Timeline
1974. The Hunter College English Department initiates a limited tutoring program to students in Developmental Reading and Writing courses, Freshman Composition, and Introduction to Literature.
1976. In response to directives from the Hunter College Senate and Faculty Delegate Assembly, a Writing Center is established under the auspices of the English Department to provide tutoring to students primarily in Humanities courses.
1986. The Center is reorganized as a tutorial service in academic writing for students and classes from across the curriculum, at every level, and is resituated from the English Department to the Provost’s Office.
1988. The Center is a founding member of the City University of New York (CUNY) Writing Centers Association, which is accepted as a regional association in the National Writing Centers Association (NWCA). The CUNY Writing Centers Association will later merge with the Northeast Writing Centers Association.
1988. The Center enters into a formal collaboration with the English Department to provide alternative instruction for students required to pass the CUNY Writing Assessment Test (WAT) as a graduation requirement.
1994. The Center provides dedicated classroom tutoring to Immersion Program classes in Developmental Reading and Writing courses in the extended semester (and still provides in-class service to the program for students in Freshman Composition).
1995. The Center merges with the Reading Resource Center, a program previously housed within the English Department, and is renamed the Reading/Writing Center.
1996. The Center publishes a website providing information and web-based resources for students, faculty, and staff at the college.
1999. CUNY discontinues Developmental Reading and Writing programs at the 4-year colleges, including Hunter, effecting a change in the student body and in the range (but not in the number) of students who use the Center.
2000. The University institutes the CUNY Proficiency Exam (CPE), a standardized reading, writing, and critical thinking exam for all undergraduates. Students must take the CPE before junior year and must pass it to graduate from any of the community or 4-year colleges. Designated as a test preparation site, the Center develops a workshop series on the CPE and creates a 12-week tutorial curriculum on the exam for high-risk students. The Director of the Center is named the college’s CPE Liaison to CUNY, and the Center’s Coordinator consults for the University Office of Assessment with the testing company (ACT) that develops and scores the test items.
2000. CUNY mandates that a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program be developed on every campus. The Coordinator of the Center is named a Co-coordinator of Hunter College’s WAC Program, which is housed in the Reading/Writing Center.
2004. In honor of a grant received from Anna Cohen Rockowitz, the Writing Center is renamed the Dr. Murray and Anna C. Rockowitz Writing Center (RWC).
2007. The RWC inaugurates a satellite center at the Hunter College School of Social Work (SSW). The SSW Writing Center is staffed by SSW students, overseen and trained by RWC staff, and will (2008) initiate an E-tutoring service for students at the school.
2010. After ten years of administration, the University discontinues the CUNY Proficiency Exam. The Center refocuses its services on the college’s developing General Education Requirement, offering Early Intervention programs to required 100-level courses in the Departments of English, History, and Political Science.
2012. Hunter College announces that the RWC will be relocated to the Leon and Toby Cooperman Library as part of the Klara and Larry Silverstein Student Success Center.
2017. The RWC opens on the 7th floor of the library in the Klara and Larry Silverstein Student Success Center.