The generous financial support from University and College Advisory Board member, Jennifer Simpson (CAS 2000), and her Psalm 103 Foundation aim to help the Writing Program fulfill its mission of supporting students’ development as writers and fostering a deeper culture of writing in departments and programs throughout CAS and other undergraduate schools and colleges. The gifts and grants enable the creation of departmental and programmatic writing plans and resources to support faculty development on the teaching of writing; provide writing internship experiences for advanced social science undergraduates; help to sustain the Tutoring Writing in the Disciplines program; and contribute to celebrating undergraduate student writing at Boston University.
Jennifer’s support has helped make writing and the teaching of writing across the College more visible and prominent. Our writing plans with the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience, the Economics department, and the Mathematics & Statistics department have initiated real curricular transformations, and the impact of this work is felt by how both students and faculty experience writing in their disciplines.
In 2021-2022, the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience (UPN) completed the first Writing Plan, an ambitious effort whose goals included improving writing instruction throughout the four years of undergraduate Neuroscience courses. One of those goals included the UPN, in collaboration with the CAS Writing Program, creating a co-taught upper level Writing-Intensive course. Today, NE 370 “Neuroscience Communication,” is now a popular course for Neuroscience majors, taught exclusively by Neuroscience faculty member, Kyle Gobrogge. The Neuroscience Writing Plan was highlighted on the “Spotlight” of BU’s Teaching Writing and in the College of Arts & Sciences’ arts&sciences magazine.
In 2022-2023, the Economics Department developed a Writing Plan that is part of a larger curricular reform of the department’s undergraduate program. The Economics Writing Plan sets out short- and long-term goals, including integrating writing into introductory Economics courses; adding new Writing-Intensive courses; implementing department-based peer writing support; and creating an Honors Thesis writing course to help improve research and writing skills of the most advanced students.
Currently, the Mathematics & Statistics department is finalizing their writing plan and it will be completed by July 31, 2024.
In 2024-2025, the World Languages & Literature department will be partnering with the Writing Program to develop its writing plan.