As colleges and universities across the country continue to deal with regular decreases in state funding, technical communication programs, in particular, are being forced to “do more with less.” As budget cuts become the new normal, the long-term health of technical communication depends on our ability to evolve and adapt to an array of internal, external, and technological pressures. The New Normal: Pressures on Technical Communication Programs in the Age of Austerity explores the ways technical communication programs are responding to conditions of economic austerity and investigates how smaller programs, or programs situated in smaller institutions, use increasingly limited resources to meet the challenges of increased student demand, the responsibilities of teaching service courses effectively, the technological demands for online education, and the constant pressure to prepare our students appropriately for the ever-changing needs of the job market in technical communication. More specifically, the contributors to this collection are overtly conscious of the marginalized/peripheral status of technical communication programs within both small and large institutions. This awareness allows them to articulate specific ways that austerity has had a direct, and local, effect on a particular technical communication program and to describe short- and long-term strategies for creating sustainable futures for a technical communication program, despite cuts and marginalization.
The New Normal provides an honest portrayal of typical, albeit marginalized, working conditions in much of academia by describing direct, and local, effects of austerity and budget cuts on technical communication programs in both small and large institutions and recounting successful and unsuccessful strategies for creating sustainable futures.
INTRODUCTION: Austerity and Marginalized Academic Programs Why This
Collection? Why Now?
Denise Tillery and Ed Nagelhout
SECTION ONE: Building Connections and Growing Sustainably
CHAPTER 1 Keeping the Target Off Our Backs: How to Build a Sustainable
Technical Communication Program in Times of Austerity
Barry Maid
CHAPTER 2 A Response to Austerity: Using Ecopreneurship to Build a
Sustainable Writing Major
Amanda Bemer and Teresa Henning
CHAPTER 3 Reading University Ecosystems: Bolstering Sustainability and
Revising Growth for Technical Communication Programs
Colleen A. Reilly
CHAPTER 4 Take a Leap of Faith and Hit the Gym: The Impact of Austerity on
Professional Writing at a Private College
Madeline Yonker and Michael J. Zerbe
SECTION TWO: New Teaching Models: Adapting Technologies Strategically
CHAPTER 5 Frugal Realities: Hacker Pedagogy and Scrappy Students in an Online
Program
Julia Romberger and Rochelle Rodrigo
CHAPTER 6 Service-ELearning in the Online Technical Communication Classroom:
Keeping Our Pedagogies Relevant in an Age of Austerity
Tiffany Bourelle
CHAPTER 7 Balancing Standardized Web-Based Pedagogy With Instructor Autonomy
in Technical Writing Courses
Dirk Remley
CHAPTER 8 Working Conditions, Austerity, and Faculty Development in Technical
Writing Programs
Ed Nagelhout, Denise Tillery, and Julie Staggers
SECTION THREE: External Challenges and Opportunities
CHAPTER 9 Googling Academe
Timothy D. Giles, Angela Crow, and Janice R. Walker
CHAPTER 10 Strategic Partnerships Promote High-Demand Technical Communication
Courses
Lynn O. Ludwig
CHAPTER 11 Using Situational Advantages Strategically to Address Challenges
Faced in Creating a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communication in an
Environment of Austerity
Corinne Renguette, Marjorie Rush Hovde, and Wanda L. Worley
Contributors
Index
Denise Tillery is an associate professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. She has published thirteen articles and presented more than twenty papers at national conferences on topics including environmental communication, gender and rhetoric, and program design and administration. She serves on the editorial board for Technical Communication Quarterly and is a reviewer for Technical Communication Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and Science Communication. Tillery has also served the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing as liaison to the Modern Language Association. Ed Nagelhout is a professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. He has coedited two collections (Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric, 2008; Classroom Spaces and Writing Instruction, 2004), published seventeen articles, and presented more than eighty papers on a variety of topics, including writing program administration, teaching in digital environments, technical communication, and writing in the disciplines. He has served as coeditor of the ATTW Bulletin (2003-2010), as a Stage I Reviewer for CCCC, and as a reviewer for Online Writing Instructor, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and Journal of Business and Technical Communication.
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