DRW Digital Archive

Items

• Description of the Division of Composition
  Unattributed document asserting that the DRC will reevaluate E 306 exemptions, support minority and special students, consider new courses, prioritize the training of primary and secondary English teachers, and explore ways to enhance the training of AIs. Additionally, it will investigate ways of evaluating its performance and will move quickly to computerize courses, open a computer writing research lab, and consider a writing center. Finally, faculty will take a role improving the University's substantial writing component courses.
• Memo Asking for a Meeting to Revise the Division of Rhetoric and Composition Committee Report
  A brief memo asking for one last meeting to discuss the report of the Division of Composition report to the English faculty, with particular questions about budget.s
• Memo and Report On Division of Rhetoric and Composition
  A memo and report describing meetings among those on the committee on the DRC describing their conversations and points of consensus. The writers agree that the DRC should be democratically led and retain close ties to the English Department, but will have more control over the writing program than before. E 306 will use the same syllabus. The DRC will enhance pedagogical training, open a Computer Writing and Research Lab, establish a Writing Center, and help improve the University's Substantial Writing Component courses. The committee's next steps are a meeting with the English Department Executive Council and the unanimous nomination of a Division Chair. It is also committed to hiring additional faculty, although not at the expense of the English Department.
• Unattributed Letter to Robert King, may 6, 1994
  The letter expresses disappointment that King could not attend DRC Awards Luncheon, praises the Division for all it’s accomplished, praises King for making it possible, praises Ruszkiewicz for being the chief architect of the division and for having the grace to let someone else chair, and finally expresses hope for a graduate program in the DRC.
• Kruppa Memo to Rhetoric and Composition Faculty
  Memo from Joe Kruppa to Lester Faigley, Linda Ferreira-Buckley, John Ruszkiewicz, and James Kinneavy regarding possible creation of Division of Rhetoric and Composition.
• Enriching the Undergraduate Experience at the University of Texas at Austin
  Also called the Bean Report, this report to the faculty council makes recommendations about how to create a consistent and fulfilling undergraduate experience despite increases in UT's size and complexity. The report advocates for the strengthening of general education requirements and pedagogy, specifically in writing. To this end, it recommends the creation of a Department of Rhetoric and Composition—as well as many other initiatives.
• Memo about Changes to English Department's Governance Document
  An announcement by Sutherland that Dean King made changes to the proposed English department's governance document, explaining the changes, and attaching the handbook of operating procedures pages to which King refers.
• English Department Guidelines
  A memo outlining the English Department's: Executive Committee, department meetings, departmental officers and standing committees, voting procedures, and transition arrangements for the spring 1985 election only
• Memo from Dean Robert king to William Sutherland about English Department Governance Document
  A letter from Dean King to Sutherland, Chair of English, explaining that King had reservations about the recently submitted governance document and explaining that he's made changes to bring the document in line with the university's Handbook of Operating Procedures.
• Freshman English Policy Committee Agenda, 23 April 1986
  An announcement and agenda for an upcoming FEPC meeting. The items listed on the agenda are all “Old Business”: proposal for extra textbooks, texts for 87-87, personnel subcommittee report.
• Freshman English Policy Committee Minutes, 4 April 1986
  The document is FEPC minutes. Attending are Ruszkiewicz, Bertelson, Daniell, Frost, Hedrick, Kearns, and Slatin. The committee members discuss course proposals for E 306, textbook selection, and the selection of the Assistant Director of Freshman Writing for the next year.
• Freshman English Policy Committee Agenda, 4 April 1986
  An announcement for an upcoming FEPC listing the following agenda items: variant course proposals, textbooks, selection of assistant director 1986-1987. The course proposals to be discussed at the meeting are attached.
• Memo About PREVIEW Summer Program, 1 April 1986
  A memo to Ruszkiewicz, German, and Bertelson, thanking them for participating in a summer program to help at-risk students; the memo describes the program, the role of E 306 in the program, and includes a sample schedule of classes for enrolled students. The memo also describes the PREVIEW student population: about 75 students, 30 in Engineering, mostly “high risk” but some “high achievers” too, some provisional admits.
• Freshman English Policy Committee Minutes 5 October 1984
  Items discussed: letter thanking McMurrey, Writing Lab director's attendance at FEPC meetings, assisting minority students in E 306, grading seminars, subcommittees-- E106/206 and textbooks, problems with E 106/206 implementation; attached handwritten notes on the meeting Faculty present: Ruszkiewicz, Bertlesen, Frost, Cherry, Daniell, Holt
• Freshman English Policy Committee Minutes 30 November 1984
  Items discussed: Variant text proposal, textbook substitution, letter of appreciation to McMurrey, Dieterich's research proposal in E 306 Faculty present: Ruszkiewicz, Bertelsen, Byerman, Cherry, Daniell
• Freshman English Policy Committee Minutes, 10 April 1985
  Items discussed include decision to remove graduate students from the FEPC, textbook selection. Ruszkiewicz, Bertelsen, Byerman, Cherry, Daniell, and Holt in attendance.
• DRC Sign
  The original sign on the DRC main office door.
• Proposal for a Rhetoric Concentration in the English Graduate Program 23 October 1978
  On behalf of the Rhetoric/Composition Interest Group, Kinneavy delivers a brief proposal to the Graduate Programs Committee outlining a new concentration in rhetoric, and including the courses that students would be required to take in order to complete the concentration.
• Memo Passing on King's Request for Recommendations for DRC Director
  A memo from Kruppa, including text from a letter from Dean Robert King announcing his intention to appoint a director to the DRC, asking for recommendations, and asking for volunteers to serve on an advisory committee about the new unit.
• Ruszkiewicz Memo to King About Division of Rhetoric and Composition Budget
  Ruszkiewicz explains his proposed DRC budget to Dean King, noting that most expenses would be cost neutral but that he has requested additional monies for lecturers, staff expenditures, and a writing lab.
• Questions about Plans for a Writing Division
  A list of questions about the DRC's scope, its members, and its members' relationships with the English Department.
• Recommendations for the Proposed Rhetoric and Composition Division
  Unattributed reflections about governance and curriculum, written in conversation with John Slatin and John Ruszkiewicz. Writer desires more undergraduate rhetoric courses and values collegiality.
• The Computer Research Lab
  A description of the Computer Research Lab including reflections on its mission, rationale, administration, and staffing.
• Linda Ferreira-Buckley's Working Notes
• Things I Want in/from the Rhetoric Division
  Unattributed list of desired resources and goals for a new DRC. The writer emphasizes that he or she does not want to hear any more "public decanal criticism of the English Department," and rather desires a clear articulation from the Dean about why the DRC is the best course.