Phelps, "Institutional Logic of Writing Programs," in _The Politics of Writing Instruction_, Bullock and Trimbur, 1991

Summary: Phelps problematizes the dichotomy inherent in the question of whether writing programs should be in English departments or autonomous. She advocates an approach she views as more productive (I use the term to mean not just "better," but to refer to the concept of production, or producing something useful). Phelps asks how writing programs might embody and encourage the types of change universities might need: how can universities support research while also focusing on teaching; how can they support individual creativity while also encouraging communal problem-solving; how can they realize departmental autonomy while also strengthening connections between disciplines. Phelps addresses some current critiques of academia (including ProfScam, which I remember reading during my undergraduate years and totally agreeing with, while now thinking it is incredibly reductive, mean-spirited, and misguided--interesting not only in terms of my own progression but as how the arguments in it might be understood from someone outside and inside academia). Phelps argues that writing programs have and do engage the types of questions universities at large should address, and that they can serve as heuristics for universities as they try to change. Phelps writes that "the most important contribution I think writing programs can make, though, with respect to higher education at large, is to exemplify the struggle to foster community in the face of the prevailing mood of skepticism, critique of all cultural institutions and their traditions, radical individualism, and loss of fellowship that troubles our colleges and universities" (167). She also poses a series of key questions for writing programs to engage.

Response: This article is twenty years old, and yet I see most, if not all, of the concerns Phelps raises as being still relevant (as well as her suggestions and questions). The piece mostly fits with the "where do writing programs fit in the university" theme, but as is apparent from the summary, it addresses much larger questions. It served to make me think beyond the writing program, which is not only part of what Phelps is advocating, but also necessary for designing a good program.

Uses: Designing a writing program (central questions); re-vamping the university.