Faculty Development/Training
Patrick (Pat) DeSimio is a MA graduating this semester and one of Lauren’s four writing coordinators. Pat is responsible for organizing professional development, which geared primarily towards GAs and adjuncts. Lauren shared that “faculty are really not involved in the PD. It’s for ongoing training for teachers of gen ed writing, mostly GAs, adjuncts, and a few college track (non-TT) faculty occasionally come. I am the only tenure track faculty member who attends in my role as WPA.” At Lauren’s previous university, Eastern Connecticut State University, where Lauren served as an associate professor and first year writing coordinator, “faculty taught FYC and were invited to participate in faculty development, although only adjuncts were required to attend. This caused some tension, obviously.” However, since NMSU’s PDs are focused on GAs and adjuncts, this is not an issue in her current position.
When considering PD options that would most benefit NMSU’s WP’s targeted audience, Lauren and the writing coordinators accept proposals for PD ideas and presenters: “At the beginning of each semester, the WP request proposals for PD sessions (this is Pat’s job this year). Although Pat organizes the process, the 4 coordinators and I review proposals and send feedback to the potential presenters. And together, we put together a schedule. Last semester, Pat did a survey and found that GAs wanted more creative writing sessions, so now, we are trying to offer more meetings that focus on teaching creative writing as well as composition.” Lauren’s flexibility on PD topics allows for GAs and adjuncts to have a strong voice in the types of PD workshops they would find beneficial and engaging. In “Professional Development for Writing Program Staff,” William J. Carpenter encourages implementing PD workshops in which staff members voice interest. Carpenter states, “The opportunity to make one’s own educational decisions promotes in the individual’s a greater sense of one’s ownership toward the information learned and the program that presents it” (160). Since GAs are given the primary voice in the topics of PD workshops, Lauren follows Carpenter’s advice.
Pat’s role in the program (described above) is best categorized in Catherine Latterell’s “Defining Roles for Graduate Students in Writing Program Administration: Balancing Pragmatic Needs with a Postmodern Ethics of Action.” Latterell divides GAs involved in WPA into three categories; Pat mostly correlates with the Administrative Assistant category which “Like the liaison position, administrative assistants find themselves using a significant portion of their time communicating with their fellow teaching assistants. The difference, however, is that administrative assistants operate more like mid-level managers from a business model: Their chief task is preparing and sending reports to the pool of writing instructors and conversely preparing and presenting reports to their supervisor, the WPA, on organizational matters” (28). Pat converses with his fellow GAs to determine their PD needs, gathers data, and presents this data to Lauren, placing him in the category of administrative assistant, according to Latterell. Jeanne Gunner, in “Collaborative Administration,” agrees with the benefits of GAs serving in administrative positions. She states, “Collaborative administration remains a statement about power relations, a statement that has serious implications for the lives of administrators, faculty, and students – and note that these are not exclusive roles; a single individual may occupy all three. As a strategy for sharing authority, collaborative structures, whether resistant, transgressive, and democratic or pragmatic, efficient, and vocational, are appealing in ideal form and effective in practice, in certain places, for certain times” (260). Lauren effectively follows this model by sharing her administrative power and responsibilities with various levels of GAs, such as Pat.
PD workshops occur on Friday afternoons after classes to ensure that anyone who wants to attend has the opportunity to do so. Lauren shared that “In our WP, professional development occurs 4 times a semester on a Friday afternoon. We usually offer 3 concurrent hour-long sessions. Typically (though not this semester), one of the sessions is offered by the writing center. GAs are required to attend PD, and some adjuncts choose to attend. GAs and adjuncts are the usual presenters. Sometimes faculty present as well.”
Aside from professional development workshops, NMSU has a “RSA chapter that is run by our Rhetoric & Professional Communication grad students. Faculty are also involved, but it is grad student run. The RSA group offers brown bags on topics such as, preparing for comprehensive exams, preparing for the job market, etc. They also offer (tomorrow, actually) workshops on writing conference proposals.” NMSU offers many opportunities for graduate students to participate in service, giving them valuable experience and helping build their CVs.
In addition to PD and brown bags, “there are travel funds available through the department, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the grad school. For example, I have a faculty travel grant this year, which will pay for me to attend CCCC.” Providing support through travel funds allow Lauren and others remain current in practices and theory.
Areas of potential strengthening:
-Attracting all faculty to PDs and making them useful for all
-Implementing formative review processes, such as peer reviews for GAs