Writing Fellows director Rhoda Flaxman PhD'82 resigned late last semester, protesting both a perceived lack of University support for the peer tutoring program she founded and ran for two decades and the transfer of the program's longtime administrative assistant.
The popular professor's resignation prompted University officials to defuse a vocal backlash from writing fellows who sensed external meddling in their tight-knit group, just as the dean of the College was preparing to begin a wholesale review of writing instruction at Brown. Writing fellows, who are selected through a competitive application process, help all the students in courses for which professors request their assistance.
"I decided to leave Brown - I was going to retire in three years anyway - because I was very disturbed when I found out I was losing my staff," Flaxman told The Herald in a July 10 interview. "Wendy Sheridan, the woman who helped me for 14 years, who has done a terrific job of managing our courses and our work, was no longer available to the program."
"At this point in my life, I did not really want to be in a fight with administrators over support," Flaxman added.
Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said the staffing change was originally proposed by her predecessor as dean, Professor of English Paul Armstrong. In a July 12 e-mail to The Herald, she wrote the change was part of a comprehensive plan to rethink the University's writing requirement.
Fellows question U.'s reasoningAfter learning last semester that Sheridan would be reassigned to work with deans in University Hall, Flaxman mailed letters to more than 800 current and alumni writing fellows, describing what she saw as the University's lack of support for the program and, according to a recipient of the letter, a conspiracy to change its structure and culture.
Bergeron, like other University officials, was initially unaware of the letter. She first learned of it when two concerned writing fellows met with her in late April and other students sent letters of complaint to The Herald and the dean, alleging insufficient backing for the student writing fellows, all of whom assist other students with their writing in specific courses, sources said.
"The way Rhoda expressed it to us was that she was going to be expected to do administrative work on top of her normal duties," said Nick Swisher '08, one of the writing fellows who met with Bergeron. "We were really concerned about these changes being made without any sort of student input and that these changes would affect the way the Writing Fellows program was run, in that the fellows themselves would now be running the program."
Bergeron asked Flaxman for a copy of the letter she sent to alums, sources told The Herald, and soon after offered a 25 hour-per-week administrative assistant to Flaxman's replacement, Doug Brown, who will direct both the Writing Center and Writing Fellows this fall.
Until then, Brown was slated to direct both programs without any staff support, Flaxman and several writing fellows said. Because the Writing Fellows program works with nearly half the undergraduate population each year, Flaxman said staff support is imperative.
Bergeron told The Herald that Flaxman announced her retirement before discussions of staff support for the Writing Fellows were ever completed. "After further discussion with staff and students during the spring and summer, we concluded that the best use of our resources would be to hire a new staff member to assist with the program," she wrote.
Writing fellow Fiona Heckscher '09 said Bergeron, Brown and Associate Dean of the College Kathleen McSharry met with fellows on May 14 and told them an assistant for the program would be hired.
Heckscher described the meeting as "a great brainstorming session" that provided a link between fellows and the administration. But Swisher, a former Herald opinions editor, said though he appreciated Bergeron's gesture, her talk of a broad curricular evaluation didn't answer writing fellows' specific concerns about why Flaxman's staff was cut in the first place.
"If Brown's going to be re-evaluating writing in the curriculum, it seems they were shutting out the people who might have something very valuable to say about it," Swisher said. "What caused most of the turmoil was the worry there wasn't going to be administrative support for the program. Now that there is, I wonder why all these changes needed to happen under the circumstances they did."
"It's all so surreptitious," Swisher added.
New leadership and directionThough writing fellows said Flaxman's resignation is a significant loss to the program, they said they have confidence in Doug Brown, who currently directs the Writing Center and will also lead the Writing Fellows next year.
Brown said Thursday he is sensitive to fellows' concerns that the program's unique culture will fade with Flaxman's departure.
"There's the culture of this program and the practice of this program. The culture is vitally important, so we'll be working together to preserve it," Brown said. "As far as methods and practice, that's what will be evaluated."
Fellows were particularly concerned that the program faces consolidation with the Writing Center. "My sense from meeting with Dean Bergeron is that perhaps her office didn't have the best perspective on each program's goals," Swisher said.
Though two programs have always been distinct entities, next year they will both move into J. Walter Wilson Laboratory, which is being transformed into a student support center, and will be run by the same person. The Writing Center is staffed by graduate students who provide individual writing support to students and lead writing workshops, whereas the writing fellows are undergraduates assigned to provide assistance in specific courses.
Both Bergeron and Brown said they have no intention of combining the two programs. Brown said collaboration between the programs would be limited to social events or retreats.
Brown and Bergeron said students can expect increased focus on the University's writing requirement. In a Herald poll conducted in the spring, fewer than half of Brown students said they believe all undergraduates fulfill the University's English requirement, which mandates "competence in reading and writing" to graduate.
McSharry will work on that issue next year, Bergeron wrote, with an eye toward linking various writing support programs. This fall the Writing Center will have weekly seminars on writing within different disciplines, and a student-faculty committee should be formed by the fall, Brown said, to advise on the University's writing programs.
While writing fellows like Swisher remain skeptical of Bergeron's call for "strengthening the connections between many parallel programs," others see an opportunity for dialogue.
"A lot of different parts of the University tend to finger-point when it comes to determining who is responsible for providing writing education - programs point to the administration, administration points to professors, professors point to departments," said Katherine Saviskas '06, who wrote her senior thesis on the history of the Writing Fellows program. Now, she said, "We have a chance for a campus-wide conversation about how to give people the writing education they need."
Even as the Writing Fellows program moves forward without Flaxman, several fellows were quick to point out that it has suffered a significant loss. "Her departure may be an opportunity to update the program, but I really dislike the way that opportunity arose," Swisher said.
Flaxman said she is excited about spending time on her consulting business. "The next step of my career is to spread a methodology of writing," Flaxman said, adding that she has already been working with four institutions. "I think it will be more effective to work with faculties than with my wonderful writing fellows, who work solely in the Brown context."
