THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
   FACULTY WRITING PROJECT
           A Report of Activities 1984-97
 
    `                        Toby Fulwiler
                        Department of English

 The UVM Faculty Writing Project.. With the help of UVM professional development funds—which later became a small budget from the Provost’s office which continues to this day—I joined Mary Jane Dickerson in offering the first "Faculty Writing Project" workshop in 1984, accepting some thirty faculty from different academic departments in several colleges on a first-come, first-served basis. We met for two days, off campus, at the EconoLodge Conference Center to avoid campus distractions. That first workshop, as well as subsequent workshops, emphasized "writing to learn" the first day (informal writing, collaborative learning) then "learning to write" (formal writing multiple draft assignments, assessment) the second day. (See sample attached brochure.)

 From that first workshop (February, 1984) through the thirty-fourth (August, 1997), our intention has been to keep participants active: writing in journals, writing and revising papers, processing activities in small discussion groups, and sharing ideas with other groups. We reasoned that if participants experienced a given strategy first-hand—as opposed to being told about it—they would be more likely to understand it and make it their own before trying it on their students. In particular, we hoped participants would consider adopting one or more of three general pedagogical strategies: 1) non-graded writing to promote better student learning, 2) multiple-draft assignments to promote better student writing, and 3) collaborative learning to promote a stronger sense of classmate community.

 On the basis of anecdotal evidence and several follow-up surveys, I believe that a few process-oriented instructors adopted all three strategies to help transform their classrooms into active-learning communities. Most instructors, however, adopted the one or two ideas that most suited their discipline, class size, grade level, or personality and altered assignments or assessment methods accordingly. And a few instructors who seemed to enjoy the workshops (everybody reported enjoying the conversations, community, and food!) returned to their classrooms and changed very little.

In retrospect, however, I think the workshops accomplished multiple objectives even though the advertised agenda was "attention to student writing". First, the workshops proved to be the only sustained professional development on campus promoting a sense of interdisciplinary community among faculty. Second, they introduced an active-learning process-oriented pedagogy based on students’ own language use. Third, they introduced the concept of writing-to-learn—a new idea to most participants. Fourth, they provided strategies for improving students’ formal writing—the reason most faculty attended in the first place. And, finally, they gave a number of participants more confidence in their own writing and publishing projects.

Writing in the UVM Curriculum. At present, all the UVM colleges except one require first-year writing (English 1), and some such as Business require a second writing course (English 50) as well. Only Arts and Sciences—UVM’s largest college, my own college--has no writing requirement at all. That doesn’t seem to be the College curriculum Joan Smith wants, but it’s the one she inherited.

 When I arrived on campus in 1983, the A&S College was discussing a major curriculum reform, including a four-tier requirement that all students take one writing course in each of their undergraduate years. However, my first visit to a meeting of A&S department chairs taught me that the A&S curriculum was already too full of requirements, that most chairs did not want to subtract teaching attention from their majors, and that the English Department (with many Ph.D.’s in literature and none in composition) worried it would end up having to teach these required writing courses. In 1986, the new A&S curriculum was voted in place with rigorous requirements in math and foreign language, but none in writing--nobody believed one course enough, few wanted four.

 The A&S Curriculum Committee said it would return to the writing requirement the next year (1987-88) and make a more acceptable proposal. However, problems with staffing the new foreign language and math requirements dominated their agenda—how to recruit, retain, and pay all the new instructors required to teach the new required courses. It was not the time—nor has it yet been the time--to introduce yet another difficult-to-staff requirement.
 I understood these difficulties, continued to offer introductory two-day writing workshops every August and January, and waited for another opportunity to support a curricular requirement. I knew I did not want to lead a charge for an all-college or all-campus writing requirement that did not have broad based faculty understanding and support. Too often I had been invited to other college campuses as a consultant to help fix unwieldy requirements voted into place by a faculty that didn’t understand the consequences of its vote. I did not want that to happen here. Instead, I believed in educating the UVM faculty via the writing workshop program—believing an educated faculty would put in place a sensible writing requirement which they would both support and teach. At the same time, I knew my own department wouldn’t support such a requirement unless all departments were committed to teaching it.

 Actually, the time to implement a specific requirement almost came in 1990-91 with the arrival of Dean Howard Ball, who appointed a committee, chaired by Barbara Rodgers (classics), to recommend a requirement to the college. After months of meetings and deliberations, the committee developed a plan for a sensible two-tiered requirement: 1) a first-year theme-centered writing course, limited to 20 students, for all entering A&S students and 2) a senior seminar in each student’s major. Since most departments already had in place something like a senior seminar, the main problem was staffing the first-year course; most introductory courses were taught in large lecture classes. The course would be staffed with tenure-track professors from all departments who wanted to teach such courses (departments that offered to teach these courses would be awarded new faculty positions). However, implementing this two-tier proposal would require eight new tenure-track positions and by the end of the year, the first of several budget crises struck, and instead of hiring new positions, all colleges, including A&S, were required to cut rather than add positions, so that was the end of that.

Writing and Professional Development. Since 1995, in lieu of working for specific curricular reform, I have steered some of the energy and budget of the Faculty Writing Project toward more general professional development activity under the auspices of "The Committee to Promote Teaching Excellence." The committee is chaired by Pam Brown of Continuing Education, and over the past three years has included members from Arts and Sciences (Strauss, Fulwiler), Education (Fitzgerald, Clarke), and Natural Resources (DeHayes, Donnelley).

