Conference2007/Student Posters/2

Strategic Plan of the The STC Academic Community

Name of the community:  “The STC Academic Community”

Introduction

The following document describes the Academic Community within STC.  Academics (persons who work in education and research at colleges and universities) have always been important members of and made significant contributions to The Society for Technical Communication.  Conversely, the STC has always recognized the contribution of college and university teachers to the overall profession, serving, as they do, as the stewards of the theoretical and practical knowledge of the profession, as the public face of the profession in academia, and, often, as the first contact that prospective members of the profession have with technical communication.

In the past, academics within STC have been actively involved in a variety of membership organizations:  geographical chapters, student chapters, and Special Interest Groups, such as the Education and Research SIG, the Instructional Design and Learning SIG, and various other SIGs representing a member’s specific educational or research needs (such as the Management SIG or the Technical Editing SIG.)

However, the needs of academics transcend the boundaries of these groups.  The professional responsibilities, information needs for teaching, and needs for access to research populations are not clearly described in the mission statements of existing official communities within STC.  A survey done in January, 2005 (See Appendix A:  Attitudes of Academics Towards STC: A Report (Link)) indicates that academics see the importance of STC, but feel that they need a voice to help the organization to tailor its response to their needs.  TheSTC Academic Community can help this group find that voice.

Statement of Mission

The intended mission of the STC Academic Community will be the following:

To serve the professional responsibilities of STC members worldwide who work as educators and researchers in colleges and universities.  These responsibilities involve areas of curriculum design, current practices in technical communication, research and research funding, and academic workplace and professional issues.

The professional responsibilities of this group include the following:

1.      To design curriculum for students wishing to enter the field of technical communication

2.      To keep up with current practices (tools, processes, employment) in technical communication

3.      To recognize contributions to theoretical and practical education and research in technical communication

4.      To learn about research trends and opportunities for funding

5.      To identify leadership roles in professional organizations

6.      To know about employment issues (tenure, hiring practices) in the academic workplace

Justification

Academic members of STC share a number of concerns with fellow members.  They are interested in teaching, in current practices, tools, and professional issues.  However, as a group, they are also distinct from other STC members in a number of ways. 

·        Members are distinct from those employed as corporate trainers or consultants.  While academics may be employed part-time as consultants or as employees of companies, it is their work for colleges and universities that defines their concerns as academics.

·        Students of academics differ from students in training or corporate education classes.  Students at the secondary or post-secondary level are not themselves employed by organizations, but are pursuing knowledge of the profession in general: knowledge not bound by the practices of a specific organization or company. Their learning goals are often broader than those of students in a corporate training class.

·        Academics face unique workplace issues.  Employment as an academic means working in the public sector, on an endowment funding basis, as state or municipal employees.  As such, they face shared issues of teaching, research, and service that are shaped by their conditions of employment.

Goals

The goals of the STC Academic Community are as follows:

·        To provide a voice for academics in STC

·        To maintain productive contact with practitioners of technical communication

·        Disseminate information about other programs in technical communication at the secondary, post-secondary, and graduate levels

·        To maintain a high level of quality in academic research in technical communication

Objectives

As a beginning for the new STC Academic Community I, with the help of panelists at the 52^nd Annual STC Conference in Seattle (see Appendix C:  “Issues within the STC Academic Community: Part 1, Education” and Appendix D: “Issues within the STC Academic Community: Part 2, Research”).  The objectives listed below for each goal reflect the ideas for implementation of goals expressed by participants and attendees of those panels.

Goal 1:  To provide a voice for academics (students and faculty) in STC

Objective A:      To create a web presence for academics in STC

Objective B:      To work towards supportive representation on the STC Board

Objective C:      To sponsor academic panels and programs at regional and national conferences

Objective D:      To be an advocate for students

Goal 2: To maintain productive contact with practitioners of technical communication

Objective A:      To facilitate student and teacher internships in practitioner workplaces

Objective B:      To facilitate practitioner input into and review of curriculum design for academic programs

Goal 3: To disseminate information about other programs in technical communication at the secondary, post-secondary, and graduate levels

Objective A:      To update and maintain the list of academic programs on the STC website

Objective B:      To create a descriptive guide to programs in technical communication worldwide

Goal 4: To maintain a high level of quality in academic research in technical communication

Objective A:      To create an academic research stem at regional and national conferences

Objective B:      To review grant policies of STC with the aim of improving research

Possible Activities

Requirements for establishing a new community within STC call for, “A list of possible activities for the year following authorization of the community.”  Possible activities for the STC Academic Community include the following:

General/First-Year Activities

·        Set up a committee to update the directory of technical communication programs worldwide

·        Create an active listserv among academics

·        Sponsor a peer-reviewed academic progression on research in progress and a peer-reviewed panel of papers on completed basic, academic research at STC

·        Establish liaisons with ATTW, CPTSC, and other organizations serving the needs of academics in technical communication

Student/First-Year Activities

·        Support a special issue in Technical Communication or Intercom of graduate and undergraduate publications

·        Establish a virtual student community to promote student issues, in particular, Sigma Tau Chi and Alpha Sigma

·        Set up a committee to explore the need for student conferences and involvement of students in existing conferences

General/Second- and Third-Year Activities

·        Set up a committee to advise the STC Board on grant procedures, RFPs, and establish inroads into national funding agencies

·        Establish a one-year grant coordinator position on sabbatical in the STC office

·        Sponsor a content-management web site to facilitate collecting job descriptions and profiles of practitioners

·        Set up a committee to explore external program review by practitioners

·        Set up a committee to identify the core competencies of an educator

·        Start a “guest lecturer” program among practitioners

Student/Second- and Third-Year Activities

·        Establish an “achievement award” for students, similar to the J. R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching,

·        Establish a committee to coordinate and advertise student competitions internationally

·        Explore the possibility of establishing a mentoring program among practitioners

Tentative Budget

A tentative budget request (developed with help from the AP for SIGs) to fund the activities of the SIG for one year.

Compliance with STC Policies and Procedures

According to the “Guidelines for Forming Special Interest Groups”, “All SIG mission statements, goals, objectives, guidelines, and activities must operate within Society policies and procedures.”  Accordingly, this application explains how the Academic Community will meet these requirement in the following two sections.

Establish Communication

The Academic Community members will establish communication with similar groups in Society chapters and in other professional organizations; encourage chapter-level special interest groups in its interest area and cooperate with them to promote the community’s professional interest at the chapter and community level.

The newly formed Academic Community will communicate with other academics in chapters and other communities.

Cooperate with Editors

The Academic Community will cooperate with the editors of Technical Communication and Intercom and with the editors of chapter newsletters in promoting the community’s professional interest in general and its activities in particular.

This page maintained by Thomas Barker, Texas Tech University, thomas.barker@ ttu.edu