written by WIC Director Sarah Tinker Perrault
In this newsletter, I first want to celebrate WIC faculty and students, and then to say goodbye (at least in this role) and to express my gratitude.
In terms of celebration, WIC has had a busy spring and has much to applaud.
First, another two groups have completed the WIC Faculty Seminar. These 20 faculty came from fifteen schools across seven colleges, and you can read about them here.
In addition to the two seminars, we had three short events. Two focused on using the social annotation tool Perusall (available free for our classes); first Dr. Ciara Kidder talked about “Using Perusall to Engage Students with Readings,” then Angelique Pearson offered technical advice in “Perusall set-up and tech support.” Next, WIC team members Casey Dawson and Georgia Grace Wright presented on reducing student writing anxiety in “Write without Fright: Cultivating a Fear-Free Writing Classroom for Students.” You can read summaries and access recordings of these events here.
All of our work, whether in seminar or in workshops or in individual classes, is directed toward one end—excellence in student writing—and this year we are happy to be giving Culture of Writing Awards to 26 students from 25 majors; winners are listed here.
Finally, these are bittersweet celebrations for me as I write this Post/Views entry, my final column as WIC director.
Since my hire in 2020, I held a 100% academic position while serving for 50% of that time as WIC director and 50% as a faculty member in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film, an arrangement I assumed I would stay in until I retired. However, in February of this year, the university converted the WIC Director position from an academic to a non-academic appointment. While I have loved directing the WIC program, I am moving full time into a faculty role in order to maintain my 100% academic job appointment.
As I leave, I want to express my gratitude to the WIC team: operations manager Caryn Stoess, assistant director Dennis Bennett, graduate assistant Casey Dawson, undergraduate assistant Elizabeth Nguyen, and graduate intern Georgia Grace Wright. I am also deeply grateful to the WIC Advisory Board.
Most of all, I am grateful to all the WIC faculty with whom I have had a chance to work. You have made this the best job in the world. Thank you.
