The following resolutions and sense of the house motions were passed at the CCCC Annual Business Meeting held on Saturday, March 25, 2006, in Chicago.
Resolution 1: Honoring Akua Duku Anokye
Whereas Duku Anokye has enriched our field through her contributions to the study of orality and literacy practices and their cultural and historical influences;
Whereas she has kindled and rekindled our passion for composition studies and their implications for two-year colleges;
Whereas, in keeping with CCCC’s tradition of aligning community issues with urban and pedagogical missions, she successfully brought together participants from diverse schools and backgrounds;
Whereas she has reminded us of the importance of change;
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the 2006 Conference on College Composition and Communication honor Akua Duku Anokye for her leadership and tireless efforts on our behalf.
Resolution 2: Thanking Joseph Janangelo and the Local Arrangements Committee
Whereas Joe Janangelo and the Local Arrangements Committee have helped us to explore and appreciate the community, cultures, and coalitions of Chicago, a city of rich musical, literary, artistic, and intellectual history;
Whereas they have worked tirelessly to provide teachers from diverse institutions with a comfortable and welcoming space in which we can passionately debate the matters of importance to our professional and quite often personal lives;
Whereas they have invited us to involve ourselves in the complex rhetoric of the city of Chicago and how it intersects with what we do as writers, teachers, and scholars;
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Conference on College Composition and Communication applaud Joe Janangelo and the Local Arrangements Committee for their hard work and enthusiasm in welcoming us to the City of Big Shoulders.
Resolution 3: On Academic Freedom and Tenure
Whereas the Colorado House of Representatives Education Committee has seriously considered legislation that intrudes upon the historical right of universities to set promotion, tenure, and employment processes and procedures;
Whereas despite tabling House Bill 1284, the legislative branches are still considering motions to limit tenure and academic freedom for reasons ranging from “insubordination” to “negative student reviews” to “poor student achievement” to any conduct an administration might deem “below standards of professional integrity”; and
Whereas groups have been pressuring other states to adopt legislation that would threaten the basis of tenure and, through broad and biased interpretation, endanger academic freedom; and
Whereas the Conference on College Composition and Communication has historically protested such reactionary and regressive laws;
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Conference on College Composition and Communication will refuse to schedule national and regional events in any sate that passes legislation attaching tenure.
Resolution 4: Working Group on a National College Writing Examination
Whereas the College Entrance Examination Board and ACT have incorporated short impromptu essays into their respective college admission tests; and
Whereas the mandatory Writing Section of the widely used SAT Reasoning Test consists of 35 minutes of multiple-choice questions and a single 25-minute impromptu essay; and
Whereas the “NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing” by the Writing Study Group of the NCTE Executive Committee (November 2004) states that assessments of writing involve complex, informed, human judgment and should be designed by experts in the teaching of writing.
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Conference on College Composition and Communication endorse the report of the NCTE Task Force on SAT and ACT Writing Tests, “The Impact of the SAT and ACT Timed Writing Tests” (April 2005), and share the concerns of the Task Force that these tests are negatively affecting the quality of high school and college writing; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the CCCC Chair appoint a Working Group on a National College Writing Examination. This group will collaborate with other organizations for secondary and college teachers of writing as well as with college admissions officers, and consider the feasibility of piloting a national college admissions writing test that addresses the concerns of the “Impact” report.
Sense of the House Motions
S1. Whereas the NCTE Guidelines of Gender-Fair Use of Language address “the critical role language plays in promoting fair treatment of women and girls, men and boys,” and whereas the use of language that communicates implicit or explicit assumptions about sexual orientation demonstrates unfair treatment of women and girls, men and boys,
Be it resolved that CCCC encourage the development of an addendum to the NCTE Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language regarding heteronormative/transphobic language use, encourage its adoption for CCCC publication, and encourage NCTE to adopt the addendum as a formal part of the official guidelines.
