Preparing to Fly: Adaptation & Diversity in Writing Centers

Deeds Boardroom

Writing Centers are a staple of college campuses; however, those campuses are becoming increasingly more diverse each semester. With this diversity comes change, and that change needs to be reflected in campus resources, such as The Writing Center. Writing centers are a place that welcomes and helps all, but in order to soar to new heights writing centers must become equipped with resources and staff to handle the challenges diversity brings. Being Writing Center Consultants, Fallon & Phillips recognize the challenges of diversity in writing centers, the lack of non-native English speaker resources, and strive to solve these problems. The inception of this project came from realizing a need to increase the resources that The Writing Center and Indiana University Southeast has for non-native English speakers. By partnering with Donna Dahlgren who is the curator of First Year Programs, Leigh Ann Meyer who is the director of the Indiana University Southeast Writing Center, and IU Southeast’s Chancellor Ray Wallace we have begun to create a Writing Center based ESL program that will include a First Year Seminar Course focused on ESL needs and a one-on-one graduate tutoring program. The combined effort between the faculty and resources listed above will build a solid foundation on which our program will fly. People who attend this presentation will take away the template that IU Southeast has used in their writing center and be able to adapt this template for use in other writing centers.