Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Programs began in the United States over thirty years ago and are rightfully noted in higher education literature as one of the most longstanding and successful curriculum reform movements in higher education in the second half of the 20th century. Models for WAC programs tend to be quite diverse because they are typically tailored to fit the specific college context in which they exist. In fact, this is one of the reasons TIME Magazine and The Princeton Review chose four "Colleges of the Year" for 2001 instead of just one.

It is imperative to note, however, that while this diversity born of accommodating any given context is an exemplary hallmark of WAC, successful programs invariably adhere to the same principles and practices that were routinely advocated in the early years of WAC's history and well-documented as still viable according to more recent research. These principles and practices were the foundation of Longview's earliest WAC efforts, which continued to flourish over a twenty-year period, and now include as participants a significant number of full and part-time faculty.

The past 20 years for Longview are rich in the kind of cultural shifts higher education initiatives hope to produce. But these 20 years are by no means a historical accident nor is this program an anomaly. Dr. Susan McLeod in her seminal collection of essays, WAC: A Guide to Developing Programs (Sage Publications, 1992), defines WAC as "transformative" rather than additive and aimed at changing the way both teachers and students use writing in the curriculum.

Longview's definition supports and reflects this traditional WAC approach: "a program of curricular change through faculty development." In an article published in Writing Program Administration in 1991, McLeod cites these elements as critical to the success of any WAC program:

• Time to grow and develop through faculty dialogue
• Resources:
  • "First and most valuable"- a coordinator
  • Reward system for faculty
  • Support systems for students and faculty
• Administrative structure to ensure curricular change takes place and stays in place (like the current WAC Cadre, a 6-member, interdisciplinary group of faculty)

Other more recent studies by McLeod (1997) and by others, including a longitudinal case study of WAC faculty by Barbara Walvoord, a WAC pioneer now directing the Teaching and Learning Center at Notre Dame, have determined that these three "compelling and related factors" are critical to enduring programs:

1. Administrative Support
2. Grassroots/Faculty Support
3. Strong, consistent program leadership

Likewise, articles abound which chronicle the failure of some programs where despite enormous funding, programs fell apart because they did not take into account some or all of the aforementioned features. Composition scholar and writing assessment guru, Dr. Ed White, provides a brief account of program failure at two large universities in the 1980's in his article, "Innovations Set Adrift."

While it would be tempting to succumb to internal and external pressures and mandate faculty participation in this program or attempt to show immediate results by prematurely assessing new aspects of this program or to sidestep laying the necessary WAC foundation and jump ahead to later stage developments like a Writing Intensive model (as many schools have done to their peril), we should remember that WAC is really about changing a deeply entrenched culture, steeped in perceptions about teaching and learning and longstanding traditions related to writing.

It should be noted that WAC is not at all about change for the sake of change, however. Creating a comfortable environment for faculty to process new ideas and providing the necessary instruction, guidance, and feedback to them individually and in small groups unquestionably takes much time. But the enduring appeal of WAC at Longview is embedded in the rich cross-disciplinary discussions this program fosters, discussions that are at once the very heart of the teaching and learning process, inviting faculty to reconsider their pedagogy and think critically about how their students learn, especially through the primary critical thinking activity which is writing.