Active Students (as of Fall 2025)*
Undergrad majors: 90
Undergrad minors: 57
Undergrad certificates: 43
Graduate students: 37
2025-26 Student Credit Hours: 27,296
*All active students with declared CAH programs are included in the enrollment counts.
The faculty members of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric kicked off the Fall 2025 semester by collaborating to develop a new strategic plan in alignment with college and university goals and commitments. Together we identified four key values that guide our collective work: engagement, connection, empowerment, and advancement. Below we spotlight the ways in which these commitments steer our efforts and shape our impact in our classes and across and beyond the UCF campus.
Engagement
In the fall of 2025, the department’s Undergraduate Program Curriculum Committee, a group of 20+ faculty led by Director of Undergraduate Programs, Associate Professor Stephanie Wheeler, and supported by program advisors Emily Proulx and Jen Short, took on the challenge of revamping the curriculum of our major with an eye toward student success. Our new model makes our program even more accessible for students and more focused on students’ preparation for their lives as citizens and professionals after college. The program kept up its commitment to keeping in touch with and making connections with alumni who are making a difference in the world.
The First-Year Composition program, led by Director, Associate Professor Shane Wood, and Assistant Director, Associate Instructor Nikolas Gardiakos, continues to serve as a national leader in Artificial Intelligence and composition. After a full year of collaboration involving more than 20 members of the composition committee, they released a foundational document, Principles for GenAI Use in First-Year Composition – Writing and Rhetoric. This pioneering effort was designed to drive a values-based approach to AI. The principles are commanding national and international attention as a cutting-edge model of collaboration and student-centered policy development. Several members of the team who developed these principles presented at the Faculty Summer Institute in May 2026. In June they presented at the Teaching and Learning with AI conference, where they shared their expertise and experience with an enthusiastic international audience. The team has a forthcoming article in the WPA: Writing Program Administration Journal on the principles as well.
The First-Year Composition program was also awarded the AIM High Impact Legacy Award for significant, sustained impact on student success using open access course materials. Between spring 2023 and fall 2025, 17,700 students in our classes benefited from $2.6 million in cumulative textbook cost savings, making their college experiences more accessible and affordable.
The Department of Writing and Rhetoric engaged the Orlando community through participation in UCF Celebrates the Arts 2026. Senior Lecturer Nathan Holic led a team of six students from his spring 2025 Graphic Medicine course in an engaging panel presentation that highlighted what they learned in this unique course and, in some cases, how it changed their lives.
Connection
Our partnership efforts across and beyond UCF were a critical aspect of this successful year.
In the fall of 2026, the Department of Writing and Rhetoric will launch a pilot Writing in the Disciplines program. Working in close collaboration with colleagues from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Biomedical Sciences, a team of ten DWR faculty members will develop and teach writing courses tailored to the specific needs and interests of students in these areas. This collaboration will support interdisciplinary efforts in teaching and will yield important scholarly and pedagogical insights for leaders in each of the areas involved.
One of our department’s best means of making internal and external connections is the Center for Writing Excellence, which encompasses the faculty-facing Writing Across the Curriculum program and the student-facing University Writing Center. Together these units worked with partners including the College of Graduate Studies, a variety of student success programs, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and others to shape the writing culture on our campus. Read more about their achievements here.
Our department also works closely with external partners. For more than 30 years, writing and rhetoric faculty members have led the UCF Advanced Placement Summer Institute, which provides timely training for high school teachers. In the summer of 2025, we hosted 439 teachers in 26 disciplines for this online enrichment opportunity that includes synchronous activities and is led by highly trained certified experts. Through this partnership with College Board, we shape the learning experiences of countless students and educators across (and in some cases beyond) the U.S. In summer 2026 our participation will exceed 500 in classes ranging from Physics and Calculus to Music Theory and French.
Empowerment
Graduate students from the M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition made 14 scholarly presentations at national and international conferences during the 2025-26 academic year. Xaria Arthur and Adonis Rogers each secured individual program sessions at the flagship conference in our field, Conference on College Composition and Communication, which was held in March in Cleveland, Ohio. Their sessions were well attended and generated important conversations among attendees.
