In late June, the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) and Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) released a joint statement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broadly, the statement reaffirms well-established practices and priorities in effective writing instruction, situating those practices and priorities in the context of today’s global health crisis. The statement begins,
The COVID-19 pandemic has created not only an unprecedented public health crisis but also significant challenges for educators and educational institutions. In response, professionals must reassess current restrictions on assembly and mobility as well as imagine new means for meeting our goals. All our familiar educational routines—for example, meeting in classrooms—must be refigured as social distancing mandates direct us to remain isolated and to avoid public spaces where human contact is possible. Typically, writing courses have small class sizes and include significant levels of interaction, group work, and peer-to-peer discussion. For this reason, holding classes online rather than in person is the safest instructional approach for reducing exposure to and circulation of the novel coronavirus. That said, we recognize that each program will make its own judgments about how it plans to ensure the health, wellbeing, and safety of instructors and students, using institutional guidance specific to their local context. In any of those contexts, instructors and students should have the right to maintain their safety and thus have the ability to be accommodated with remote teaching and learning environments.
CWPA and CCCC Joint Statement in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, 06/26/2020
To read the full statement, visit http://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/309074/_PARENT/layout_details/false.