University Writing Skills Committee Membership

Committee Leadership

• Lindsay Ellis, Director of Supplemental Writing Skills (ex officio) Chair 
• Patrick Johnson, Writing Center Director (ex officio)
• Jerry Stinnett, First-Year Writing Director, Writing Department (ex officio)

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• Abigail Gautreau
• Adrienne Wallace
• Elizabeth Flandreau
• Figen Mekik

Seidman College of Business

• Sukesh Patro

College of Education & Community Innovation

• Brian Johnson
• MaryJohn Pachuta-Rysak

Padnos College of Engineering 

• Farid Jafari

College of Computing

• John Reynolds

Kirkhof College of Nursing

• Dave Vander Ark

College of Health Professions

• Kelly Aubry

Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Ellen Adams

University Libraries

• Hazel McClure

Student Senate Representative

• Vacant

Committee Mission

The University Writing Skills Committee exists to develop and assess goals for Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program through the Supplemental Writing Skills (SWS) program at GVSU. To this end, the committee enables collaboration among the institutions across campus that support writing, specifically the First Year Writing Program, the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors, the University Libraries, and Information Technology. The work of the committee will include writing/updating the Mission, Vision, and Values statement for the SWS program; developing policies as necessary for new SWS issues (e.g., on-line SWS course guidelines); writing SWS strategic plans and advising the WAC director on the implementation of those plans; writing SWS assessment plans and advising the WAC director on the implementation of those plans; assessing the SWS program; and reviewing and revising the self-study report. The committee will also review and evaluate for approval SWS courses proposed by units; advise the director of WAC on unusual student issues/requests; advise the director of WAC on new faculty development activities; and sponsor workshops in teaching writing for faculty members.