Inclusivity Statement

Statement

The Writing Center’s mission is to provide a welcoming, egalitarian, and accessible learning environment that is committed to affirming social justice and meeting the diverse needs of the entire UW-Madison community. 

We understand that speaking and writing shape and reflect the ways in which we think and how we are able to move inside institutional structures. We also understand that these practices are tied to larger histories of subjugation and coercion that privilege some and marginalize others. Legacies of settler colonialism and white supremacy have persisted on this campus to this day, resulting in an environment that puts those of marginalized identities and sovereignties at a disadvantage.

In response, in all our policies, pedagogies, and hiring practices, we work to consistently engage and address implicit and explicit forms of marginalization across the UW-Madison community. We also work to upend systems of disadvantage as they materialize in the power-laden contexts of writing, reading, and literacy by affirming and supporting the unique intelligence each person brings to the Writing Center as they labor to develop their own voice. Our goals are inclusivity without exclusivity and acceptance without assimilation.

Achieving these goals requires ongoing engagement and adaptation of our practices at the Writing Center in order to address the various needs and identities of our community. We hope to evolve over time as the Writing Center learns from our best source of knowledge–our students, faculty, and staff.

To learn more about how we put these values into action, please see our inclusivity praxis page.