First Annual Conference of the University of California Writing Program Teaching Faculty

Writing UC:  Uniting Faculty Across Best Practices

July 29, 2016, 10-4:30 pm

Burbank: California Federation of Teachers, 4500 N. Hollywood Way (by airport; free parking)  

Call for Participants

Non-Senate Writing faculty across the UC system are invited to attend and share brief reports of teaching and working conditions within their Writing Programs as well as ideas for UC-wide and campus-specific campaigns to improve these conditions. We will initiate and document a cross-program conversation about best (and worst) practices and begin to build a database of current UC Writing Programs’ workload, pedagogy, leadership, and organization. By broadening our community and drawing upon collective knowledge and ideas, we can construct data-driven arguments on behalf of professional development and solutions to campus and shared problems.  There is strength in numbers!

Preliminary schedule

9-10 am:  breakfast

10-10:30: Jon Keeperman/Roxi Power: summarize our UC Writing Program report and goals

10:30-12:30: ten minute reports from representatives of the 9 campus Writing Programs

12:30-1:00:  lunch

1:00-2:30: respond to campus reports/prioritize actionable issues on each campus (10 min. each)

2:30-3:15: breakout groups (3 campuses each) with common issues: identify problems/solutions

3:15-3:30:  break

3:30-4:00:  Group reports and responses (10 min. each, focusing on possible actions/campaigns)

4:00-4:30:  Next steps: shared and campus-specific campaigns; surveying UC Writing faculty

5:00-6:00:  Cocktails, socializing

6:00-9:00:  Dinner

Conference goals

Conference participants (around 2-4/campus, ideally, pre-continuing and continuing) are asked to provide us with information or research about their campus and Writing Program in advance of July 29 to help us construct a report. Write organizers with interest in attending the conference and/or helping us with campus or programmatic research, such as campus data (number of classes, demographics, lecturer status, etc.) and description of your Writing Program (policies, curriculum, governance, opportunities, problems, etc.)

We’ll provide more guidelines when you write.  

Contacts (write organizers with questions, interest, or ideas)

Jonathan Keeperman (jonathankeeperman@gmail.com) for UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara.  

Roxi Power (rpower@ucaft.org) for UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz.