Writing Center to celebrate 30 years
March 5, 2014
By Noah Richard
The Writing Center has aimed to help UK students learn to write for more than 30 years, and with the anniversary comes a new name.
The Writing Center, located in the basement of the W.T. Young Library, will be dedicated to Robert E. Hemenway, the founder of the Center. When Hemenway created the Writing Center, he was the chair of the English department at UK, and, since that time, Hemenway rose to the rank of Chancellor at UK and at the University of Kansas, according to a press release from the Writing Center.
For the Writing Center’s 30th, there will be a celebration in the basement of the library.
“We are welcoming the entire campus to help celebrate these 30 years,” said Judy Prats, director of the Writing Center. “It’s a wonderful place.”
The center has helped over 90,000 students since it opened, and that’s a low estimate, Prats said.
“The Writing Center has helped me structure my papers much better,” secondary education sophomore Morgan Ruebusch said. “The essay I got help with, I ended up with an A, and I had a C on the draft. There was a big improvement.”
The Writing Center is made for students who want to learn how to write, she said, not for editing a student’s paper.
“Our goal is for students not to need us anymore,” Prats said.
The College of Arts and Sciences has funded the Writing Center for all 30 years, and the Center is now in the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies.
The celebration for the anniversary will be on Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the basement of the library. There will be refreshments, exhibits and a few short remarks to usher in the next decade of the Writing Center.
