Changing the Center of Gravity: Collaborative Writing Program Administration in Large Universities

摘要

Throughout the 1990s, Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) have advocated the abandonment of traditional organizational models, characterized by top-down hierarchy and single-source authority. In this article, we discuss the evolution toward collaborative WPA structures in which compositionists and technical/professional communication scholars work together to manage writing programs at large universities. The article profiles four programs at various stages of evolution, including the University of New Mexico, University of Colorado-Boulder, Texas Tech University, and Grand Valley State University. We found that all programs have their own reasons for developing collaborative administrative structures. However, all four seem to be responding to the unique material conditions at their university as they merge composition with technical/professional communication under a collaborative WPA structure.