Regents Professor Victor Villanueva Named New Director of WSU’s Acclaimed Writing Program

Pullman, Wash. – Washington State University announces that Victor Villanueva, Regents Professor and faculty member in the Department of English, is the new director of The Writing Program.

The Writing Program is part of the Office of Undergraduate Education. In fall, the program made its tenth appearance in the U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition for 2014, in the “Academic Programs to Look For” category. Now in its twenty-eighth year at WSU, The Writing Program is the central unit dedicated to helping students and faculty across the university to be better communicators.

“Dr. Villanueva is a renowned rhetorician, an award-winning educator, and an experienced university administrator who will be an outstanding leader for The Writing Program,” says Mary F. Wack, vice provost for undergraduate education. “He is passionate about cultivating students’ literacy and we are excited that he will lead the university’s top-ranked writing program.”

Villanueva’s first directorial action came on his first day at the helm—January 6.

“I changed our name to ‘The’ Writing Program,” he said. “People often call it ‘Writing Programs,’ plural, but it is, instead, one cohesive unit that has several successful parts. The Writing Program received the university’s hierarchical sanction over a quarter century ago with the creation of the M courses concept, making it the locus for standards regarding written communications.

“Today it is the center for the writing assessment function that determines which English composition class a student will enter. It provides thousands of hours of peer tutoring—not editing—each year to guide students to be better writers in general as well as in their major field. Under the auspices of the All-University Writing Committee, The Writing Program works with faculty and facilitates the development and review of roughly 300 writing-intensive courses across the disciplines, known as Writing in the Major [M] courses. And, The Writing Program oversees the writing portfolio requirement for all rising juniors.

“Every single WSU student has many touch points with The Writing Program throughout undergraduate and graduate years. Every faculty member accesses its many resources. And it has repeatedly earned its place as a national role model and leader, thanks in great part to the research, innovations, and outreach efforts of its faculty and staff.

“The opportunity to lead The Writing Program is exciting and perfect for me. I have followed it since its early years, and watched its growth into the complex and rich program that it is today. Because I have devoted my professional career to various aspects of literacy, the program is deeply tied to what I do as a scholar and that will help me as an administrator.”

Villanueva already has ideas on some new endeavors. One involves working with the All-University Writing Committee to ask faculty members what reading and writing components M courses should require.

“The M courses began more than 25 years ago and suited needs then. But with societal changes and technology—in that time we have figuratively gone from the oxcart to interstellar travel in terms of how people communicate—contemporary educators undoubtedly have ideas about updating the M courses.”

He would also like to reconsider the junior writing portfolio and find ways to get freshmen and sophomores to think earlier in their academic careers about the writing they could submit. Villanueva sees an opportunity for greater coordination between English Composition and The Writing Program.

Villanueva didn’t set out to be a college professor or administrator, and marvels to this day that he is just that. Before earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in English at the University of Washington, he was, he says, “a high-school dropout, an enlisted Vietnam veteran, and a community college student who was born in Brooklyn to parents newly arrived from Puerto Rico.” He since has taught and researched at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, the University of Washington, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Northern Arizona University before coming to WSU as director of the composition program in English in 1995. He returned to Pullman in 2012 following one year as department head of English at Auburn University.

At WSU he has also chaired the English Department, directed the program in American Studies, been interim associate dean of the (then) College of Liberal Arts, and held its Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professorship. In 2004-5, he received the university’s Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for research, scholarship, and the arts. In 2009, he was promoted to Regents Professor, representing WSU’s highest level of international distinction in the discipline that raises university standards through teaching, scholarship, and public service

He has led the Conference on College Composition and Communications, been a visiting distinguished professor at Michigan State University, and won the Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. He has published eight books, numerous articles and chapters, received many awards, and taught more than 25 undergraduate and graduate courses at WSU.

Jan. 14, 2014

Contacts:

Victor Villanueva, Director of The WSU Writing Program, WSU Regents Professor and English Professor, 509-335-7959, victorv@wsu.edu

Beverly Makhani, Communications Director, WSU Office of Undergraduate Education, 509-335-6679, Makhani@wsu.edu