Institute/Session Summary:

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) promises to elevate the results of courses that do not traditionally include writing as a core competency, including many science courses.  While the WAC program at Quinnipiac University provides intensive initial training for faculty, there remains a need for ongoing support as faculty implement the concepts learned in WAC training.  The responsibility for such support affects The Learning Center insofar as students seek tutorial assistance for the writing process and professors with less experience at teaching writing look to the Center for advice and active support.  The exigencies of WAC at Quinnipiac University have necessitated changes in The Learning Center’s tutor training program and created opportunities for cooperative ventures with faculty.

This session will detail responses Quinnipiac University’s Learning Center has instituted to assist students and faculty in their quest to write their way to better knowledge and understanding.  Attendees should expect to learn, from specific examples, the general principles that underlie Learning Center support for WAC, i.e. flexible and individualized responses, upgrades to tutor training, and developing The Learning Center as a catalyst for institutional improvement.  Thus the WAC support provided by The Learning Center touches on all three elements of CRLA’s conference theme – improved learning outcomes for students in WAC-inspired classes, revamped training for tutors who support those students, and increased links between faculty and administrators in the quest for better undergraduate education.

The session presenters will use handouts of relevant class assignments and Learning Center documents to provide models for attendees to use; the session will feature PowerPoint visuals to guide attendees; the presenters will also engage participants in discussion about WAC philosophy and implementation in order to help them apply lessons learned at Quinnipiac to their own situations.  The session will start with descriptions of the Quinnipiac WAC program and the challenges science faculty faced as they found themselves committed to teaching writing skills that they had little experience in teaching.  Presenters will then explain how The Learning Center’s peer tutoring program, including tutor training, adapted itself to the demands of faculty, and how The Learning Center developed in-class interventions to support instructors’ course objectives.  The session will conclude with observations by Center staff and faculty about the process of cooperating on the WAC project.

Presenter1 Name: Bernard Grindel
Presenter1 Institution: Quinnipiac Univeristy
Presenter1 Bio: Bernard Grindel has a BA in History from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MA in History from The Ohio State Univeristy.  He has been a university lecturer at Ohio State and George Mason Universities, an academic advisor at Maryland and Ohio State, and a private tutor.  Currently he oversees the activities of the peer tutoring program at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.

Presenter2 Name: Andrew Delohery
Presenter2 Institution: Quinnipiac Univeristy
Presenter2 Bio: Andrew Delohery is Director of the Learning Center and adjunct associate professor of English. He is also a trainer for QUWAC - the Quinnipiac University Writing Across the Curriculum innitiative. Before coming to Quinnipiac, he taught at the University of Connecticut's Stamford campus and managed the Academic Support Center. His latest publication, a book co-written with William Clyde, Dean of Academic Technology at Quinnipiac, is "Using Technology in Teaching" (2005).

Presenter3 Name: Andri Smith
Presenter3 Institution: Quinnipiac Univeristy
Presenter3 Bio: