By: Sarah Tinker Perrault, WIC Director

Spring in WIC is a season of awards and final reflections, and although we remain in remote mode, we have much to celebrate and look back on.

First, the awards! I am happy to report that this year 37 students received WIC Culture of Writing Award in their disciplines. The number alone does not convey how impressive their work is, but you can read their names and paper titles, and the names of the faculty who nominated them, in 2021 WIC Culture of Writing Awards: Celebrating Writing in the Disciplines. 

Numbers also cannot capture the excitement of WIC work, but they can provide some idea of its breadth:

• In fall, 12 faculty members completed the WIC faculty seminar, zooming in each week from Corvallis, La Grande, Bend, and Virginia.
• In winter, 207 faculty, staff, and students attended Mike Caulfield’s talk on “Teaching Truth and Trust in an Era of Digital Dissensus.”
• WIC’s six workshop events had a total of 85 participants; of those, faculty participants reached 7,812 OSU students this year, over 1,122 of them via WIC classes.
• OSU undergraduates now have ten new WIC courses in disciplines ranging from Polar Oceanography to Music Education.

Finally, spring is time to express gratitude to all members of the WIC team.

Thanks for this year’s WIC GTA, Alex Mahmou-Werndli, who is graduating this month with an MA in Rhetoric and Writing. Alex served as a WIC intern in 2019-2020, and his previous experience with WIC, as well as his steady, thoughtful management of his GTA duties, were invaluable assets during this pandemic year (not to mention my first year at OSU as WIC Director).

Thanks also to WIC undergraduate intern Erin Viera who is graduating this month with a BA in English. Erin has been an invaluable help in all the WIC events, and in many behind-the-scenes activities, and she also dreamed up and created a new newsletter column that offers faculty a first-hand view of how Writing Center consultations work.

I am grateful as well to graduate intern and first-year MA student in Rhetoric and Writing, Jessica Al-Faqih, whose interpersonal and research skills have enhanced WIC since she joined us in Winter 2021. Jess will continue with the WIC team as the 2021-2022 WIC GTA.

Thank you to Caryn Stoess, the WIC operations manager, who helps make my job as WIC director not only immeasurably easier, but also highly enjoyable.

Members of the WIC Advisory Board have provided indispensable guidance, and I thank them for their dedication to WIC, individually and as a group.

Last, but far from least, thanks to all WIC faculty, and all faculty who teach writing, no matter what the course level or discipline. Because of you, we have a strong culture of writing at OSU.