Aggressively Provide Access: grow enrollment while simultaneously improving student preparedness by pursuing a
diversified and far-reaching recruiting strategy that emphasizes our university’s
compelling value proposition.
As a student-facing office at the University of Memphis, we demonstrate the highest
possible levels of customer service and best practices in tutoring for every member
of our campus community who accesses our services.
We attend recruitment events as staffing and resources allow.
Create Opportunities to Succeed: Foster an exciting, all-encompassing student experience, that encourages students
to persevere, grow and thrive while laying the foundations for future success and
creating an enriching lifelong bond with the university.
Our services will always be available to all members of the University of Memphis
campus community, including staff, faculty, administration, students in transition
between institutions, summer bridge participants, soon-to-be students, and current
students.
We will participate in New Student Orientation and Parent & Family Weekends in order
to demonstrate to new students and parents that all students are academically supported
during their time at the University of Memphis.
Outcomes-Focused Academics: Deliver a rigorous, practical, well-rounded and supportive academic experience through
innovative programs and teaching methods that focus on student success and prepare
our students for the workforce and graduate education.
The writing & communication life skills students home in the CWC have direct application
to their future workplace and academic careers, including applications processes,
making and keeping appointments, accountability for intellectual integrity, and public
speaking.
We provide core writing and professional communication instruction to any faculty,
instructor, graduate teaching assistant, or campus office, department or organization
that requests it.
We collaborate with University Libraries on the Dissertation Writers Retreat, TigersSpeak,
and TigersWrite.
We share our expertise with other campus offices and programs on writing and speaking
evaluation rubrics.
Strengthen Research Enterprise: Perform life-changing, interdisciplinary research and scholarship that is supported
by world-class infrastructure and conducted by highly motivated researchers addressing
the community and society’s greatest challenges.
We commit to familiarizing ourselves with writing and communication genres and styles
outside of English and Communication through training from other departments and by
studying contemporary scholarship so that we can better serve students in Health Sciences,
STEM, and other disciplines outside the humanities and social sciences.
We track the numbers of students who use our services by class standing and first
languages so that we better know how to staff the CWC for first-year, graduate, and
second-language learners.
We submit to writing and speaking center conferences on the regional, national, and
international levels in order to share what the Center for Writing and Communication
is accomplishing, as well as to avail ourselves of networking & publishing opportunities
Recruit, Retain, Reward & Recognize our People: Cultivate a respectful, supportive culture for our exceptional faculty and staff that
recognizes and rewards excellence and success and that provides ample opportunities
for personal growth, professional development, promotion and leadership.
We have developed various mechanisms of demonstrating our appreciation for our staff’s
achievements and contributions to the CWC, and we regularly use a variety of those
combined methods to recognize our staff.
We provide job shadowing opportunities for students interested in pursuing careers
within writing and communication center administration.
We foster a sense of community within our office by celebrating individual achievements
such as passing the PRAXIS or comprehensive exams; defending a prospectus, thesis,
or dissertation; and graduation.
Exemplify Operational Excellence: Optimize operational efficiency and effectiveness through the establishment of high
standards and expectations to maximize resource utilization and to uphold accountability.
We hold ourselves to the highest levels of accountability by regularly checking our
usage against our inventory of resources and finances and adjusting our hiring and
scheduling procedures accordingly.
Generate & Steward Financial Resources: Increase funding and improve resource allocation to fuel growth through better alignment
of internal priorities and external funding opportunities, through funding diversification
and through application of financial best practices.
We maintain our budget by balancing the various needs of the CWC, including payroll,
GA tuition & insurance, and materials.
We pursue creative revenue streams and willingly share resources with other University
departments and offices when relevant to our work.
We consistently evaluate our current budgeting practices to ensure that we divert
funds where they are most needed.
