, the SU Writing Program sees its mission as using writing to help students discover and learn through writing – growing their skills as writers and thinkers as they do so.
“One of the reasons we place so much emphasis on talking about writing across contexts – from first-year writing, to individual tutoring sessions, to writing workshops in classrooms and for student organizations – is that writing is more than just communication: it’s how people build knowledge and develop communities,” said Towle.
Bugdal and Towle direct the University Writing Center – a space for students to work on writing and continuing the work of building a sense of belonging at SU through highly trained peer support of writing.
As Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program, Bugdal also works with faculty across campus to re-imagine writing in their courses.
“One of our goals across writing support is to create a center for writing – for the peer tutors who work in the writing center, the students accessing our resources and our colleagues who teach writing across all academic departments,” she said.
The CCCC Certificate of Excellence is awarded to programs that imaginatively address the needs and opportunities of students, instructors and the institution; offer exemplary, ongoing professional development for faculty (including adjunct and contingent faculty); demonstrate best practices; use effective, ongoing assessment; use effective procedures; and model diversity and/or serve diverse communities, among other criteria.
The SU Writing Program “demonstrates impressive work in creating equity throughout the program, specifically via pay; via accommodation and general accessibility policies; via support of faculty through childcare, instructional preparation, and overall; via the use of innovative solutions to support students despite legislative restrictions; and via the significant expansion of the University’s writing center services, outreach and tutor preparation,” wrote the Certificate of Excellence selection committee.
“Overall, we find that the program is highly responsive to the needs of students, [teaching assistants] and faculty.”
The certificate is scheduled to be presented during this year’s CCCC Awards Presentation ceremony in April, in Spokane, WA, and will be accepted by a SU graduate student, Jeff Dean (a writing center tutor and First Year Writing instructor).
For more information about the University Writing Center, visit https://www.salisbury.edu/administration/academic-affairs/university-writing-center.
Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at www.salisbury.edu.
