New writing specialist looks to create cross-campus dialogues on writing

Emily Drake Guest Writer

Lee Rumbarger has joined Vassar’s Writing Center as the College’s new writing specialist this year.

Rumbarger completed her graduate study at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was employed as an Assistant Director in the Division of Rhetoric and Writing and worked alongside professors to incorporate technology into the classroom. She received her B.A. from George Washington University, and her M.A. from the University of Texas.

At UT Austin, she taught courses including “Rhetoric of the Homefront” and “Banned Books and Novel Ideas,” and also worked as a consultant for undergraduate writers at the UT Austin’s Writing Center.

Rumbarger said that she has had “incredibly positive” first impressions of Vassar’s Writing Center. When she isn’t directing the Writing Center and teaching the freshman course “Modern Literature and Progress,” Rumbarger enjoys exercise and is joining a new recreational basketball team with her colleagues in the English department. Her academic interests include the study of illness narratives, modernist fiction and life writing.

Rumbarger hopes that more students will feel comfortable participating in one-on-one conversations that are vital to the writing process.

“We like to see writers at all stages of the process,” she said. She plans to make the Writing Center a “hub for campus writing,” and said that the Center will be hosting a series of seminars entitled “Conversations on Writing” that will forge connections between the many different disciplines at Vassar and the art of writing.

The Center will also print a newsletter entitled “Writing Vassar,” a publication that will spotlight student and faculty writing.

In order to attract more students and create a place for expanded conversations about the writing process, Rumbarger hopes to increase the Center’s visibility through the campus-wide endeavors such as the seminars and newsletter, and by adding consultation space in the Learning and Teaching Center.

Currently, the Writing Center is located in the Library basement, next to Matthew’s Bean; the hours are 3 p.m.-5 p.m. and 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. Students can also schedule specific appointments with writing tutors, and can seek help at the satellite locations in the campus dorms.