FRED LEBLANC (Left to right) Susan Pliner, program coordinator for the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW); Tamara Burk, director of SAW; and Marjorie Kochanowicz, the programÕs senior administrative assistant.

Developing students who are able to think critically about world issues and to effect change is a cornerstone of Mount Holyoke, and since its inception in 1999, the Weissman Center for Leadership has emphasized communication skills as essential to success in these arenas. The Speaking, Arguing, and Writing (SAW) Program, created in 1997 and incorporated into the Weissman Center two years later, is an outgrowth of the Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003 and was designed to provide MHC students with the rhetorical skills they need to communicate clearly and persuasively.

Each year, SAW assists faculty with developing speaking- and writing-intensive courses and trains student mentors to provide support and feedback for their peers. The program also trains student assistants to help their peers hone their skills through one-on-one evaluation and guidance. For the campuswide community, SAW oversees special events and initiatives, including student workshops and faculty seminars. Thanks to a new staffing structure, and a Davis Educational Foundation grant that is supporting the program's speaking- and writing-focused efforts for new students, SAW has been strengthened and expanded.

Formerly located in two separate spaces, SAW's speaking and writing centers have been merged, making the program's emphasis on the link between speaking and writing physical as well as philosophical. Overseeing the student staff, resources, and training activities for the SAW Program is Susan Pliner (see companion story), whose hire as program coordinator frees SAW director Tamara Burk to turn some of her attention to working with faculty on first-year seminars. The seminars are intended to help faculty develop students' reading, writing, and speaking skills while introducing analytic and critical inquiry. Wasting no time getting started on those efforts, Burk already has scheduled a series of Friday discussions for faculty on such topics as critical reading and critical thought, oral communication in the classroom, and writing pedagogy.

Also new at SAW this year are a resource library and classroom studio. The library, which is open to all members of the College community, offers books and videos on leadership, critical thinking, teaching, and oral and written communication. The twenty-seat mediated classroom studio, which was designed over the summer by visiting assistant professor of earth and environment Kirt E. Moody, offers new state-of-the-art technology that will prepare faculty and students to make top-quality multimedia presentations. For the first time, students and faculty will find presentation space, equipment, and peer assistance in one place and will be able to practice and present their material on familiar equipment in familiar conditions. Members of the MHC community are encouraged to schedule the room for class projects, discussions, performances, debates, presentations, and seminars by contacting Marjorie Kochanowicz at x3028 or mkochano@mtholyoke.edu.

The new SAW already has impressed its visitors. Last week, Sherry A. Umberfield '76, Sarah B. Michalec '76, and other members of their class toured the facilities at Porter Hall; Umberfield expressed her support of the Weissman Center for Leadership and SAW with a large gift that will name the classroom studio and create a lectureship in her grandmother's name. Umberfield is executive vice president of Nvest Services Company, a Boston affiliate of a leading investment management firm. She serves the College as a fundraising volunteer in the Boston area. Umberfield, Michalec, and their friends selected the SAW annex in the Williston Library to name in memory of Rebecca Robertson Flinn '76, a deceased classmate.