[ATTW-L] WPA-GO Special Executive Board Election - Grads Please Apply!

Thu Sep 17 21:41:44 UTC 2020

Dear members of ATTW-L,

The Graduate Committee of the Writing Program Administrators Graduate
Organization (WPA-GO) is excited to announce a special election for three
Executive Board positions. Please find attached and shared below a cover
letter from our Chair, Gabbi Kelenyi, explaining the impetus behind this
special election and the impact we hope it has on our organization. Also
attached to this message are the calls for the three positions we have
available: Vice Chair, Diversity & Outreach Chair, and Treasurer.

The deadline for submitting an application for these positions is 11:59PM
CST on September 30, 2020. WPA-GO Graduate Committee members are happy to
answer any questions. Additionally, we will be hosting virtual information
sessions on Thursday, September 17, from 6-7pm EST/ 3-4pm PST
<https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/99806329780>, and on Tuesday, September 22,
from 6-7pm EST/ 3-4pm PST <https://meet.google.com/qwp-yzjj-cfm>. Please
drop-in to ask questions, hear more about the available positions, and chat
with Graduate Committee members!

Best,

Gabrielle Kelenyi, on behalf of WPA-GO’s Graduate Committee

 --

Dear WPA-GO Members, Followers, and Graduate Students at large,

My name is Gabrielle (Gabbi) Kelenyi, and I am the new Chair of the Writing
Program Administrators Graduate Organization (WPA-GO) for the 2020-2021
academic year. I am writing to announce that we are opening a special
election to our general membership to fill the executive board positions of
Vice Chair, Diversity & Outreach Chair, and Treasurer on the Graduate
Committee. Whereas normally these executive board positions are open to
current Graduate Committee members only, we are hoping to recruit more
leaders to positively impact WPA-GO for years to come. This cover letter
serves to contextualize the special election in light of our organization’s
current trajectory.

The WPA-GO Graduate Committee (GC) is a team of supportive individuals who
work together to devise plans to provide support to graduate students
nationwide in accessible, intentional, and engaging ways, and bring those
plans to fruition. Over the summer, the WPA-GO Graduate Committee embarked
on a path to work through some of the cognitive dissonance between what we
as members expect from WPA-GO initiatives/ programs and what we experience.
In an effort to better respond to the needs of our membership, support
graduate students interested in WPA scholarship and practice, and become
leaders in actively anti-racist and inclusive organizational practice, we
are engaging in intense reflection and planning to make ongoing
improvements to WPA-GO. One of the best ways to begin this work is to make
structural changes. We begin that work with this special election.

To that end, WPA-GO is seeking leaders who are committed to making lasting
structural changes within our organization--reliable self-starters who will
not only bring ideas to the table but will also help envision how to
execute those ideas in actively anti-racist, inclusive, and accessible
ways. We’re looking for innovative leaders with ideas to help WPA-GO really
address the emergent needs of graduate students across the country. Beyond
that, we’re looking for creative thinkers who are solutions-oriented and
enthusiastic about working in teams to get things done and done well. We
plan to develop ways to sustainably offer more regularly scheduled and free
programming to graduate students--both virtually and in-person. We want
this programming to provide social support, professional development,
networking opportunities, a greater sense of connection and community
within our membership, and we want the programs we start this year to
feasibly continue next year and beyond. To accomplish these programmatic
goals, we need ambitious leaders who are dedicated to building lasting
relationships and structures that can easily be passed down and improved
upon from one Graduate Committee to the next.

Most importantly, WPA-GO demands identity-conscious representation that
will amplify underrepresented voices in academia. To be quite frank, the
current nine-member Graduate Committee severely lacks racial, ethnic, and
gender diversity. One of the first steps toward building a more equitable
organization is becoming an organization in which graduate students from a
variety of backgrounds can see themselves; that begins with leadership.
Furthermore, the Writing Studies field in general is one in which many
members of nondominant communities, including myself, struggle to see
themselves. WPA-GO can help begin to change that perception of WPA work by
electing leadership that actually represents people of a wide variety of
colors, genders, sexualities, abilities, statuses, classes, etc. The
statement instructions in our applications to run for these executive board
positions specifically ask about race, gender, class, ability, migrant
status, and sexuality in order to build an equitable organization, not
because these aspects of identity define individuals but because these are
the primary axes of oppression and privilege. Thus, WPA-GO specifically
encourages people from nondominant communities to run for these executive
board positions on the GC, and the election process for each position will
not move forward until at least TWO people from nondominant communities
apply.

WPA-GO typically receives 3-5 applications for positions on the Graduate
Committee each year. We hope that this cover letter encourages many, many
more. However, we understand that graduate students lead very busy,
multi-faceted lives, and our current context does not allow for business as
usual. As an organization of graduate students, we are very aware of the
explicit and implicit demands for increased pandemic productivity, and we
do not intend for this call to add to those demands. Thus, we encourage you
to read the calls for Vice Chair, Diversity & Outreach Chair, and Treasurer
carefully to determine if any of the positions are the right fit for you
and your plans this year. WPA-GO Graduate Committee members will be hosting
virtual drop-in information sessions on Thursday, September 17th, from
6-7pm EST/ 3-4pm PST <https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/99806329780>, and Tuesday,
September 22nd, from 6-7pm EST/ 3-4pm PST
<https://meet.google.com/qwp-yzjj-cfm> to answer questions, share
experiences, and hopefully help interested parties determine how/ if
positions fit their plans and schedules. If you have individual questions
or concerns about WPA-GO, this special election, or any of the positions,
or if you can’t attend one of the information sessions, please feel free to
contact me directly at the email address below or reach out to any of the
current Graduate Committee <http://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sp/wpa-go>
members.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Kelenyi

Chair, Writing Program Administrators Graduate Organization (WPA-GO)

kelenyi at wisc.edu

Gabrielle Kelenyi, Chair
Amanda Presswood, Past Chair

   - WPA-GO Website <http://wpacouncil.org/wpa-go>
   - Twitter <https://twitter.com/wpa_go> & Instagram
   <https://www.instagram.com/wpa_go>: @wpa_go
   - Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/wpa.go/>
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