Less is Less: The Timeline of
CSUSM's Campus Writing Requirement

1990-1991 
Inaugural CSUSM Catalog Describes the CSU Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement 
    "Students may complete this requirement through a  
    check-off system of upper-division General Education    
    courses.  Students who are unable to be certified by this
    mechanism may elect to take and English writing course
    or pass the CSU, San Marcos writing examination.     
    Graduate students may take the examination before
    advancement to classified standing," reads the University
    Catalog.

1991-1992
CSUSM Establishes a University Wide Writing Requirement
    "Students are advised to note that every course at         
    California State University, San Marcos, has a writing    
    component of at least 2,500 words (approximately 10
    pages). This requirement  can be fulfilled in a variety of
    ways depending on the course," reads the University
    Catalog.

Fall 1995
CSUSM's General Education Writing Program Begins--No Remedial Writing Courses Offered 
    In anticipation of Executive Order 665, which requires
    campuses to  "enforce limits on remedial/developmental
    activity" CSUSM designs and delivers a literature-based
    expository writing program that mainstreams all  students
    into  General Education Writing 101 GEW 101). 
    Regardless of their scores on the English Placement Test
    (EPT), students enroll in GEW 101.  Students repeat the
      GEW 101 curriculum until their writing level is at a C or
    better.

May 1996
CSU Launches Cornerstones Initiative
    The Cornerstones Task Force intends to respond to two
    "urgent" challenges facing all of higher education:

• A projected gap between available resources and actual needs 
• An anticipated change in the social, demographic, and economic expectations of education, which will result in a need to change the way education is provide 

February 26-28 1997
500 Members of the CSU Community Meet to Review the Baccalaureate Education and the Cornerstones Initiative

• At this 1997 Academic Retreat in Monterey, California, the statewide Academic Senators present their review of the CSU baccalaureate degree and the Cornerstones Initiative to 500 CSU Members. 
• The Baccalaureate Education report identifies the need for students to graduate with superior writing skills (7).
• The Cornerstones Initiative will be the basis for CSU strategic planning  and for budgetary decisions

April 16, 1997
Updated Draft of CSU Cornerstones Initiative Sent to Campuses for Feedback
    Academic Senate Chairs on each CSU campus led    
    Cornerstone discussions and collect written feedback in
    response to the draft 

February 28, 1997
CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz Hands Down to all CSU Campus Presidents Executive Order 665, the Determination of Competence in English and Mathematics

    The Board of Trustees of The California State
    University orders the CSU  Chancellor to implement  
    Executive Order 665 (E.O. 665) effective fall 1998.

    In both mathematics and English, "Campuses are    
    encouraged to establish and enforce limits on    
    remedial/developmental activity and to advise students 
    who are not making adequate progress in developing    
    foundational skills to consider enrolling in other    
    educational institutions as appropriate."  Said another   
    way, the CSU intends to limit remedial and developmental 
    instruction in math and writing. 

February 19, 1998
CSUSM Vice President of Academic Affairs Distributes Final Cornerstones Report to Campus
The Cornerstones Report articulates four fundamental commitments:

• Provide educational excellence in a teaching-centered institution
• Provide access to higher education for all Californians seeking it, even in the face of limited resources
• Demonstrate effectiveness to Californians and their elected leaders 
• Design a post-baccalaureate system that responds to the needs of California professionals

November 23, 1998
CSU Academic Senate Distributes "Baccalaureate Education in the California State University"

• This report describes the vision of the baccalaureate    
  for 2005 graduates. 
• "The need for remedial education among students otherwise eligible for college admission...justifies better integration of the content of secondary and higher education."
•  Students are expected to graduate with superior writing skills (7).

Spring 1999
    GE Assessment (including student response to General    
    Education Writing 101) report in progress

June 2, 1999
Literature & Writing Department Conducts a Program Assessment 
    Three Literature & Writing (LTWR) faculty meet for a    
    one-day assessment of student writing from three    
    selected LTWR courses. First, the group reviews the
    creative writing and essay rubrics, then applies the
    rubrics in concert to norm scoring. With the socialization
    complete, the evaluators comment and score each
    student writing portfolio. Click on methodology for more
    details.

July 6, 1999
CSUSM Vice President of Academic Affairs Distributes Faculty Assignment Memo to Deans of Arts and Sciences, Business, and Education

• Karas blames the University's transition from startup funding to normal CSU for a recommended faculty workload change.
• "I believe that we must now accept the reality of our environment, recognize that faculty time is as precious as any other resource, and effect changes that will meet the challenge," Karas says.
• Karas justifies changing teaching workload based upon Direct Weighted Teaching Units (D-WTU) Indirect Weighted Teaching Units (I-WTU) "for scholarship, creative activities, advising, service, and other duties."
• The memo never mentions the university writing requirement.
• The university writing requirement has been considered an I-WTU in the past.

