Taking Long Night Online: A Six-Part Series Introduction
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Every month this Summer and Fall 2020, Axis brings you an installment in a six-part series on two writing centers’ experiences on two different campuses with two different demographics and their experiences as they took their Long Night Against Procrastination programs online. We hope this series can help further conversations about our work as writing center professionals during and beyond the global pandemic.
Taking Long Night Online: Introduction to the Series
This series tells the story of two writing centers and their Long Nights Against Procrastination.
We met on the Writing Center Directors Facebook page and decided we wanted to share our experiences about transitioning online. Below, we introduce our institutions, writing centers, and histories with Long Night Against Procrastination (LNAP). The LNAP is an all-night or late-night event providing writing consultations, research support, and camaraderie for students during finals week, offered on many campuses internationally. Indeed, Praxis has previously published reflections on other writing centers’ experience of the event.
We end with a summary of what the reader can expect from the six-part blog series, which is aimed at helping other writing center professionals create/review their own online LNAP in November 2020.
Southwestern University | Dr. Jennifer Marciniak
Southwestern University is a primarily residential small liberal arts college in Georgetown, TX. Established in 1840 under the Methodist church, Southwestern was the first institution of higher learning in Texas. As of Fall 2019, Southwestern was home to 1,500 students, with 33 percent from under-represented backgrounds.
Enter the DEWC
The Debby Ellis Writing Center (DEWC) was officially established in 2000. The center is named in honor of Dr. Deborah S. Ellis, Southwestern professor of English and Women’s Studies. In 2020, with help from an alumni donation, the DEWC moved to a newly renovated space in the library. The center houses 10-12 undergraduate writing consultants from a variety of disciplines.
DEWC consultants in the new writing center, Spring 2020
Going Online
Southwestern University’s LNAP began in Fall 2018 as a coordinated effort between the writing center, the library, and Academic Success for first-year students, with a followup in Spring 2019 for the whole campus. Spring 2020 was poised to be the largest event yet, but COVID-19 had other plans. After several logistical meetings, programming amendments, and swift changes to our marketing materials, we launched LNAP (Virtual Edition) via Zoom on April 23. The event attracted more than 40 students.
DEWC Consultants preparing for LNAP, Spring 2019
What Does This Mean for SU?
We anticipated it would be lower than the first event (70 attendees) and the second event (125 attendees). Considering the events of the semester, we were happy with the attendance.
We drew three conclusions about our programming. First, students wanted to talk about their future. Second, we needed a study room. Third, we need to gamify the writing center sessions. These outcomes told us that the social, communal aspect of accountability was what the students valued most, and that they found purpose in recreating this social aspect online.
Nevada State College | Dr. Rachel Herzl-Betz
Nevada State was established in 1999 to serve a diverse population of local students. Today, 37% of Nevada State students identify as Hispanic, 58% identify as first-generation college students, 63% identify as enthic minorities, and almost the entire student body originates in the Las Vegas area. Our first dorm is being built as we speak, but, as of Spring 2020, NSC is an all-commuter campus that serves just under five-thousand students.
Caption: Nevada State Specialists and writers in the center, Fall 2019
Enter the Writing Center
Dr. Kathryn Tucker created the center in 2014 as a 6-person offshoot of the Student Academic Center. Now, thanks to a generous grant from The Rogers Foundation, the center employs 15-20 undergraduate tutors who lead one-on-one sessions, online support, workshops, course-embedded tutoring, and research in writing studies. Our first LNAP took place in the Spring of 2015. Since the beginning, our ethos has been one of student-led collaboration. I’ll try to replicate that dynamic by bringing on student co-authors each month. They will co-create our campus narrative, just as they co-created the vision, programming, advertising, and technological foundation for our event.
Most of the Nevada State Writing Center team, Fall 2019
Going Online
On April 24th we ran our first all-remote LNAP in collaboration with the Marydean Martin Library. We offered a livestream space, resources, text support, participation prizes, and zoom rooms, plus one-on-one appointments with librarians and specialists. More than 50 participants checked in over the course of the night and more took part in the livestream and the synchronous sessions.
What does that mean for NSC?
Compared to recent, 250-person live events, our online LNAP was small. We had fewer collaborators, fewer events, and no swag. However, we also served almost the exact same number of students who attended our first live LNAP back in 2015.
For us, an online LNAP represented a new start, one that needed to fit the lives of writers caring for family members, applying for unemployment benefits, and continuing to work through a pandemic. Mostly, we found that students wanted a sense of community. Some participants worked on projects with Writing Specialists or used the zoom rooms, but almost everyone wanted to gather and feel like they were part of something bigger than themselves.
What This Series Will Do For You
Our experiences turning a face-to-face LNAP into a virtual “edition” were ripe with challenges, failures, and wins. This blog series intends to take readers through the stages of setting up a Virtual LNAP by inviting you on our respective journeys. Each blog will feature the steps we took, what we learned, what worked and what took off like a lead balloon. Here is what you can expect:
June: Envisioning Your Long Night: What are your goals for the program? This blog will discuss how we came up with our respective visions for Virtual LNAP, and what we make of those plans with 20/20 hindsight.
July: Programming and Collaborations: Executing your vision is best done in collaboration with others. This blog discusses choosing and communicating with potential collaborators, including those that hold the monetary keys to the kingdom.
September: Technology and Logistics: A significant part of Virtual LNAP is the digital platform and the finicky details that bring your vision to life. This blog discusses the platforms that worked best for us and what to consider when making your choice.
October: Marketing: This blog will take you through a few ways to create a digital marketing plan for your event and then how to remake it when things don’t go according to plan.
November: Implementation and Assessment This final blog outlines the processes we underwent in the days leading up to the event to make sure LNAP was successful for the attendees and the collaborators.
We hope you come away with a path forward marked by fruitful questions. Like any good Writing Center session, our series focuses on your goals, your context, and your vision for how an event could serve your community. Between now and June think about your “why”. What do large writing-focused events like LNAP mean for you, your center, and your school?
Author Bios
Dr. Jennifer Marciniak is the Director of the Debby Ellis Writing Center at Southwestern University. She earned her PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Louisville and began her writing center career at Berea College. She is from South Texas, and her research interests focus on oil and gas worker literacy practices. She was a first generation college student, and has personal and professional interests in working-class studies.
Dr. Rachel Herzl-Betz is the Writing Center Assistant Director and English Instructor at Nevada State College. She earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and began her writing center career at Carleton College. She’s originally from northern Wisconsin, and her research focuses on the intersections between disability, writing center studies, and educational access.