The Writing Initiative is one of three priorities of the Graduate School for this biennium. Its purpose is to ensure that all graduate students have access to formal writing support services designed to help them plan and complete their dissertations and theses in a timely manner. The impetus for this initiative arises from two factors: 1) the imperative to aggressively pursue timely completion of doctoral and Master’s degrees; and 2) a prize-winning proposal for a dissertation writing intervention that received an award in the University-wide competition for Innovations in Graduate Education last spring.

One result of this initiative is the Graduate Writer's Nexus. Many other activities are underway as we continue to work together with students, faculty, and staff to achieve the purpose of the initiative--and to help our graduate students achieve their goals.

The three priorities of the Graduate School for this biennium are diversifying the American intellect by opening access to graduate education to underrepresented groups; re-envisioning the scope, content, and purposes of the Ph.D., with an eye toward innovation in the design of doctoral education; and identifying the changes in institutional policy and practice needed to foster interdisciplinary teaching, research, and training at the graduate level. These three themes are intended to focus conversation and action both this year and beyond, and they complement the University’s Strategic Positioning process and our institutional goal of attaining “top three” status as one of the world’s great public research universities.