Dear friends and colleagues,
It is with a broken heart that I share with you the news that the University of Alberta has decided to move the Centre for Writers, currently housed in the Faculty of Arts, into Student Services. As a result, I was told that I will no longer be Director of the Centre for Writers as of June 30th, 2016. An administrative director will be hired sometime this summer. I will retain my tenured appointment with the Department of English and Film Studies, with a yet-to-be-determined teaching assignment.
I won’t let this change affect my commitment to the CWCA and IWCA (and other professional organizations), or my writing centre scholarship. I will take the upcoming year to write a few articles about my writing centre research, attend conferences, get a bit of rest after 10 years of administration, and explore other employment opportunities.
In the meantime, I am grateful to be able to concentrate on our annual conference, and hope to see many of you next month in Calgary. I have no doubt that we will have a chance to discuss this recent administrative decision at the UofA further. Indeed, with such administrative decisions being made with increasing frequency (last year at Wilfrid Laurier, and more recently at UBC), perhaps the CWCA needs to develop a clearer strategy on how we might get ahead of future such announcements.
Best,
