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1932 The first 'writing laboratory' is founded
at the University of Minnesota, followed by Dartmouth College in 1939.
1969 Graduate students in the IUP English
Department begin a program to help undergraduate students improve their writing
skills.
1971 IUP Composition Clinic is founded by Dr.
Lorrie Bright and Dr. Jack Davis and funded by a grant of $30,000 from the U.S.
Department of Education, an enormous grant sum at the time for a composition
program. The clinic was housed in a former classroom in Leonard Hall, which was
razed in 2016. Others involved in the early years included Dr. Laura Miller, Dr.
Malcolm Hayward, Dr. Don McClure, and Dr. Gary Olson.
1976 Purdue
University Writing Lab is founded by Dr. Muriel Harris. Purdue OWL opens in
1993.
1981 The IUP Composition Clinic is renamed the
IUP Writing Center.
1985 IUP Writing Center moves from Leonard
Hall to Eicher Hall and is co-directed by Dr. Michael M. Williamson and Dr. Lea
Masiello.
1987 IUP Writing Center acquires 28 computers
that use floppy disk drives and run the 'WordPerfect Jr.' word processing
program.
1988 Dr. Ben
Rafoth becomes co-director, with Lea Masiello, of the IUP Writing Center.
1995 Dr. Rafoth and Dr. Dennis Ausel receive a
State System grant to pilot an online writing center using then-new e-mail
attachments. Nearly 1,000 students submit papers and receive feedback in the
first semester. This online writing center was among the first of its kind in
the U.S. Many online writing centers today still use email attachments.
2000 Jennifer Ritter, then a graduate student
in the Rhetoric and Linguistics Program, builds the first website for the IUP
Writing Center.
2002 Dr. Elizabeth Boquet (IUP PhD)
publishes Noise from the Writing Center
and becomes co-editor of The Writing
Center Journal.
2003 Dr. Rafoth organizes and coordinates the
first joint conference for the International Writing Centers Association and
National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, held in Hershey, PA. A record
951 people attend.
2006 Dr. Tina Perdue serves as interim
director until 2010, while Dr. Rafoth serves as graduate coordinator for the
Composition and TESOL Program (now Composition and Applied Linguistics).
2007 Dr. Michele Eodice (IUP Ph.D. '99)
becomes president of the International Writing Centers Association. Dr. Eodice
also publishes The Everyday Writing
Center: A Community of Practice, and in 2013, Working with Faculty Writers.
2008 IUP Writing Center tutors receive
prestigious Best Article award for "Taking on Turnitin," published in
the Writing Center Journal in 2009.
The essay has been republished and anthologized many times.
2009 A
Tutor's Guide (2nd ed.) is published by Dr. Rafoth. ESL Writers (2nd ed.) is published
by Shanti Bruce (IUP Ph.D. 2008) and Ben Rafoth
2010 Dr. Kevin Dvorak (IUP Ph.D. 2006) becomes
president of the Southeast Writing Centers Assoc.
2011 Lindsay Sabatino, then a graduate
student, develops a synchronous online tutoring platform for the IUP Online
Writing Center.
2012 The IUP Writing Center-Library Satellite
opens in Stapleton Library. Weekly Walk-in Wednesday Workshops have been
offered every semester since this time.
2013 Dr. Kevin Dvorak becomes president of the
International Writing Centers Association. Leigh Ann Dunning, Emily Weber, and
others launch social media campaign to promote the writing center on and off
campus. Emily Weber is the center’s first communications coordinator.
2015 On October 16, 2015, a generous endowment
for the writing center is established by David White, the Kathleen Jones White
Writing Center is dedicated to the memory of Kathleen Jones White, and the
writing center is renamed. The Jones White Graduate Editing Service is launched,
administered by the writing center and funded by the Graduate School. Dr. Rafoth
delivers the keynote address at the IWCA annual conference in Pittsburgh and publishes
Multilingual Writers and Writing Centers.
2016 Shanti Bruce and Ben Rafoth publish Tutoring Second Language Writers.
2017 Rebecca Day Babcock (IUP PhD)
publishes Writing Centers and Disability and,
in 2018, Researching the Writing Center,
rev. ed.
2019 Dr. Dana Driscoll becomes director of the
Jones White Writing Center, in advance of Ben Rafoth’s planned retirement in
2020. Rafoth is invited to deliver plenary lecture at the IV Congreso Internacional
de la Red Latinoamericana de Centros y Programas de Escritura (4th
International Congress of the Latin American Network of Writing Centers and
Programs), held at ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara, Mexico.