ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú

Ed Howe, Sheila Carter-Tod, Chris Basgier, Lizzie Hutton, Roger Howe, Elizabeth Wardle, Linda Adler-Kassner, Ellen Schendel, Jessie Moore, Shelley Reid

On Thursday and Friday, October 2-3, the Howe Center for Writing Excellence (HCWE) welcomed its National Advisory Board for its annual meeting, bringing our accomplished board members together with our staff, graduate and undergraduate consultants, faculty, administration, and donors whose support makes our mission possible. This year, Karen Howe Gingold (‘83) and Ed Howe (‘89) attended, along with their parents, donors Roger and Joyce.

The meeting offered an inside look at the HCWE’s accomplishments over the past year, and set the stage for what will come next.

Roger Howe

The two-day event opened with a warm reception on Thursday, bringing together faculty and administrators from across the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú community to meet and mingle with board members and the Howe family. The reception and its displays celebrated the HCWE’s accomplishments and partnerships across campus.

Opening Session

Elizabeth Wardle and Lizzie Hutton led the opening session on Friday. They began by celebrating ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University’s recent achievement in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, where ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú placed #2 among public institutions in Writing in the Disciplines, a recognition of the university’s long-standing commitment to integrating writing and learning across fields. 

A cornerstone of this commitment is the Howe Faculty Fellows program. Through semester-long, team-based partnerships, faculty use a sensemaking method to collaborate on deep, sustainable improvements in teaching and learning. This model continues to expand, driving division-wide transformation in the College of Creative Arts (for example, through shared cross-departmental capstones and ePortfolios) and inspiring adoption beyond ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú. A recent extension of this work was the Lumina-supported collaboration with educators across 7 Ohio colleges and universities, which concluded on May 30 with a final Sharecase at The Ohio State University.

The session also highlighted HCWE’s growing leadership in AI education and research, including faculty workshops, a consultant-led AI panel, and development of an AI-informed certificate, positioning the HCWE as an important resource for those navigating these technologies.

The session concluded with a celebration of the many scholarly contributions our staff and undergraduate consultants have made to their fields.

Division-Wide Change in the College of Creative Arts

Elizabeth Wardle, Rena Perez, Elizabeth Hoover, May Khalife, Dilge Dilsiz

In the second hour, faculty from ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University’s College of Creative Arts (CCA) joined Elizabeth Wardle and Graduate Assistant Director Rena Perez to detail their ongoing collaboration with the HCWE. Over the past several years, a division-wide initiative has emerged from our Howe Faculty Fellows program. CCA faculty members May Khalife (Assistant Professor of Architecture and Interior Design), Dilge Dilsiz (Assistant Professor of Communication Design), and Elizabeth Hoover (Teaching Professor of Musicology and Interim Director of Liberal Education) presented three major projects: developing interdisciplinary CCA capstone courses, creating ePortfolios to help students showcase and reflect on their learning, and launching a media campaign to communicate the value of arts education.

Khalife, Dilsiz, and Hoover shared how these efforts have encouraged collaboration across CCA departments with diverse pedagogical approaches, fostered reflective and process-based learning, and reshaped teaching practices. Overall, the presentation illustrated how sustained, cross-disciplinary collaboration can transform writing culture and curricular design across an entire academic division.

Leveraging Consultant Expertise

Katie Barton, Cassell Pressnell, Lizzie Hutton, Charlotte Melville

In this session Howe Writing Center Director Lizzie Hutton highlighted how ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University’s undergraduate writing consultants are applying their expertise across campus and beyond traditional one-to-one consultations. Hutton described consultants as “experts as practitioners, learners, and scholars,” emphasizing their advanced writing, interpersonal, and research skills.

Several consultants then shared examples of how they are leveraging those skills. Senior consultant Cassell Presnell discussed facilitating the Honors Writing Club, a peer-led space where Honors College students from various disciplines give and receive feedback on creative and academic projects. Katie Barton spoke about consulting with faculty through Writing Across the Curriculum workshops, where consultants helped professors redesign assignments to be more engaging, accessible, and student-centered. Finally, Charlotte Melville, a third-year literature and philosophy student, presented her research on reading in the writing center, arguing that reading is a collaborative and social act.

Together, their work illustrates the Howe Writing Center’s model of student-led innovation, mentorship, and scholarship. As Hutton noted, these consultant initiatives not only strengthen campus writing culture but also model how undergraduate expertise can shape ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú’s broader conversations about literacy, learning, and the evolving role of writing in an AI-influenced world.

Innovating Around AI

The final session of the day detailed the significant faculty support initiatives the Howe Center has designed around generative AI. Mandy Olejnik, Assistant Director of the Howe Writing Across the Curriculum (HWAC), and Rena Perez (HWAC Graduate Assistant Director) underscored that there is a critical need for faculty development to navigate the current technological shift.

Over the last year the center has responded by creating the AI-Informed Writing Pedagogy Certificate, a program that moves beyond simple policy changes. Instead, it guides faculty to articulate foundational teaching and writing principles that will remain relevant regardless of future AI advancements. The program involves asynchronous modules on AI's ethical and environmental impacts, followed by workshops where faculty design new assignments and policies based on their newly-named principles.

The HCWE  is now developing student-facing modules to extend the work of faculty who complete the Certificate. 

Through its many initiatives, the center is committed to sustaining support for faculty and students, ensuring that the evolution of AI in higher education is guided by sound pedagogical principles and a commitment to access and learning.

We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated in this year’s Board Meeting, and contributed to the Howe Center’s ongoing success. Faculty partners, consultants, staff, and campus leaders have all played vital roles in advancing our shared mission to make writing and learning more meaningful across ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú and beyond.