SLAC-WPA members are invited to join us at our 2025 conference, to be held January 10-11 at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. The conference theme is Navigating Change as a SLAC WPA.
Conference Registration Deadline: Dec. 10th, 2024
We have hotel rooms available at the Hampton Inn & Suites Boise-Downtown for $159/night. Events will be held on the campus of Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa and in the city of Boise, with transportation available between sites. Hotel registration deadline: Dec. 17th, 2024.
Final Program SLAC-WPA 2025 (Click to access)
Conference Program Outline
Friday, January 10th
1:00 pm: Transportation from the Hampton Inn and Suites Boise-Downtown
2:00 pm: Sessions begin at Northwest Nazarene University
5:15 pm: Transportation from Northwest Nazarene University to the Hampton Inn and Suites Boise- Downtown
7:00 pm: SLAC-WPA reception, dinner and drinks at Boise Brewing Co. (One block from the hotel).
Saturday, January 11th
Continental breakfast at the hotel
8:00 am: Transportation from the Hampton Inn and Suites Boise- Downtown
9:00 am: Morning sessions begin at Northwest Nazarene University
12:00 pm: Lunch at Northwest Nazarene University
1:00 pm: Afternoon sessions begin at Northwest Nazarene University
5:00 pm: Conference Concludes
5:00 pm: Transportation from Northwest Nazarene University to the Hampton Inn and Suites Boise- Downtown
PLEASE NOTE: Travel from the airport to the hotel will be the responsibility of the conference attendee. There are inexpensive Uber, Lyft, and taxi options.
Conference Registration Form
- $200 Full-time, tenured, or tenure-track faculty, or otherwise fully resourced
- $150 Part-time, visiting, or outside the tenure-track
Your registration fee includes all conference sessions, the Friday evening reception and dinner, and Saturday lunch.
You can access the Conference Registration Form at this link.
We have hotel rooms available at the Hampton Inn & Suites Boise-Downtown for $159/night. Hotel registration deadline: Dec. 17th, 2024.
To do in Boise:
- Boise is a walkable, safe, and clean city! Visit the Downtown Boise webpage at https://downtownboise.org/ for dining, shopping, events, and recreation information.
- Interested in skiing or snowboarding in the Boise mountains? Bogus Basin ski resort is 45 minutes north of the city.
There are a number of geothermal hot springs a short drive from Boise. For more information about hot springs, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, etc., see the Visit Boise webpage at https://visitboise.com/recommended-experiences/
Call for Presenters: Navigating Change as a SLAC WPA
Please submit proposals to this webform by October 7, 2024. **We are still accepting proposals for speed-share presentations only.**
Introducing their 2010 study Writing Program Administration at Small Liberal Arts Colleges, Jill Gladstein and Dara Regaignon noted that the institutions they studied were “in the midst of change”—change focused not so much “on introducing writing as a new value,” but instead “on surfacing and supporting a longstanding commitment to writing and writing instruction” (xvii). Their study provides a snapshot of SLACs balancing changes to their curricula, personnel, and student bodies with commitments to their historical traditions and missions. Citing Carol Rutz, they point out the paradox of small colleges as both more able to initiate and respond to change nimbly while also deeply defined by the traditions and values of their histories (22).
More than a decade later, small liberal arts colleges and their writing programs continue to initiate and respond to change, sometimes in response to forces that were already at play in 2010 and at other times – such as in the case of generative AI and the pandemic – in response to wholly new realities. More than ever, the leaders of writing programs at SLACs need “a community of writing administrators who face similar dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities on a day-to-day basis” (211), whether for perspective, collaboration, strategizing, or solidarity. This year, the SLAC-WPA community benefits from a follow-up to Gladstein and Regaignon’s study: Megan O’Neill and Genie Giaimo’s edited collection, Writing Assessment at Small Liberal Arts Colleges, an examination of writing assessment at a range of SLAC institutions and a stock-taking of writing programs and the ways they are initiating and responding to change through the work of assessment.
In the spirit of these important sense-making efforts, we invite proposals that similarly consider what writing program administration looks like today in small liberal arts colleges.
- More specifically, what does change look like in the work of our writing programs and centers, whether that change has been initiated by the program or in response to changing conditions? What has changed and what has stayed the same? Why and how?
- What is the relationship between tradition and change at your small college?
- Change can be large or small, systemic, programmatic, or personal, but because how we approach change is an important part of resilience, we invite reflection on how you have approached change as part of your work. How have you navigated change? How do you maintain resilience in the face of change?
- How might this community of peers further develop resources, strategies, relationships, and innovations to support each other and our shared/varied senses of mission, ethics, and care?
Formats
We welcome proposals that engage these questions in a variety of formats that reflect the interactive, relationship-rich traditions of the SLAC-WPA conference.
Roundtable discussion: A cluster of 3-4 ten-minute presentations that engage a common theme or shared institutional practice. You may propose an entire roundtable or a single presentation that the conference organizers will cluster with kindred presenters.
Speedshare: Short presentations that preview a new strategy, technique, or arrangement in tutoring, teaching, or administering writing. Speed sharing presentations might share works-in-progress, new developments in the field, novel administrative arrangements, ideas for assessment, strategies for staffing, skills for stretching tight budgets, thoughts about faculty development, etc. The format is a tradition at SLAC-WPA conferences and somewhat similar to a poster session, in that presenters host a small table, deliver a presentation for 5-10 minutes, then facilitate 5-10 minutes of discussion. Participants move from table to table every 20 minutes. It’s low-tech and informal by design; presenters might have handouts, a large-format poster, or a laptop to display materials.
Un-Workshop: in the spirit of the unconference, we invite proposals to host a one-hour un-workshop, which we might also call a crowdsourcing meet-up or facilitated resource-building session. Over the last few years, our community has self-organized numerous constructive, collaborative Zoom meetings on a variety of topics (most recently, for example, on teaching with AI). This format invites proposals to host such topic- or problem-focused sessions in person together. Proposals (by one or more facilitators) should offer a summary of the topic, issue, or problem, some framing questions, and a description of potential facilitation methods or activities.
Proposals
Proposals should include a title, description, rationale for the format, and activities for unconference format, as well as A/V requests. Please submit proposals to this webform by Oct 7, 2024. For questions or clarifications, please contact Jessica Kem at jkem@amherst.edu