This article examines two course redesigns undertaken to improve student support, learning, and retention in the basic writing program at Oakland University, a doctoral research university in southeast Michigan, where support for developmental writers has fluctuated dramatically between nurture and neglect over the past fifty years. However,…

Analyzes how higher education in Georgia reacted to a trial concerning improprieties in its Developmental Studies Program. Warns that a free-standing, state-wide program administered separately from a traditional academic department is in danger of losing independence to high-level bureaucrats. (SR)

Traces the evolution of the basic writing program at the University of Louisville, as related by its first seven directors. Concludes that pedagogical and political strategies that worked took advantage of the academic and student community around them; unsuccessful ideas were those imposed without consideration of local context. (SR)