At the close of the memo, Karas requests, "[C]omments, suggestions, and above all, your best efforts in advancing the interests of our students, faculty, and the University."

September 3, 1999
Chancellor's Office Requests Proposals to Implement the CSU-High School Collaborative Academic Preparation Initiatives
    The California State budget allocates $9 million to the
     CSU to work collaboratively with selected California high    
    schools that send the most students to CSU who need
    remediation in English or mathematics, or both."

October 1, 1999
North County Times (front page), "Faculty to teach more courses" by Karen S. Smith--

• CSUSM faces a 14% increase in student population for fall of 1999; funding, however, will not increase until the academic year 2000-2001.
• Vice-president Richard Karas says that "as a result of the increased teaching load, the university may replace its writing requirement for students with some other writing requirement that would demand less time to read and grade."  
• Miriam Schustack, chairwoman of the Academic Senate and a psychology professor asks, "Faculty and administrators are eager to find out whether the (2,500-word) requirement achieves the desired goal; are students the students learning to write better because of it?"
• Although President Alex Gonzalez was out of town and unavailable for comment, Karas says that the president supports the changes in teaching load.

    In the full-text article, the only quoted sources for the    
    above article are Karas and Schustack.

October 4, 1999
North County Times (editorial), "Roses & Raspberries"-- 

"A raspberry--the 'Writer's Block' award--to the administrators at Cal State San Marcos for considering doing away with the university's writing requirement.  The college now demands that students write at least one 2,500-word essay per course per semester--not an unreasonable requirement for college courses.  But to cope with a 14 percent enrollment increase, college administrators are requiring some professors to teach four courses this fall instead of three, and may do away with the essay requirement in acknowledgement that the increased course load will require more grading and preparation time for professors.  But cutting back on academic requirements is the wrong direction for schools.  The ability to write is critical to success, and a 2,500-word essay is not an undue workload for a university student; it comes to 10 double-spaced, typed pages.  Reducing the writing requirement is hardly setting the high standards we expect from a university, especially one that complains that too many students arrive at its doors unprepared for the rigors of university study."

    This editorial has been printed in its entirety above.

October 6, 1999
North County Times, "Professors Oppose CSUSM Proposal" by Karen S. Smith--

• "'Is there enough money to provide a quality education to students?  I can't answer that until we have a full discussion as to how to meet the target," says University President Alexander Gonzalez.
• "As a result of being asked to teach more courses, the faculty is considering replacing the 2,500-word writing requirement, possible with a separate writing course that would require less faculty time to read and grade," says Physiology Professor Brian Norris.
• Drama Professor Marcos Martinez, who is co-president of the faculty union, describes "[T]he requirement as one of the things that has distinguished  CSUSM as a quality institution."
• Martinez also comments, "Students talked about the writing requirement as being central to coming here.  It was one of the reasons they liked their education here.   They seem to get a lot out of it."

    Smith also captured some student responses to the
    writing requirement:

• "Some said it was an unnecessary requirement in non-liberal arts classes, including math and science.  'I'd be glad if they did away with it,' says Shariann Scott, a business major in her sophomore year.  Scott's accounting professor requires her class to write a dozen small essays on accounting-related subjects throughout the year."
• "Cindy McCreary, a junior who is majoring in liberal studies, suggest that professors divide the writing requirement into 1,250--word essays a semester."

October 10, 1999
North County Times, "Cal State San Marcos Fat on Overhead, Thin on Professors" by George Diehr--

• Professor of Management Science George Diehr questions how the university can increase the president's salary the same week it suggests cutting the college writing requirement because of an increased faculty workload without an increase in faculty hires.
• Diehr points out that the increase in student population has been met with an increase in our top administrators' salary but not with any clear increase with faculty to serve the growing number of  students [finder's fee].
• While the CSUSM administration receives a raspberry for suggesting that the campus writing requirement be cut, Diehr gives the local suburban daily a rose for its editorial support of the writing requirement.

October 11, 1999
North County Times, "Cal State is Not Easing Standards" by Richard Karas--

• CSUSM's Vice President of Academic Affairs Richard Karas emphasizes that Cal State "graduates who can write well will continue to be the hallmark of Cal State University, San Marcos."
• Karas says, "we" were not saying we were cutting the writing requirement.  We are "[s]tudying the effectiveness of the writing requirement."