Writing Center

Writing Center Strategic Plan (2018-2023)

Mission 

The CSUSM Writing Center leads the campus in delivering upon the University’s commitment to create strong, thoughtful, and adaptable writers across all disciplines. In our welcoming learning environment, we actively encourage students to engage purposefully with writing and critical thinking through a peer-to-peer model.  With an emphasis on educational equity, we provide students with the skills and confidence to succeed in their chosen fields by identifying diverse writing needs and demystifying the academic writing process. 

Strategic Objective #1

Steward growth of students served in the Writing Center.

Goals 

1. Increase student visits by 5% each year, and the number of unique students by 2.5% each year. 
2. By 2023, Increase number of student visits by 25%, and the number of unique students served by 12.5%. 
3. Continue to ensure that we are serving students with an equity-minded lens, that the students coming to the center reflect course and campus compositions. Disaggregate attendance by demographic and student-status criteria to verify above. 

Strategic Objective #2 

Develop strong partnerships with campus community to foster program growth and goals. 

Goals 

1. Increase collaborations and develop initiatives with Faculty Center.  
2. Establish a WC Sub-Committee within the new LTS Advisory Council. 
3. Maintain GEW-Writing Center liaison.  

Strategic Objective #3  

Identify changing writing needs and respond with relevant services, strategies, and activies grounded in research. 

Goals 

1. Develop a stronger pipeline for recruiting tutors 
2. Explore a campus-wide tutoring/teaching-learning course with other Centers. 
3. Facilitate participation of tutors in Word Cube Association (WCA) conferences. Those who attend will bring back best practices to share within the WC.   
4. Assess and maintain thesis retreats and workshops for graduate students. 
5. Grow services for multilingual writers. 
6.  Increase peer-to-peer outreach and networking, develop an online space for students to assist one another, and explore after-hours or 24-hour model.  
7. Develop and pilot 3 writing collaborations with faculty liaisons for specific disciplines and departments.  
8. Institutionalize digital appointments through available platforms. 
9. Maintain a high success rate with GEW students as demonstrated by grade correlations. 

Strategic Objective #4  

Facilitate community-wide collaborations that promote reciprocal understandings about writing in all its manifestations.    

Goals 

1.  Develop WC Ambassador Program to high schools in Alliance districts and bring AVID high school students to campus. 
2.  Align with high school teachers to raise awareness in high school students about college writing, e.g., through continued collaboration with CSUSM Education faculty who teach ERWC courses for area high school teachers. 
3. Continue out-of-WC services to different affinity groups such as the Epstein Family Veterans Center and Latino Center, and investigate expansion to Sovereignty Center, Black Student Union, etc. 

Strategic Objective #5 

Actively communicate the services of the Writing Center across the campus and encourage students to seek writing and critical thinking assistance.  

Goals 

1.  Promote WC services across campus departments, advertise our services to specific disciplines in tailored ways, including social media and online forums. Assess efforts to see effectiveness. 

 

Strategic Objective #6 

Develop ongoing assessment practices. Assess practices in a continuous way with attention to the feedback loop and necessary revision.  

Goals 

1. Work with Academic Programs’ Assessment Coordinator to develop a meaningful assessment plan.  
2. Work with the OUGS Student Success Analyst and data analysts in (IP & A to identify appropriate metrics to use for monitoring Writing Center data). 
3. Craft an appropriate data-informed assessment plan that includes quantitative and qualitative assessment practices pertinent to the Writing Center. 
4. Determine a schedule for assessing the success of each WC workshop and activity. Proceed yearly until all workshops/activities have been assessed. Institute rotating assessment of then-existing workshops.