Accepted Proposals

03. What if Hamilton developed a public writing program to enhance students’ capacity to address urgent social challenges and faculty’s ability to share knowledge beyond traditional academic models?

May 16, 2025

The collaboration led by: Chris Willemsen

With other collaborators: Jennifer Ambrose; Frank Anechiarico; Aaron Strong; Marianne Janack; Heidi Ravven; Jaime Kucinskas; Levitt Center staff; Writing Center staff; Levitt Council; Writing Advisory Committee

The Levitt Center and Writing Center will design a pilot program to integrate a public writing component into the 2025-2026 Justice Labs. This could be a first step toward creating more robust support for public writing across curricular and co-curricular programs. We envision the following concrete steps: 1) design a public writing workshop with an outside facilitator for faculty, staff, and writing tutors; 2) create an embedded tutoring program within Justice Lab courses to support public writing (including training and mentoring tutors); and 3) provide ongoing faculty support during the semester.

The proposal was submitted for CATALYST funding (under $10,000) and was ranked high with respect to the other proposals based upon the evaluation rubric.

The committee applauds the proposers for:

• Developing a timely and innovative proposal which is well-aligned with the goals of the What If initiative
• Proposing a concrete, realistic pilot program that can be implemented in the upcoming year

The points that the committee recommends the proposers need to continue to develop include:

• Articulating the rationale for embedding the pilot within the Justice Lab, specifically

From the committee’s perspective, the next phase of this project would include:

• Developing a broader transformational proposal, which would detail how the pilot could be scaled up to engage students and faculty across the curriculum
• Identifying and working with other potential collaborators on campus including the Writing Center, Digital Arts, the Library, Media Relations, etc.

The committee recommends funding the next phase of this proposal for the requested amount of $4,600 to move this idea forward for further aspirational design and development.