Two-year colleges have long struggled with questions of status and identity. For most of the twentieth century, two-year college faculty were heir to many of the same issues of status and identity that plagued their institutions. Because the majority of two-year colleges were under the control of local secondary-school districts--and faculty and…

Several years ago, when his college first financed a writing program administrator (WPA) position--reassigned time and a budget to pay adjunct faculty stipends for program development--the author met with all the most senior adjunct faculty. "Without you," he told them, "this effort to build a better writing program won't work. Participation and…

This article opens with statements excerpted from reports written by the MLA Committee on Community Colleges. These statements present an accurate description of the work of community college faculty: teaching (face-to-face and online), and a commitment to student learning form the basis of the community college mission. Faculty are recognized…

For five years, the author has been advocating a writing program administrator (WPA) position at his two-year college. While the vice president of instruction has been sympathetic, the issue has been funding. As a means to prepare and to justify the WPA's continuing existence, he has set to work mapping out the terrain, trying to anticipate the…

In 2005, supported by a Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Research Initiative Grant and Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) volunteers, the TYCA Research Initiative Committee distributed the first national survey of two-year college writing programs. This online survey explored two-year college programs and…

Discusses the development of "Teaching English in the Two-Year College," a journal designed to serve the special needs of community college English faculty. Discusses success and subsequent growth of the journal and considers the different subject matters addressed throughout the first five developmental years of the journal. (SC)

Gives tribute to Bertie Carlyle Edwards Fearing (1943-1995), one of the three senior editors of "Teaching English in the Two-Year College." Characterizes Bertie as a person with "style," always focused on the task at hand, and recruiting staff members with Mensa-level intellects and showing them by her example how to work together harmoniously…

Illustrates some of the changes and trends at "Teaching English in the Two-Year College" (TETYC) during the author's years on the masthead. Considers specific articles of his first and last issues (Fall 1978 - December 1987). Represents TETYC staff as individuals who do not give up on students, continually challenging them with new thinking, new…

Learning communities are common on two- and four-year college campuses. Estimates suggest that they exist on four to five hundred campuses and can be found in most states. Such numbers signal that interest in learning communities is going strong, and there are indications that on two-year college campuses, interest continues to grow. As…

In 2005, supported by a Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Research Initiative Grant and Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) volunteers, the TYCA Research Initiative Committee distributed the first national survey of two-year college writing programs. This online survey explored two-year college programs, praxis,…

Although it took longer than anyone anticipated, five years after the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) was first proposed at the 1992 meeting in Hinds, Mississippi, two-year college English faculty around the nation finally had a professional organization of their own, and, with it, the beginning of a national identity. This article…

In 2005, supported by a CCCC's Research Initiative Grant and TYCA volunteers, the TYCA Research Initiative Committee distributed the first national survey of two-year college writing programs. This online survey explored two-year college programs and satisfaction within four areas identified in the CCCC grant proposal: (1) Assessment; (2)…

If members of the Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) had not set a place for the author at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) table, she may not have participated on the national level to improve the teaching and learning of writing. Like others in TYCA, the author had taken a circuitous route to the two-year college,…

Faculty at two-year colleges have found their professional identities shaped by conflicting perceptions. Because the community college culture has traditionally emphasized the role of faculty member as teacher and devalued the role of faculty member as scholar, it is not uncommon for faculty who spend their careers teaching in a two-year college…

The relevance of English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to the "real world" of college writing is an ongoing issue for those who teach ESL. Ideally, ESL composition classes should help students make connections between what they learn about writing and the ways they might need to write later on in their academic careers. Unfortunately, as with…