February 24, 2004

To: David Robertson, Chair, Department of English
From: Joe Kiskis, Chair, Undergraduate Council
Subject: Proposal for a University Writing Program

This message is to formally transmit the proposal for the University
Writing Program
(http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/kiskis/ug_council/writing_proposal.pdf)
to the Department of English. It is a product of our recent discussions,
and it has the endorsement of the Undergraduate Council. If you think this
memo itself would also inform the discussions in your department, I will
be pleased to have your assistance in distributing it.

The proposal itself is the same as the version I sent to you informally on
Thursday, Feb. 19, and which you have already distributed to your
department. It is the direct result of the meeting on February 5 with the
Chair of the Academic Senate, the Chair of the College of Letters and
Science Executive Committee, the Chair of the Committee on Elections,
Rules, and Jurisdiction, the Director of the University Writing Program,
you, and I. The consensus of the participants was that we work together to
develop a proposal for an independent writing program that could be put
forward with Undergraduate Council endorsement and that would also earn
the support of your faculty. As I understand it, our agreement is that it
will be presented to the Department of English as a proposal that, at
least within the category of proposals for an independent program, is
favorable for your department. Following the consideration of it in
English, but not later than the end of this quarter (winter, 2004), the
proposal will be forwarded to college and Senate committees for their
comments.

In formulating the Undergraduate Council writing report last year, we
benefited from substantial input from members of the Department of
English. They were instrumental in developing the Council consensus that
achieving the goal of high writing proficiency in our graduating
students would require a complete writing program including lower and
upper division courses, a writing in the disciplines program, support for
writing intensive courses across the campus, and evaluation of student
outcomes. They also made the case that the responsibility of achieving
campus writing goals for every UC Davis student through such a program is
more than a single department can reasonably be expected to shoulder.

The Undergraduate Council writing report, which included the
recommendation for an independent writing program, was issued in June,
2003, and was sent to the Department of English by July, 2003. Since then,
there have been extensive discussions across the campus. The most recent
intensive round that led to this proposal included Brenda Schildgen,
Director of the University Writing Program, you and I. It has accounted
for earlier comments from around the campus. In addition I understand it
to have incorporated your suggestions, and its wording has been endorsed
by Dean Langland. Thus I am confident that this proposal will be
recognized as one that is structured to establish a writing program for UC
Davis that will enable us to meet our campus goals for student writing and
that will have quality, stability, and a bright outlook for future
development.  I strongly support this proposal as one that will benefit
your department, the College of Letters and Science, the campus, and most
of all, our students.

I appreciate very much the time, energy, and knowledge that you and other
members of the Department have contributed to this proposal, to the UG
Council writing report, and more generally, to improving student writing
at UC Davis.

The other documents tied this proposal are the MOU and the advertisement
for a Director of the University Writing Program.

Associated documents include:
Examples of writing program institutional placement at other universities,
(paper),
ORMP report (paper),
Undergraduate Council Writing Report
(http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/kiskis/ug_council/ugc_writing_html.html
or http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/kiskis/ug_council/ugc_writing.pdf)
Zender report
(http://www.ls.ucdavis.edu/Academic/HARCS/Reports/Comp_Req_task_force_report.pdf)