The Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center will close next year. Due to requirements outlined in HB 265, aka the Higher Education Strategic Reinvestment bill, SLCC has chosen to close the CWC at the Salt Lake City Main Library.
For one year shy of a quarter century, the CWC has diligently offered writing services to students and the community from its downtown location.
“We’re so sad. We really are. There is a lot of great programs, [a] lot of community outreach,” said Daniel Baird, the associate director of the CWC and an associate professor of English at SLCC.
Along with helping SLCC students with their resumes, cover letters and scholarship applications, among other requests, the CWC has provided the community with writing workshops and one-on-one guidance in putting pen to paper.
How community organizations will feel the loss
According to hundreds of letters written by community members and organizations, the CWC has excelled at helping people express their thoughts and ideas in a written form. The CWC has offered services to Volunteers of America, Utah’s Youth Resource Center, jails, and senior centers on a regular basis.
Beyond the writing workshops, the CWC publishes a community anthology.
“A lot of people will be losing their only connection to community once they close this down,” said Kati Lewis, an associate professor now on sabbatical, who was director of the CWC until June 30.
Lisa Donaldson, an offsite programming manager at the CWC and a writing coach, said Lewis attempted to keep the CWC operational amidst anticipated cuts.
“We knew that the college was looking to cut [from] everything. So Kati actually put in a proposal where we could cut our budget and still stay in operation to meet that cut requirement, and apparently it was rejected,” explained Donaldson.
Donaldson gave a summary of the CWC’s community involvement and the importance that writing serves the community.
“We work with all ages; the main [demographic] is teenagers through seniors. Some of the most prolific writers are seniors. Each of us sort [of] have our niche area, but then, we work with everybody.
“We do workshops at the jail. They are so appreciative to have people come in and [help with] whatever they need to write and get off their chest, and oftentimes people are crying at our jail workshops. We’ve also done a number of jail writing anthologies.
“We also have done youth camps — [for example] … a partnership with the University of Utah in July … a four-day-long program [on] a specific writing topic. We’re doing submissions right now for a youth anthology so these young writers will be published. We published in partnership with the publication center at Salt Lake Community College. We’re here for everybody,” Donaldson said.
The hard work of the CWC part-time staff has been a constant staple that has kept the center running for over two decades.
“The part-time staff that we’ve always had at the Community Writing Center have been entirely dedicated to our mandate here,” Lewis said. “Because of their connections to [the] community and the passion that they have for this job, the Community Writing Center does not run without our part-time staff. They are the ones that have made this space inviting, inclusive and so critical for the community.”
Affected part-time staff speak on CWC closure
Elisar Soueidi, who has been at CWC for four years, said: “It’s very emotional. Honestly, it feels like a very low blow to the community — especially considering what we do, how many different communities that we’re a part of, like the senior center [program] we’ve done for years. We’re immersed in the community and it’s really sad to think about what’s being ripped away from the community.”
Soueidi has finished a six-month collaboration with the people at the Utah Independent Living Center, an organization that assists people with disabilities to become more independent.
“It was a writing group for them. I was going there twice a month, and we worked with them through that six months to get a [writing] piece polished [enough] to be published in our community anthology. It’s just like a literacy course,” Soueidi said.
Frank Cobbe is a 2024 SLCC graduate in writing studies and a periodic writer for The Globe. He is the writing consultant/publications coordinator at the CWC and said the center is highly regarded by those who use it.
“I think it’s a very unique resource for the community and anybody who utilizes this resource will tell you how important it is,” Cobbe said.
Oliver Harrington, the marketing coordinator at the CWC since January, said the center has repeat clients for things like essays and homework.
An important group of youth that the CWC helps involves Volunteers of America, Utah’s Youth Resource Center, which is a “drop-in resource center and emergency shelter for all youth aged 15-22 at-risk or experiencing homelessness,” according to its website.
Harrington said: “Youth Resource Center is always glad to have people involved with the youth. It helps kids to not feel like they are being forgotten.”
To learn more about the CWC, its staff, services and workshops, visit the SLCC website.
