CMC's Center for Writing and Public Discourse recently received an endowment of $250,000 from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
With the grant, the Center will take on a more significant role as a full-fledged academic resource committed to the craft of writing and critical thinking, in addition to its peer tutoring program. The Center aims to foster effective communication skills which will enable students to succeed throughout their time at CMC and beyond.
Professor Audrey Bilger, faculty director of the Center, said, "The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant will contribute greatly to the growth and development of the Center for Writing and Public Discourse. Thanks to this grant, we will be better able to serve the entire CMC community and to expand our writing-related programming."
As part of their programming expansion, the Center has planned a speakers' series and various hands-on writing workshops, in which prominent media figures are invited to work with students.
The Center also works with CMC's Literature department for the new Freshmen Writing Seminar program writing intensive courses for first-year students which started this semester. This program is a significant shift from the previous freshmen writing class which focused mostly on literary analysis rather than writing skills.
The Arthur Vining Davis grant will take effect at the end of 2011 or in early 2012.