By "the holy trinity of academics" I of course mean teaching, research, and service. These are the three categories on which we're evaluated as academics, the three ways in which we must excel.

As the fall semester starts, new staffers come into the CWRL, and returning staffers come back, I've been thinking about this trinity again. We do a lot of work here to help our staffers grow in all three areas.

TEACHING. We provide classrooms, hardware, software, and technical support. But we also provide mutual support to new and experienced teachers, sample assignments, and workshops for integrating technology into writing classrooms. At the end of their first year here, staffers have a good basis for computers and writing pedagogy; at the end of subsequent years, their experience in the computer-assisted classroom is hard to match.

RESEARCH. Similarly, we provide the means of research, including the tools and access necessary to achieve it. But we also provide a research community -- in fact, we've revamped our workgroups to group people with similar research interests and to better support sustained research projects. We also offer opportunities to publish in our white papers series, and we've begun compiling resources for funding research.

SERVICE. The CWRL runs through the work of three assistant directors, several developers, and two at-large representatives to the steering committee in addition to proctors. Each position comes with a level of responsibility and the opportunity to make significant contributions to the CWRL.

So there it is -- the academic trinity. We're doing our best to support people in all three areas, and we invite feedback. Amen.