Good News for Students Taking ENG 098
By Josilyn Straka & Isabelle Mascary | Assistant Editors
Students needing to retake the ENG 098 course are now able to do so without the use of their financial aid and instead have the fee waived through the new David Wyman ENG 098 Course Repeat Policy. The policy is named after the late professor David Wyman who started this course retake idea back in 2017 as he was an advocate for the policy and worked hard to pass it, along with the English Department.
As quoted from the course catalog, “Fundamentals of Writing is designed to help the basic writer recognize proper usage of grammar and mechanics. Students will be introduced to the writing process and will produce at least five essays. Other forms of writing included are journaling, free-writes, and active learning exercises emphasizing student success skills. A grade of “C” or higher is required for advancement to the next course.”
There are a variety of reasons a student would be in this developmental class. To name a few would be that a student has been out of school for a while and needs a refresher, a student that speaks a second language, or a student that needs more time to reach their goals.
According to Zach Buscher, “students are placed in this course because of Accuplacer scores, but now it has more to do with self-placement and/or, or as in the case of Dual Enrollment students, or high school GPA.”
Buscher also said, “we believe ENG 098 gives students the tools they need to succeed not just in ENG 101 and ENG 102 but all of their classes going forward. This course should improve retention and foster stronger outcomes overall.”
While speaking with Laurie Occhipinti, Dean, School of Liberal Arts, Education, Humanities, and Communications at MWCC, she mentioned during a policy committee meeting recently, that a faculty member suggested that the policy be named in honor of Wyman since he worked so hard to get the policy to where it is. She said, “he (Wyman) would be happy knowing his name is on something that is going to make a positive impact.”
With a lot of experimenting, hard work, and dedication, Occhipinti said now that the policy is formalized as of October, it will be listed in the MWCC course catalog Fall 2023.
In the past, she had to email professors to keep them informed regarding the policy, then they may pass this information along to the students who would benefit from it. Now students can learn about this policy and its information in the course catalog.
The tuition fee is waived to retake this course, a great benefit so the student does not have to use their financial aid. There is still an institutional cost however, and that comes from the President of MWCC’s budget and that then assumes the cost. Professor Michelle Valois shared that Wyman was a fair-minded person. He hated big corporations, and greedy capitalists.” She added, “it is a beautiful thing that the policy is going to be named after him.”
Wyman was an English professor at Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) before his passing earlier this year. He was also a poet, he published two anthologies, Proletariat Sunrise, including poems with the concern of global warming and apocalyptic issues and Violet Ideologies has a theme of capitalism.
Buscher said, “Wyman taught ENG 098 and was an active participant in our Developmental Education Working Group. He was a big believer in giving the students the time they need to grow rather than pushing them towards completing courses at a faster rate without getting what they actually needed from the experience.”
Wyman left almost two decades of memories and impacted MWCC. Wyman’s advice for beginner writers and poets was “to read a lot”, and importantly, “start writing, keep going, and do not give up.”
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