The Committee to Promote Teaching Excellence [since 1998, The Center for Teaaching and Learning] annually sponsors a fall luncheon series called "Talks on Teaching," featuring outstanding UVM teaching faculty to lead stimulate and lead two-hour round table discussions on various aspects of teaching. In 1995, the theme was "Active Learning"; in 1996, the theme was "Alternatives to Lecturing"; this fall the theme is "The Languages of Learning." Attendance has ranged from fifty to seventy-five faculty and graduate students at each luncheon. Then, each January we follow the luncheon series with a day-long January workshop of the same title—the past two years offered at Bishop Booth Conference Center, this year in the Living and Learning Center. Attendance has always been high, with eighty to ninety faculty participating in as well as leading workshops. (See attached flyers.)

The Faculty Writing Project will to continue to consult with departments and colleges about particular needs related to the teaching of writing as well as offer writing workshops at periodic intervals open to all campus faculty, especially more focused workshops on topics such as "writing in large classes," "portfolio assessment," "publishing class books," and "letter writing."

                                                        Appendix

History. From 1984 to 1997, the Faculty Writing Project (FWP) offered 34 introductory workshops (two days, off campus) introducing approximately 700 UVM faculty and staff, full and part time, to a variety of pedagogical ideas involving a more active use of language--both oral and written--by students in all subject areas and grade levels.

 During this same thirteen year period, FWP offered a variety of "follow-up" and "advanced" workshops, ranging from two-hour Thursday afternoon meetings in Dewey Lounge (attendance ranging from 3 to 23) to a two-day overnight at Bolton Valley (May, 1987) where 75 UVM faculty conducted workshops for each other. Beginning in 1988, FWP began offering one to three day "writing retreats," inviting workshop veterans to bring their own manuscripts to the Bishop Booth Conference Center ("We will feed you and leave you alone"). Retreat attendance has ranged from 18 to 30, with people revising dissertations, co-writing articles, developing grant proposals, and even working on next year's syllabi. (A full report of the Vermont program through 1989 was published in Programs that Work (Boynton/Cook 1990), attached.)

Since its inception, a number of UVM faculty from several disciplines have participated in conducting writing workshops, including Bill Biddle, Mary Jane Dickerson, Susan Dinitz, Toby Fulwiler, Jean Keidaisch, Tony Magistrale, Robyn Warhol, and Nancy Welch (English), along with Michael Strauss (Chemistry), Henry Steffens (History), John Clark and Mary McNeil (Education), and Ken Holland (Political Science). [McNeil and Holland are no longer at UVM.]

 Interest among UVM faculty for the writing workshop series has vacillated during the years from strong to moderate; enrollment has been as high as 35 in a single workshop (too large to promote good community) and as low as 12 (disappointing), but always enough to engage participants and allow them to leave them with a few new ideas about using more writing in their teaching. In the beginning, from 1984 through 1986 the FWP conducted three Introductory Workshops each year (August, January, May). In 1987, the FWP switched to two Introductory Workshops (August and January), and turned the May date into a workshop/retreat for program veterans, a schedule kept through 1993 (sample brochure attached).

Current program. In 1994, in order to encourage more main line faculty to attend the workshops, either on a return visit or for the first time, the FWP workshop program and schedule were revised, offering two one-day independent workshops to allow faculty to attend only day instead of the two previously required. This model continues; deans and chairs are encouraged to recommend any faculty new to UVM to attend, especially the August offering, since the workshops prove a good way to introduce new faculty to at least some members of the university community. FWP currently offers writing workshops at predictable intervals during the year.

August: Introductory Workshop. FWP continues to offer the Introductory Workshops before the start of the school year and pitch them especially toward faculty new to the university. "Veteran" faculty are encouraged to attend as well—and those who do always report learning new things not learned the previous time. This event is customarily scheduled at The EconoLodge Conference Center. Sample faculty evaluations are attached.

 January: Special Interest Workshop/Writing Retreat. Each January through 1995, the FWP offered workshops for new and continuing faculty, or special programs, departments or colleges as requested. For example, in 1990 a special-interest workshop was focused on the 24 instructors who teach the University's' one credit "Race and Culture" course; in 1992 the workshop focused on a possible A & S writing requirement—which, due to budget crises, was never put into effect.

 January: Graduate Student Workshop. Each January since 1985 the FWP has helped staff a writing workshop aimed specifically at graduate teaching fellows (GTFs) from all academic units, focusing on both their teaching and their own dissertation writing. To date approximately 300 GTFs have taken part in this program funded by the Graduate College; this part of the program is designed and conducted by Tony Magistrale of the English department. This year, the GTF workshops have been moved to earlier dates, in November and December, at the request of Martha Fitzgerald, Associate Graduate Dean.

 May: Advanced Workshop.  In May the FWP commonly offers special topic workshops, from "Designing Writing Intensive Courses" and "Writing for Publication" to "Teaching Writing in the TAP Program"  (for faculty teaching in the Focus program of the College of Arts and Sciences) and "Grant Writing"  These special spring workshops focused on both writing-to-learn and learning-to-write. In each case, the FWP budget was able to pay for facilities, supplies, and food while I acted as workshop leader.

Program Consulting. At various times since the Faculty Writing Project began, I’ve been asked to consult with various departments and colleges to facilitate the role of writing within their specific curricula. The most successful work occurred several years ago when Fulwiler conducted a two-day retreat for the School of Natural Resources to help them revise their entire curriculum with more attention throughout to the processes of literacy development. This year, FWP is working with both the medical school and plant and animal sciences to offer writing seminars to their faculty and graduate students, as well as with the A&S College.

Attachments (available upon request: tfulwile@zoo.uvm.edu)
         Faculty Writing Project Brochures
         Faculty evaluations of writing workshops