Twice a year, Linda Adler-Kassner stands back and watches
students pour into the Student Center Grand Ballroom for
the Celebration of Student Writing — the culminating
event of English 121 and a highlight of the Eastern Michigan
First-Year Writing Program that Adler-Kassner has guided
for almost a decade.
It's loud, engaging and dynamic — a semester's
worth of research and writing brought to life in displays
that fill the room. Adler-Kassner walks around, talks to
students and listens.
 |
WRITING RIOT: Linda Adler-Kassner (above,
right), an
EMU professor of English language and
literature, shares
a laugh with students Allayne Woods and Adam
Hutchens
in her English 121 class. Adler-Kassner was
recently
recognized for her work with EMU's First-Year
Writing
Program and the University Writing Center. She
was awarded
the Ronald W. Collins Distinguished
Faculty Award
for Service to the University. Photo
by
Anthony Gattine
|
The convergence of people and writing — and people talking
about writing — thrills her every time.
"I really love it when I hear a group of students talking
about a project, or one student asking another about what
they did to create the project they're displaying," she
said. "It's amazing to hear students talking about their
'school' work in a venue like this and in the ways that
they do."
Under Adler-Kassner's leadership, EMU's First-Year Writing
Program has blossomed into an award-winning effort that
teaches students critical reading, writing and thinking
skills that will serve them not just for a semester, but
for a lifetime. She's helped firmly embed writing into
the student experience at EMU. And when the University
Writing Center lost its funding in 2007, she volunteered
to reorganize it into what has become a model for college
writing centers across the country.
On March 25, EMU recognized her work by honoring her with
the 2009 Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Award
for Service to the University.
"It's a great honor," Adler-Kassner said. "I'm a person
who's very happy and comfortable facilitating and helping
other people do things all together. So, it's a little
odd to be recognized as a single individual. Ron Collins
worked for Eastern for many years and gave so much to the
University. It's very flattering to be selected as being
in line with someone who gave that much to the institution.
"...It's really important to emphasize that I don't do
this work alone. The people who teach in this program are
super creative and interesting. I'm a good listener and
a good facilitator. Other people have other talents and
strengths."
Though she's most closely associated with the First-Year
Writing Program and the University Writing Center, Adler-Kassner
lends her energy and expertise to everything from the General
Education Assessment Committee to the nonprofit writing
center, 826Michigan; to the Council of Writing Program
Administrators, a national organization that recently chose
her as its next president.
People who've worked with Adler-Kassner say she's tireless,
generous, always willing to help — regardless of the
task or the time. On committees, she's that catalyst who
helps each person recognize what's in it for them and where
their own talents apply.
Ask her which of the things that she does fall outside
her "job description" and she laughs.
"Most people think about university appointments in terms
of three areas — teaching, research and service. Those
are very blurred lines for me."
Adler-Kassner received her doctorate and her master's
degree from the University of Minnesota. She came to EMU
from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 2000, interviewing
for a job in the English department on the suggestion of
a friend of a friend. She loved it from the start.
"I thought, 'This is where I want to be.' It's the most
congenial, happy department I've ever been in. They're
a wonderful group of people to work with," Adler-Kassner
said.
When Rebecca Sipe, head of EMU's English Language and
Literature Department, was asked to chair the committee
that revised high school writing standards for the state
of Michigan in 2004, she asked Adler-Kassner to serve on
the committee.
"I thought, 'No one in the country knows more about first-year
college writing and what students are aiming for (than
Adler-Kassner)," Sipe said. "...Linda is a dynamic force
at the University, and she brings energy and talent that
are just amazingly needed and appreciated."
Adler-Kassner teaches both graduate and undergraduate
composition classes, including English 120 and 121 — the
classes that make up the First-Year Writing Program, which
earned the Conference on College Composition and Communication's
certificate of excellence. She operates from the principle
that everyone is a writer, contending that, thanks to technology,
more people read and write now than they have at any time
in history.
"The most rewarding thing about my work with the First-Year
Writing Program is working with the students and the instructors,
and seeing their unbelievable talents," Adler-Kassner said. "...
We started (the Celebration of Student Writing) because
we wanted everyone — students, faculty, administrators
and staff — to see the fantastic work that students
do. And, every time it happens, I get excited about students
and their abilities all over again."
