CMU Writing Center Mission and History
Mission Statement
The CMU Writing Center is dedicated to supporting a culture of writing in the University community and to providing a collaborative environment that assists writers in developing writing strategies and skills across disciplines and beyond.
Writing Central: The Writing Center at Central Michigan University
The Central Michigan University Writing Center is founded on the philosophy that writing should be at the center of a college education. The CMU Center has been in existence since 1976, when the then “Lab,” under the auspices of the English Department, began providing one-on-one help to basic writing students. In 1998, with the help of a CMU Initiatives grant, the Center expanded its vision, its mission, and its services, offering assistance university-wide while continuing its basic writing curriculum, which requires weekly WC sessions. To say the least, the Center has grown tremendously since that time to include four sites and multiple services. It also outgrew its 600 square foot room in Moore Hall, moving to Anspach 003, 1500 square feet, in fall 2004. Currently under discussion is building a room for the Center at the Library.
The Center’s main home on the lower level of Anspach Hall, the building that houses the English Department and most of the Center’s College (Human and Behavioral Sciences). Features include much needed space for student consulting, some office space, a computer section, and an adjacent classroom with a movable wall; a computer lab is across the hall and another meeting room around the corner. The Center also has two satellite sites: at a freshman dormitory complex and another, evenings, in the library.
Staffing includes paid and for-credit peer writing consultants (full-time students, working 6 to 20 hours per week, 32 in fall 2005), several graduate assistants (4 in fall 2005, working 20 hours per week), a director and two faculty sharing the associate director’s positions. Currently, the Center has an annual operating budget of approximately $50,000, excluding Director and Associate Director salaries. Consultant wages, which start slightly above minimum, vary depending on status (graduate or undergraduate student) and on the length of time (training and experience) at the Center. In their first semester of working at the Center, all consultants participate in Eng 510, the Writing Center Practicum class, whether for credit and/or for pay, usually with a combination of the two. On-going training continues during staff meeting and as needed for individual consultants throughout the year. Also associated with the Writing Center is a registered student organization, the Writing Circle, which invites all university students to participate in writing and teaching writing activities and which allows members to apply for funds to support programs as well as conference travel.
The Center offers a variety of services: on-site consulting (almost 10,000 sessions in 2005-06) and an online service that is offered to Eng 101, first-year writing classes, and to all students in CMU Off Campus programs (national and international), and a small amount of outreach (e.g., a basic writing student publication, supporting high school writing center development, writing in K-12) as well as in-class workshops (e.g., orientation to writing/the Center, peer-editing, model critique, etc.) and writing-across-the curriculum faculty support. During the academic year, the Center is open over 90 hours/week among the four sites: Sunday through Thursday evenings and Monday through Friday mornings and afternoons (primarily 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and 5 or 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.). In summer the main Center is closed but a small number of hours (15 - 20 hours/week) are offered at the Library along with support for the online service. The Center works with students from a wide variety of courses and instructors (over 150 different courses and/or instructors in 2005-06) and graduate and undergraduate writers, including non-native English speakers. In 2005-06, basic writing classes that require weekly sessions have accounted for approximately a third of the sessions; two-thirds of sessions were provided to other university students and for classes throughout the university. Such usage patterns, which include both younger and older student writers, fits the Center’s philosophy: that writing needs to be not only central but on-going, supported throughout students’ university careers and beyond.
Dr. MaryAnn Crawford
Director, CMU Writing Center
(version published online at Michigan Writing Centers Association website)
