Tucson loses a community resource as UA ends its Writing Skills Improvement Program

The University of Arizona is shutting down its decades-old Writing Skills Improvement Program this fall.

Since the 1980s, the program has offered UA students — as well as middle- and high-school students — training and development in writing and critical thinking. UA says similar resources will still be available from other channels at the university.

Still, the program’s demise has raised concerns about the school’s plans for the future.

For more on this, The Show spoke to Tucson Spotlight co-founder Caitlin Schmidt.

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Full conversation

SAM DINGMAN: Caitlin, tell us a little bit more about what exactly the Writing Skills Improvement Program has historically offered.

CAITLIN SCHMIDT: So the Writing Skills Improvement Program was created in the early 1980s, and it was kind of a three-tiered program that provided training, mentoring and guidance to the UA campus community — so students, faculty and staff.

But it also provided support and training for middle and high school students, and mentoring for teachers to help with professional development as well.

DINGMAN: OK, so this wasn't just an opportunity for students to develop writing skills. This was also a way for teachers to kind of get real time, kind of in-classroom work developing their teaching skills?

SCHMIDT: Yep, continuing education in a state where resources are already so scarce for teachers. So this was a really big part of the community. And people have definitely expressed some concern about what will happen. There's still resources available for UA students and the campus community. But those resources that are on campus are not yet available to members outside of the community.

DINGMAN: And those resources, if I'm not mistaken, are the Foundations program and the THINK TANK Writing Center. How are those different from the program that's being shut down?

SCHMIDT: So the Foundations program is a pair of English courses that students take as part of their general education. But if a student comes in with AP or honors credits, they only have to take one of those classes. And the THINK TANK Writing Center is similar to the Writing Skills Improvement Program, except that instead of being staffed by professionals — which were tutors, teachers, writers, editors — this is staffed by peer tutors, so other students.

DINGMAN: I see, I see. And then obviously critically there, if you're a middle or high school student in the community, these programs would not be available to you as they're currently designed, right?

SCHMIDT: Yes. And I haven't heard any plans to expand them as of yet. The program is still up and running until early October, until they kind of figure out how to restructure, but then it will be phased out.

DINGMAN: What reasons has UA given for shutting down the Writing Skills Improvement Program? 

SCHMIDT: They really didn't give a reason when we asked about it. They let us know that it was not part of the overall restructuring. We've seen a lot of changes being made over the summer to the campus cultural centers, and some different staffing moves around the campus community.

But this, they said, was a decision that was made independently by the College of Humanities. So it's not a part of any of these larger restructurings or any response to federal guidance, as far as I know.

DINGMAN: Interesting. I was going to ask about that because, if I'm not mistaken, back in May, there were 10 full-time writing faculty members that did not have their contracts renewed, right? 

SCHMIDT: Yes. Yes. That — yes — that was not related as far as I know. And then we've seen some other staffing shakeups, mostly in the campus cultural centers, but in different parts of the campus, as well, related to either orders on DEI or perhaps some funding that maybe the U of A lost through grants or research. But this sounds like it was not related to any of that.

DINGMAN: Do we know what enrollment is looking like this fall at UA? At the time of those reported cuts to the full-time writing staff, I think freshman enrollment was going to be closer to 7,000, down from about 9,000 the previous year.

SCHMIDT: Yeah, that's what they're still looking at. My reporter, Sarah, who wrote this story for us, is digging into that right now. Campus enrollment across the board is down. It still looks like it should be in that 7,000 range, but we'll have a better idea as we get a little closer. We have students coming back next week or the week after, so we should know pretty soon.

DINGMAN: Interesting, interesting. I realize, you know, you're saying that the university is not saying that this has anything to do with some of the broader issues that UA is facing. But, obviously, the school has been dealing with really serious financial issues. 

We do know that there have been pretty serious investments in other academic areas: space sciences, national security, energy, mineral mining, health care, tech.

Is it notable to you that there is a lot of investment going in other directions, whereas these programs are being trimmed?

SCHMIDT: I mean, those certainly are the programs that also bring in the most money, right?

DINGMAN: Right, right. 

SCHMIDT: Writing isn't very lucrative. Especially, for anyone in journalism or writing as a career knows.

DINGMAN: Unfortunately. 

SCHMIDT: Yeah, absolutely. Those research fields bring in billions of dollars in grants and funding and notoriety. U of A is on the list every year for their inventions and the number of patents that are issued to their students and researchers. And I don't think their Writing Skills Program probably brings the same kind of return for investment. It absolutely was something that was very nice for the community.

But, you know, when the U of A is tightening its belt on all fronts, I guess it does make sense that they might scale back some of their offerings to people outside of the UA community.

DINGMAN: Yeah, well, it's sort of hard, Caitlin, I think to read a story like this and not think about a lot of other stories we've seen about the role of AI at colleges and universities, particularly when it comes to students writing papers and that sort of thing.

Have you heard anything to suggest that AI is part of this story, in particular, UA's investment in AI?

SCHMIDT: I haven't. And I know there is not an across the board AI policy at the U of A. So every college is kind of making theirs up as they go, which I know for students is complicated. I teach a class over in the journalism school, and over there, there wasn't a uniform AI policy.

Every teacher kind of set their own. And I know that that's complicated for students to keep that straight. So, you know, it's tough to say what role AI plays into this. I know for a lot of educators, we're kind of bracing ourselves.

I don't know why anyone is going into journalism classes and then using AI to write, but that certainly is what we're seeing happening across that. And the U of A definitely has said that AI is a priority for it going forward. We are seeing deep investments in artificial intelligence. And so it kind of tracks with the research spending and goals that we’ve set.