The Department of Writing and Rhetoric is committed to offering students in our major, minor, and certificate courses the preparation they need to succeed in their future careers. One hundred percent of students in our major engaged in high impact practices (HIPs) in their 2025-26 courses. These elements include experience-based learning such as service-learning and internships, as well as study abroad and undergraduate research. In May of this year, five DWR faculty members (Megan Lambert, Emily Proulx, Adele Richardson, Jennifer Short, and Stephanie Wheeler) participated in the Faculty Summer Institute Classroom to Careers track. They developed plans to infuse three upper-division courses with elements required to secure the Career Foundations course designation.
Writing and Rhetoric majors completed a wide array of internships during the 2025-26 academic year. They worked in roles such as copy writer, digital content developer, editor, marketing assistant, podcast assistant producer, project manager, social media liaison, video editor, and writing coach at local nonprofit organizations and corporations as well as across the UCF campus. One student who graduated in May of 2025 went on to secure a permanent job working in the office of a state senator.
The First-Year Composition program received a HIP-Research Intensive course designation for ENC 1102, advancing the university’s mission to have 100% of undergraduate students graduate with at least one HIP course on their transcripts.
Advancement
A team of ten faculty members from the First-Year Composition program also presented their work at the 2026 Conference on College Composition and Communication in Cleveland. Their session, which featured the voices of Pamela Baker, Joel Bergholtz, Meeghan Faulconer, Nikolas Gardiakos, Vee Kennedy, Natalie Madruga, Lissa Pompos Mansfield, Emily Proulx, Kenneth Tanemura, and Shane Wood, highlighted the collaborative nature of our composition program and the ways in which our writing program’s learning outcomes support and sustain student success.
The work of the broader composition program was recognized in UCF’s announcement of our new status as a preeminent university in the state of Florida.
The First-Year Composition program, University Writing Center, and several DWR faculty members played critical roles in the UCF implementation of TEACH ME, a $7.6 million multi-campus grant-funded project through the U.S. Department of Education National Institute for Student Success. In connection with that effort, the UWC supported 85 online writing groups by providing support for students taking the First-Year Composition courses that were part of the project. Several professors, including Matthew Bryan, Amy Cicchino, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, and Shane Wood, played key roles in this program’s development and implementation. The program, which explores the use of chatbots in FYC courses, promises to yield important practical and theoretical results.
Faculty members and students in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric had a successful research year. We’re especially proud of the ways in which our team shapes important academic conversations through the work of faculty members who work as editors of journals. In 2025-26 Assistant Professor Kara Taczak continued her work as co-editor of College Composition and Communication, a flagship journal in our field. Professor Kevin Roozen and his co-editors founded Literate Activity: Perspectives on Textual Practices in the World in Fall 2025. Associate Professor Amy Cicchino assumed the role of editor-in-chief of Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education that semester as well. These colleagues are in this important moment, and their connections create valuable opportunities for students and faculty members in our department and college.
A Fond Farewell
At the end of this summer, Professor Martha Brenckle will retire after 28 years of service. Martha joined the UCF English Department in 1998 and was one of the founding faculty members in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric in 2010. She has held critical roles at the university, including leading assessment of the General Education Program (GEP) for many years and directing a five-year campuswide program to promote information fluency among students. She has been an active leader in our discipline and has published extensively in our field. Beyond this, she is a prolific and award-winning poet, novelist, and film and short story writer. She has always been willing to step up and take on work in the department and college and is truly an anchor on our squad.
It’s hard to imagine DWR without Martha, but we all wish her the very best with her new adventures.
A Fun Final Note
The Department of Writing and Rhetoric was excited last fall when Lecturer Rachel Marks was recognized by UCF Athletics as the Academic Success Partner of the Game in recognition of her efforts to support student athletes. Her commitment captures the spirit of our department, which is committed to helping students, supporting the university, and enjoying the fun along the way.
