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Since the report went out to graduate students and department leadership in May 2024, there have been a few notable outcomes. First, graduate students are citing the report with each other and faculty, in conversation and more formal settings like our Town Hall meeting. This has led to faculty reaching out to me for more information and arranging mental-health-related workshops, the first of which took place in September 2024. Additionally, department leadership have identified graduate student wellbeing as a primary goal for our next incoming DGS. This kind of tangible engagement with the survey illustrates an investment in graduate student wellbeing and a culture of assessment.
The sensemaking process that the design and implementation of this survey required me and other graduate students to go through was a generative one that could be meaningfully reproduced in other contexts. Further, writing studies scholars may be uniquely situated to do this kind of deliberative, administrative assessment work, because of our orientation to that which is process-based, iterative, and collaborative. Within my own department, I believe in the value of building a culture of assessment where we can take account for where we succeed and where we can improve in a productively critical way. Assessment provides us with information we can use to make tangible changes and meaningful asks from the institution and each other. In the face of an increasingly violent climate, fostering community and care by seeking to understand each other's experiences and taking action based on that knowledge are vital steps toward sustained wellbeing.