DePaul University's Major in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse

DARSIE BOWDEN

Introduction

The Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse (WRD) separated from DePaul's English department on July 1, 2007. WRD assumed immediate oversight of the first-year writing program and the minor in professional writing, which, at the time, had twenty-six declared students. In the course of the next year, we established a master's in WRD, annexed an existing master's in new media studies (an interdisciplinary degree already directed by a WRD faculty member and staffed primarily by WRD faculty), and created a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate program. Finally, in March of 2010, we submitted a proposal for a BA in WRD, which was approved in the summer of 2010.

Department Name: Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse

Institution Type: Private, Catholic, Doctoral/Research University (DRU)

Institution Size: 25,000 students

Residential or 87% commuter
Commuter:

Student Body Diverse student body; high percentage
Description: first in their family to go to college;
high school GPA average 3.55; 33%
come from out of state

Year Major Began: 2010

Official Name of Bachelor of Arts in Writing, Rhetoric,
Degree: and Discourse

Number of Majors: In year one: 8 In In year three: 40
year five: N/A Current: 40

Number of Full-Time 13
R/C Faculty:

The journey to a free-standing department with its own major was predictably tumultuous. Change is difficult in the conservative culture of education, and DePaul — the largest Catholic university in the US, with an enrollment of 25,398, including 7,983 graduate students (mostly master's students) — is not immune to the power of the status quo. The scarcity of resources due to the economic downturn of the past three years has served to exacerbate tensions and competitiveness between departments and programs. In addition to struggles for resources, some of the drama in our separation stemmed from local conditions, including existing institutional structures, areas of expertise, alliances, and personalities. The split also put into stark relief assumptions about writing — how it is defined, how it is perceived, and who owns it in terms of disciplinary jurisdiction.

Overview and Program Rationale

In the negotiations surrounding the physical and curricular separation from English, one of the most heated conversations concerned the naming of the new department. English department representatives, a majority of whom were creative writing faculty (poetry, fiction, and "creative nonfiction"), were insistent that the new unit NOT include writing in its name, unless it was "writing studies." While at first only a problem as we worked to divvy up the courses from an existing (and successful) master's degree in writing (both units wanted to retain "writing"), the naming issue would later fuel debates about the undergraduate major as well. The creative writers who identified strongly with literature — both professionally and personally — not only wanted to remain with English, but also wanted to retain primary status as the "writers" of the DePaul community. As such, they also felt they should be entitled to keep first-year writing in the English department. Thus, the question of who could control writing became both disciplinary and symbolic — should it be English with its long, illustrious history and investment in literature and "creative" writing or the new department, nested in the field of composition and rhetoric, with its even longer history and intellectual and practical investments in language and rhetoric? There is no convenient (or perfect) answer.

To add to the jurisdictional confusion, the university writing center, which had been supervised and managed by English department faculty since the mid 1970s, had become a unit of Academic Affairs in the previous year. Shortly afterward, Academic Affairs hired a staff director rather a faculty director, who, as it happened, had a graduate degree in literature, exacerbating jurisdictional issues and distancing writing even further...