When They Go Low, We Go High: A Writing Center Amidst the Crisis in the Humanities

Deeds Boardroom

The crisis in the Humanities is real, and many colleges and universities today feel inclined to trim liberal arts programs in an effort to streamline educational pathways toward the realm of careers. But while institutions seem to cater more and more to students who pursue financial security through programs in the business and the hard sciences rather than programs in the arts or humanities, we have managed to protect a series of reading and writing intensive courses in our general education requirement. But how do these courses serve students bent on lives that will be spent without reading and writing as leisure activities? And are the expectations for communication fluency aligned with the interests of our students? The Writing Center on our campus has helped to bridge some of the disconnect between faculty and millennials who see college as a way toward a career--not so much lives rooted in critical analysis. How are tutors the stewards who illuminate the value of lives rich with careful reading and writing? This paper presents the liminal area that our peer consultants straddle--and in many ways help to negotiate--for students who might see the conventions of a liberal arts education as out-dated. With personal narrative from peer-tutors, this paper illustrates what writing centers are doing today to serve students in ways that go beyond the mere teaching of grammar, mechanics and rhetorical stylistics.