Faculty Senate Working Group on Communication in the Curriculum (2011)

 

Charge: 

In 2010 the Faculty Senate Working Group on Communication in the Curriculum produced a report assessing Rice’s university-wide writing program. That report recommended that Rice conduct an external review that would identify the strengths and weaknesses of our current instructional practices and make recommendations for the creation of a top-tier writing and communication program. As a result of that report, three experts in writing and communication visited Rice in the spring of 2011, reviewed all materials relating to our current program, and met with administrators, faculty, and students. Each of these invited experts issued a separate report. Early this fall, the Senate formed a new working group charged with producing a final report based on the excellent work of our predecessor group and the external reviewers.Our report would, in the language of the charge, “develop final recommendations that address the immediate-term problems with COMM 103 within a framework of longer term changes . . . that will provide Rice students with the means to develop their writing and communication skills at a level that is competitive with that at peer institutions.” Included in the charge was a directive to consult with the Faculty Advisory Group on Communication in the Curriculum which represents, more widely than can the eight-member working group, interests from across the university. The report that follows is our response to that charge and the result of consultations not only with the advisory group but with other stakeholders, including the Dean of Undergraduates, the Dean of Graduate Studies (also the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs), the deans of individual schools, administrators and faculty from the Program for Communication Excellence, writing program administrators from peer institutions, and many others.

Members:

  • Chair: Helena Michie

  • Terry Doody

  • David Ferris

  • Kate Beckingham

  • Tony Mikos

  • Ric Stoll

  • Michael Domeracki

  • Estevan Delgado

Read the final report and recommendations on the faculty wiki, available with Net ID login.