Legacy Program for Continuing Units

The WEC legacy program supports the sustained relevance (or renewal) of Writing Plans and faculty-designed implementation activity. To these ends, the WEC team collaborates with participating units to collect current and relevant data from stakeholders (students in majors, instructors, affiliates), to participate in an abbreviated round of faculty meetings, and to propose new implementation activities.

Who can apply?

This opportunity is available to units that have completed the implementation of three Undergraduate Writing Plans (i.e., they have been involved in the program for 7+ years) and see a use for a new round of data collection and faculty discussion. WEC units currently implementing Legacy Writing Plans are: History, Horticultural Science, Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Art History, Mechanical Engineering, and Design, Housing, and Apparel. WEC units currently developing Legacy Writing Plans are the School of Nursing and the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Why would a unit apply?

Units that initiated WEC activity many years ago will have experienced unavoidable changes. Curricular structures and major programs may have been restructured, faculty members have retired and been hired, and new technologies and platforms may have altered the landscape of writing in the field. For many, the Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated a migration to new forms of online writing instruction. In some units, concerns about ways in which writing instruction and assessment practices connect to diversity, equity, and inclusion goals may inspire the faculty to collect new data from colleagues and undergraduate students and to reconsider expectations and methods outlined in previous Writing Plans.

Not all legacy-eligible units will see the need for renewed data collection and all-faculty meetings. In these cases, third-edition Writing Plans can remain in an implementation phase indefinitely and WEC consultants remain available to support ongoing or renewed implementation efforts.

What resources are available to support Legacy participants?

Renewed fiscal support for legacy units caps at $13K per unit ($3K for the Liaison and a cap of $10K to support renewed implementation activities).

How does the legacy process work?

After we've accepted three units into an annual legacy cohort, we'll gather new sets of writing samples and survey data. From there, we'll co-facilitate two meetings in which faculty members (and others...TAs? students?) will interpret and discuss these data and identify next steps, new activities, etc. From these discussions, faculty members will build a Legacy Plan which will be submitted to the Campus Writing Board and Office of Undergraduate Education for approval. Once approved and funded, Legacy Plans move into new rounds of partnered implementation and assessment.

What’s the timeline?

We'll select units in February 2024, hold an initial, virtual planning meeting in March 2024 to organize data collection and schedule future faculty meetings. Legacy Plans will be submitted in May 2025 and go into implementation beginning in AY25–26.

Applications for Legacy support from the Writing-Enriched Curriculum Program are due by January 29, 2024.

Recent Examples:

As part of the first Legacy cohort, faculty members and instructors from the Department of History developed a Legacy Plan after careful review of new data and stakeholder discussions. The plan addresses four core goals: (1) fostering collaboration among graduate student instructors and TAs, undergraduate majors, and faculty members; (2) supporting instructional practices by developing instructor- and student-facing Canvas-based resources focused on the teaching and practice of writing in History; (3) developing community by engaging in an annual fall orientation and monthly meetings to discuss the roles of writing across and within their courses; (4) expanding the scope of writing in History to include new modes and modalities and broader audiences. This Plan was approved by the Campus Writing Board in May of 2020.

As part of the second Legacy cohort, faculty members from the Department of Horticultural Science and the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics responded to significant structural changes in their undergraduate majors. The Horticulture major was phased out and two new undergraduate programs, Plant Science and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, were launched. Consequently, faculty members from a variety of constituent departments worked collaboratively to develop coordinated legacy-edition Writing Plans for each major and to build community and collective agency related to the curricular integration of relevant forms of writing and writing instruction. In implementing their plans, faculty members teaching in the Food Systems major will build common rubrics around policy writing and reflective writing. Faculty members in the Plant Science major will map quantitative thinking and writing activities within their curriculum in order to develop a systematic approach to teaching these abilities and make resources available to students and faculty. Both departments will continue to examine and revise their internship courses to best align with the expectations of the two majors.