UWM-L&S: Faculty Document No. 605

College of Letters and Science Faculty Document No. 605
November 1, 2001

2000-2001
Recommendation of the L&S Course and Curriculum Committee to Eliminate the Writing-Intensive Requirement

RECOMMENDATION

That the Faculty eliminate the Writing-Intensive requirement of the L&S degree, that the Writing Requirement for the L&S degree be defined as a "grade of C or better in English 102 or score 637 or higher on the EPT," and that departments be urged to adopt voluntarily the recommended initiative for improving writing within the disciplines or an alternative of their own device.

RATIONALE

The Course and Curriculum Committee's Writing-Intensive subcommittee has been studying the effects of the implementation of the W-I requirement. It is clear that the requirement has been greeted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by different departments. No special funding has been earmarked for the implementation of this requirement, and a College-wide commitment to the goals of a writing-intensive requirement does not exist. The W-I Subcommittee has identified a number of practical issues that have made it impossible to implement this requirement effectively in the present climate. Some of the most pronounced difficulties are enumerated below.

Our current student record-keeping system does not provide a way to indicate that an individual section of a course in a particular semester is a W-I course. The result of this shortcoming in the data system is that a department must designate an entire course as a W-I course in order for the computer to record this information on a student's record. Many departments are discouraged from identifying a course as W-I because they must limit enrollment in the course, and this can create enrollment FTE problems in an environment when funding is based so heavily on head counts.

For multi-section courses, particularly those taught by lecturers and TAs, there is no way to ensure consistency in the content and teaching methods from section to section, to the extent that one can feel certain that the W-I criteria are being met. Often, individuals are hired just to teach a section or two of these courses, and they may have no knowledge of the W-I status or what that requires them to teach.

The possible subcommittee review of W-I course syllabi, with the potential outcome that courses will be removed from the W-I list, could create a logistical nightmare, especially at the two-year campuses. Advisors there are helping students plan schedules that take into account the possibility of securing their required W-I credits when they have transferred to UWM. Since that transfer may be two years away, it is possible that courses currently counting as W-I no longer will carry that status when the students arrive, and an additional course might be needed to complete the requirement.

There is no clear set of goals outlined for the W-I requirement. Therefore, the W-I Subcommittee has had a difficult time trying to evaluate the requirement. Is the purpose to ensure that students take additional writing beyond the English 102 level in the hope that they improve their writing skills in general? Or is the purpose to give students experience writing in their major disciplines so they develop writing skills appropriate to the discipline, and in the process, benefit from enhanced learning that writing courses bring to a discipline?

A number of courses taken at other institutions are transferred as equivalent to some UWM courses that now are designated as W-I courses. Since the W-I designation is attached to the course itself, those transfer courses appear on the students' records as courses that fulfill the W-I requirement, even though they were not offered as W-I courses at the other campuses.

Some institutions offer W-I courses that we do not recognize as W-I. The failure to transfer courses designated as W-I by other institutions creates a public relations concern. Students from 2- and 4-year UW campuses, as well as from private and out-of-state institutions, have a very limited number of courses on transfer that we will count toward the W-I requirement. Since over 50% of our graduates are transfer students, this requirement may discourage them from attending UWM. Junior and senior transfer students expect that they will have met all the general education requirements, and it may be a hardship for them to take additional general courses late in their academic careers.

The limited number of WI courses offered each semester is a problem, especially for transfer students. We have just admitted the third entering class since the new requirement went into effect, and we are seeing an increase in demand for these courses. Next year may bring even greater pressure for additional sections, especially among juniors, seniors, and transfer students. Since so many students select English 205 and 233 to meet this requirement, we may find that there is less room in these courses for the sophomore level students for whom the courses originally were developed.

Very few majors offer a W-I course. If the goal of the requirement is to assist students to write better in their majors, than each major should offer a course designated as W-I. A capstone or senior seminar course (JMC 661 is a good example) would be especially helpful. If we are hoping to make students more accomplished writers in general, we should offer more 300 level or above courses W-I courses that will be open to students from any major background in order to accommodate junior and senior transfers who need to take most of their courses in the upper levels. This action also would eliminate many public relations problems related to transfer students.

Freshmen who test beyond English 102 may not be able to take a writing course for their first two semesters because a number of the regularly offered W-I courses carry prerequisites of sophomore standing. Many of these students are very good writers who wish to continue their work in writing classes. We need to ensure that there are sufficient sections of W-I courses open to freshmen to accommodate these students. As enrollment pressure builds on the availability of the 200-level courses, these students may find it difficult to gain access to the courses in their sophomore year, since sophomore students receive lowest registration priority. Students, reasonably expect to complete their general requirements in their first two years.

RECOMMENDED VOLUNTARY WRITING-ACROSS-THE-CURRICULUM (WAC) INITIATIVE

Departments shall be encouraged to institute Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) courses. Ideally, each department would offer these courses as the basis of a departmental WAC requirement in the major, but departments that do not wish to institute a WAC requirement still would be encouraged to make WAC courses available to their majors and to other interested students.

The College will support departmental WAC initiatives in several ways. It will fund workshops for faculty members interested in teaching WAC courses. The College also will fund stipends, additional S&E, or other forms of financial support for faculty members who agree to develop and teach WAC courses or to coordinate their department's WAC offerings. In addition, the College must guarantee that no department will be penalized for enrollment lost through offering WAC courses with limited enrollment.

ADDENDUM - Sense of the Subcommittee

It is with regret that the W-I Subcommittee recommends the elimination of the W-I requirement. The Subcommittee members still hope that the goals of the requirement can be met - and they urge the College's administration and faculty to consider innovative ways of meeting the goals of the requirement, as those goals are described in page 1 of this document. The voluntary initiative recommended above should be supplemented by other initiatives.