𝗦t𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟭𝟬𝟭.

On December 2nd, the director of the Thompson Writing Program (TWP) informed our faculty of a dramatic overhaul of the program that would change how Writing 101 is taught at Duke. The TWP has taught writing from a multidisciplinary perspective for 20 years, allowing students to choose from a diverse selection of Writing 101 courses and learn how to think, write, and research from a variety of different perspectives. The current TWP faculty represent a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, sociology, and music, and they have years of experience teaching first-year writing.

This multidisciplinary approach is at the heart of the writing program’s success. In 2020 and 2021, the program was among the top 3 in U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of “Colleges with Great Writing Programs,” most recently finishing above Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Princeton. Students have also voted Writing 101 the top “Must-Take Class” at Duke.

The TWP is now slated to become a traditional composition program, and the multidisciplinary faculty will be replaced by faculty with backgrounds exclusively in rhetoric and composition. The TWP director posted advertisements for these positions without informing us of these major changes in advance.

𝗗𝘂𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘁.

The shift away from a multidisciplinary writing program is not related to the quality of our teaching or Duke's financial situation. Instead, it is an attack on the Duke Faculty Union. The current multidisciplinary unionized faculty members are being replaced permanently by non-union positions.

This move is the administration's latest effort to jeopardize the jobs of Duke's writing faculty. The Duke Faculty Union has been fighting for renewable contracts for all TWP faculty since 2017. The administration has argued that Duke couldn’t afford to offer job security to its faculty. In fact, Duke claimed that their financial situation was so dire because of Covid that they made significant budget cuts to departments across campus, increased the class size of our Writing 101 courses by 25%, and raised the cost of student tuition. We have now learned that the Duke endowment actually grew substantially during the pandemic, increasing by 56% in the last fiscal year to an all-time high of $12.7B.

𝗪𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘆.

If we can’t convince Duke to keep the TWP multidisciplinary and provide current faculty with renewable appointments, many will lose their jobs at the end of this academic year, and more will follow. Our course offerings will become less diverse, it will be harder for students to take a Writing 101 course that interests them, and learning outcomes will suffer.

We want to keep our current, excellent faculty and the variety of multidisciplinary Writing 101 courses that we offer. Our program touches every single undergraduate student at Duke, and we want students to continue to have a range of excellent Writing 101 courses to choose from. A strong, multidisciplinary writing program benefits students and contributes to the prestige of Duke. It is too important to jeopardize.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟭𝟬𝟭 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀, 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗲𝘁𝗰.

Thank you for your support and solidarity!

*Note: signatures will be added to the bottom of this form periodically.