The Writing Center, which is scheduled to open next fall in the top floor of the Davenport building, will allow a series of new writing programs to take shape. According to key administrators, these programs will include a creative writing concentration in the English major. A writing certificate for non-English majors has also been proposed and will likely be passed.

President Roth announced the plans for the writing center in a campus-wide e-mail on January 14. According to the e-mail, the University received a significant gift in December from John Shapiro ’74 and Shonni Silverberg ’76 to establish a Writing Center in the Davenport (Scott Labs) building.

“[The] Writing Center will be the home of a Certificate Program in creative writing (fiction, poetry and non-fiction),” Roth said in a post on his blog the next day.

The renovation of the Davenport (Scott Labs) building was originally scheduled to begin last year, using the 5 million dollar donation from Robert Allbritton ’92, founder of the website Politico. The actual cost of the renovation was projected at over 5 million dollars—Physical Plant projections for the current renovation are 6.8 million dollars—and the University had assumed that it would be able to make up the difference, either through its own funds or through loans. When the current financial crisis hit, however, the school found itself unable to come up with the funds and the plans were put on hold right before contracts were signed with contractors.

In the meantime, Winston and others were busy looking for a location for a writing center because Shapiro and Silverberg had expressed interest in funding such a space. After several failed attempts at obtaining buildings on campus for this purpose, a new proposal was brought to the table.

“We realized that with the funds available we could move the writing center to Davenport,” Winston said.

When added to the funds already donated by Allbritton, the Shapiro and Silverberg gift for a writing center in Davenport allowed the renovation of the building to move forward.

Don Moon, Dean of Social Sciences, noted that the juxtaposition of the Writing Center with the Allbritton Center for Public Life is particularly appropriate.

“Many of the writers will be addressing important public issues, and therefore it makes sense to house them in the center,” he said.

The writing concentration in the English major has already been planned and will be offered beginning in fall 2009. Under the current guidelines, only two writing classes can count toward an English major; with the advent of the new writing concentration, this rule will no longer apply. This may come as welcome news for many students who are interested in English but want to focus in creative writing, as well.

Caroline Eisenmann ’12 sees these new initiatives as more than another academic improvement, but as an opportunity to better the campus community.

“I really hope that the writing program can strengthen the writing community on campus,” she said. “Having a place designated specifically for writers is definitely going to help writers get to know each other.”

In an interview with The Argus last Friday, President Roth expressed his enthusiasm for more writing programs on campus.

“We’re going to have more and more creative writing on campus every semester, and when I say creative writing I include journalism and creative nonfiction,” he said. “We intend to have more and more opportunities for that at all levels.”

Anne Greene, Adjunct Professor of English, has been highly involved in the structuring of the new programs. According to Greene, there had been interest in implementing writing programs in the past, but space and additional faculty were necessary for this to happen.

“The Writing Center will provide a space we don’t currently have,” Greene said. “Many writing groups that are currently separate will come together and have places to meet.”

Greene stressed that the gift of a writing center and the new programs that will be offered next year are intrinsically connected.

“At Wesleyan we have had long standing interest in writing programs, and wonderful writing faculty, but it’s been hard to offer the range of programs students would like without†the resources to support them,” Greene said.

While the writing concentration for English majors is already planned out and ready to go for next year, the writing certificate is more complicated and will likely take some time to build.

“[The full certificate program] will come to fruition over the next few years,” said Krishna Winston, Dean of the Arts and Humanities.

While some details of the program are still unclear, Winston mentioned the possibility of a screenwriting course, in addition to playwriting and literary translation courses.

Greene explained that the English Department is offering a new concentration in writing and the new writing certificate program will be open to students from any major.

Winston gave the example of a premed student who might earn the writing certificate, later become a surgeon, and write jazz reviews for the local newspaper.

“This is Wesleyan,” she said. “People do that.”