Anti-Discrimination Statement
The Claremont Graduate University Center for Writing and Rhetoric (CWR) commits to anti-discrimination both as a writing center and in our connections with graduate students. In solidarity with anti-hate and global advocacy efforts toward peace, we acknowledge the complex relationship between language and systems of oppression. We stand united against state-sanctioned violence, anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination affecting African Diasporic, Indigenous, Latin Diasporic, Desi-American, Pacific Islander, Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian communities.
The CWR community, enriched by a diverse range of graduate students engaged in impactful research, embraces the responsibility to contribute to these movements, championing the rights and recognition of LGB, queer, trans communities, and individuals across humanity’s spectrum of races, genders, sexualities, abilities, ages, religions, classes, and nationalities. As CWR consultants, we commit to dismantling the discriminatory structures embedded within academic language and generative language tools. We understand that language functions as a powerful technology and a medium in the fight for social justice — a foundational element of liberation movements.
The CWR affirms its commitment to anti-racist practice and pedagogy through openness to dialogue and a willingness to accept critique. We recognize that our Center, while a space for learning and growth, still operates within an institution framed by Standard American English and algorithmic biases that often uphold systemic barriers. We hold ourselves accountable, responding to situations involving linguistic injustice and racism. Our approach to tutorship is collaborative and culturally responsive, and we aim to respect each student’s identity, agency, and expertise.
The CWR continuously seeks to improve its practices. We write this statement recognizing that words comprise more than mere expression but can function as acts of resistance against state-sanctioned violence and systemic racism. This living document should evolve through critical reflection, feedback, and discourse on racism, technological advancements, and language. Acknowledging anti-racism’s roots in broader movements against oppression and incorporating anti-racist ways of knowing, doing, and being into our rhetoric and writing practices constitutes a top priority.
Anti-Racist Commitments and Actions
Our commitment is specific to our positions as writing consultants and centered in tangible action. Here at the CWR, we centralize antiracism in our approaches to tutoring and other duties of the writing center, including workshops, retreats, and recruitment of employees. We affirm a commitment to:
1. Centralize antiracist pedagogy and praxis in the CWR’s writing center philosophy
- Redesign hiring processes and consultant training to centralize antiracism with training materials and embracing diversity in writing
- Adjust materials surrounding tutor sessions to reflect this change in pedagogy (information on website and in the center, appointment forms, follow-up materials, etc.)
2. Challenge the uses of “Standard American English” in writing instruction in higher education
- Challenge discriminatory practices that police forms of writing and speaking
- Uphold collaboration in writing sessions and refrain from copy editing or adhering to racist and discriminatory definitions of formal and graduate writing
3. Develop a formal outreach program that prioritizes reaching marginalized groups at the university
- Engage with student groups as part of a regular outreach process, designed by a student leader at the center
- Conduct visits to as wide a range of classes as possible
- Develop the networks to more actively recruit underrepresented groups at the university
4. Maintain the CWR as a safe space, both physically and virtually, to include antiracism
- Prominently post and share the Anti-Oppression Statement in the physical center and on the website once it is developed
- Clearly display more safe space signage that represents a wider range of social groups online and in the physical center
5. Stay open to accountability and feedback
- Continue learning from the challenges and success of this process and make changes whenever necessary
- Conduct regular assessment to evaluate the appropriateness of the executed programs
- Welcome direct feedback on the CWR and its programs and resources
6. Collaborate with offices, departments, and individuals at the university in support of antiracist causes
- Support antiracist initiatives by, and develop antiracist projects in collaboration with, the Committee on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, the Office of Student Life, Diversity, & Leadership, student identity groups, and others
Pedagogy and Approach to Tutoring
- Provide safe space for collaborative writing processes that allow for variations in background, experience, worldview, and cultural values
- Demystify academic writing and specific expectations of higher education and CGU conventions
- Balance student-driven appointments with a pedagogical approach to tutoring, depending on a student’s individual needs
- Be open to all feedback and critique for improving the appointment process
One of our goals here at the CWR is to demystify academic writing and embrace collaborate approaches to tutoring. To this end, we:
Allow space for all students, from all academic and linguistic backgrounds, to feel comfortable sharing their writing process by allowing them to express feelings of self-doubt, uncertainty, and stress about their work without judgment. It is critical to allow for a variety of backgrounds, experiences, world views, and cultural values when evaluating student work, while still helping to demystify the meaning of assignments and specific expectations from the CGU perspective. These elements include providing solid foundations for common aspects of writing projects, including the format of a critical, thesis-driven approach and the use of specific field conventions. This is done through our own experience as well as by directing students to specific resources such as writing guides, style manuals, and webinars on writing-related topics. To give students the best chance for success, it is important to help them feel certain of what expectations they need to fulfill while allowing space for different forms of expression within those criteria. To develop confidence in their own writing abilities, we will help them discern issues such as: when to follow conventions and when not to, how to make informed choices about their own use of language, meshing their unique approach into larger conversations around a topic, and blending their own approaches with their professors’ expectations for academic writing. In these areas, we are prepared to offer specific strategies and teach specific applications, rather than present abstract concepts that students may not feel confident applying to their own work.
Additionally, we recognize that every single one of us is prone to error. We are open to receiving critique. We also understand our role to hold others accountable for any writing informed by discriminatory ideology. We will do so through welcome and ongoing conversation. We recognize that graduate students have a specific power to influence and affect communities of all sorts, and we understand the power we have in discussing any content that may make others uncomfortable.
Resisting Discrimination in English Usage and Grammar
- Allow for a range of written “Englishes” that do not merely conform to standard definitions
- Avoid assumptions about language and educational, racial, or cultural backgrounds
- Allow for alternate forms of expression through collaborative writing processes
At the Center for Writing and Rhetoric, we centralize antiracist commitments in our approaches to tutoring and working with written forms of expression. We support the uses of various forms of English, in order to recognize and actively challenge white supremacy in language and grammar and its various usages.
In our approaches to tutoring and consultant sessions, we understand that accepted and standardized Englishes have been defined in opposition to dialects already designated as nonstandard, designations that are influenced by historical and contemporary cultural and political ideologies about the people who speak those dialects. For first reads, especially with non-native English speakers, we should consider the larger point a student is expressing, rather than getting caught up in grammatical specifics. This includes considering different modes of expression that may be culturally dependent. We value different approaches to writing that challenge both standard and formal forms of composition. We also acknowledge the integration of personal and alternative forms of expression that may emerge in papers, theses, or dissertations.
In this commitment, we restrain from overcorrecting our students and believe in challenging hierarchies in tutorship; we let ourselves be guided by the unique writing styles of each of our students. We advocate for uplifting each student’s voice and agency; thus, we work through a collaborative process that will help produce better writers and better writing, as defined by the students with whom we are collaborating. Since we do not subscribe to a prescriptivist notion of grammar and standard English, our function as Writing Consultants is not that of copy editors who locate every “mistake”; rather, we aim to work alongside our fellow graduate student peers to collaborate within the writing process together in a way that validates all forms and dialects of English.
In recognizing our unique position at Claremont Graduate University and the presence of racism in structures of higher learning, the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and its consultants commit to embracing and integrating antiracist pedagogy and praxis. In line with these values, we hold a commitment to solidarity with all students.