NSU's Quality Enhancement Plan April 2017

22 | NSU QEP Strategies While various colleges and departments provide writing support services to their students, from tutoring and mentoring to workshops and events, the services are not consistent with one another; there is limited, if any, formal assessment of these programs; and there are large numbers of students who are in colleges that do not offer such services. The only colleges that offer formal one-to-one writing support to their students are the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (only to first-year composition and graduate students), the HPD College of Health Care Sciences, and the College of Undergraduate Studies. These three colleges enroll 8,068 out of the university’s 21,625 students (based on fall 2016 data; first-year composition students were counted as part of the College of Undergraduate Studies in order to not duplicate). Therefore, almost two-thirds of NSU students are enrolled in colleges that do not offer formal one-to-one writing support to their students. As noted, the Tutoring and Testing Center does offer appointments to graduate students, but their office is housed within the College of Undergraduate Studies and visits are significantly low (only 152 graduate students during 2015–2016). There is no similar structure offered to graduate students across the university. Thus, there is a significant gap in the writing support services offered by the university. VI. QEP STRATEGIES This section outlines new and expanded QEP strategies for improving student writing at NSU. QEP Committee members developed these strategies based on feedback from faculty members and students, as well as from best practices supported by the fields of composition-rhetoric and writing centers. Specifically, this section shows how NSU will develop a university-wide writing and communication center that will (a) offer general writing assistance to students at all levels in all formats; (b) facilitate an expanded undergraduate writing fellows program; (c) provide graduate student writing workshops and events; (d) offer faculty support for teaching discipline-specific writing, and (e) develop online writing resources. NSU’s Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center Through the QEP, NSU will consolidate and expand its writing assistance programs, creating a unified, university-wide writing and communication center that will help the university carry out its mission. The university has committed to providing appropriate space and resources to support the center in its effort to enhance student writing. NSU’s Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center will be a student-centered , cocurricular, academic program that will help students achieve academic excellence . Students of all levels, from first-semester undergraduates to dissertation-writing doctoral students, will be able to receive one-on-one and group writing assistance from peer and professional writing consultants. The NSU Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center will provide faculty members and students with innovative teaching, learning, and scholarship opportunities , both in and out of the classroom. Students will work with, and learn from, a diverse community of writers and researchers. The NSU Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center will support the university’s mission and core values.