The Community Writing Project (CWP) in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) Department, which integrates service learning programs into writing courses, is one of the oldest programs of its kind nationwide, according to PWR Director Andrea Lunsford. However, the classes are not nearly as popular today as they have been in the past, a phenomenon that PWR is taking steps to address.

The levels of participation and popularity for the CWP courses vary from year to year, Lunsford said, but this year the classes are uncharacteristically unpopular. While the PWR department typically offers six to eight CWP courses per term, there are only two such classes in progress this quarter — two sections of the same course that are both full or almost full — and three classes will be offered in the winter.

“There has been an increasing lack of interest among the students,” Assistant Director of PWR Nancy Buffington said of the CWP program. “Sometimes there are concerns about workload, other times students are concerned about transportation.”

CWP administrators are in the process of examining the workload in a typical PWR class and comparing it to that of a CWP PWR class. If it proves to be more work, Buffington said, the department would consider adding another unit to the four-unit CWP classes.

In addition to a decrease in student demand, Buffington told The Daily that it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract instructors to teach the classes, because they require coordination with an outside agency on a different schedule.

Potential instructors are also worried that unpopular CWP courses will not fill to capacity, which could affect student evaluations of teaching performance, Buffington said. She added that end-of-quarter evaluations are always reviewed closely in order to improve the courses.

“We’re thinking about what’s working,” Buffington explained. “How have students’ needs and interests shifted, and do we need to shift the program to match those needs and interests?

“We don’t want to mess with anything that’s healthy,” she added. “So before we take any big steps, we want to carefully weigh all the different options.”

CWP classes take intellectually stimulating ideas outside of the classroom and apply them beyond an academic setting. In an interview with The Daily, Lunsford and PWR Associate Director Marvin Diogenes explained that the CWP program aims to establish contact between research and writing, and the real world. With speaking and research components, CWP courses are especially conducive to the goals and structure of PWR II.

In the past, CWP courses have worked with government and non-profit organizations on a variety of projects.

“Service learning is distinguished from volunteer work in that it is a continuation of an academic and intellectual pursuit,” Lunsford said. “It is intended to be attached to what you’re learning.”

One of the options under consideration to improve the program’s popularity is the addition of for-profit organizations to the list of CWP offerings.

“There are a lot of for-profit agencies who would love to have Stanford students working with them,” Lunsford said. “The question we might take up again as we go forward is whether we would ever entertain working with for-profit groups.”

Adding for-profit organizations would complicate the history and philosophy of the program, which has dealt with over 270 non-profit and government agencies in its long history, Buffington said.

“How do we balance student interest versus tradition and history of the program?” she asked.

There are a number of other classes around campus that have service learning components. This week the Haas Center for Public Service is holding a luncheon for all service learning coordinators in an effort to increase overall outreach.

“We don’t even know each other, at this point,” Buffington said. “We’re going to try to coordinate a bit more and be aware of what the other programs are doing.”

Despite current discussions of changes to CWP, Buffington is confident of the program’s longevity.

“PWR is here to stay,” she said.