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Brief History of CRLA
adapted by Karen Agee from Karen G. Smith’s
more thorough chronology & additions by CRLA members
The College Reading and Learning Association
was born in the 1960's, when colleges and universities were struggling
with equal access, open doors, and the realization that the institution
had a responsibility beyond imparting facts. This new responsibility
included providing assistance so that capable students who had
been admitted to college could actually reach their goals.
Our founders, who were reading specialists
from colleges in the western part of the United States, felt the
need for an organization that would focus on the needs of reading
specialists, reading centers, and reading programs for college
students. These programs, which had been operating in a few colleges
and universities for many years, were now developing in many more
institutions of higher learning as part of the "new"
services initiated to serve this population in a new era of higher
education. To meet this need, our founders created the Western
College Reading Association. An expanded focus on learning assistance,
developmental math and writing, and new-student programs soon
led to a change in name: Western College Reading and Learning
Association. Membership across the United States and Canada and
overseas is acknowledged in the current name: College Reading
and Learning Association. CRLA is a group of student-oriented
professionals active in the fields of reading, learning assistance,
developmental education, and tutorial services at the college/adult
level.
1960's
The 1960's. Gene Kerstiens describes the beginning: "At one-thirty
A.M., the Saturday before Thanksgiving, 1966, in room 202 of the
then Holiday Inn, San Bernardino, California, about 20 of those
remaining at a five-and-one-half-hour meeting signed the blood
oath, a document that has not survived. At the end of this assembly,
the first president was appointed by himself (not elected) with
the tacit approval of the group. It may not have been an auspicious
inception, but it was colorful and collegially contentious."
(Email message to LRNASST 7/30/98)
The active and dedicated group accomplished much in its first
three years. At an early organizational meeting at the College
of the Desert in March 1967, the decision was made to set annual
dues at $5.00, and during an Executive Board meeting just three
months later a quarterly newsletter was born. Then in 1968, WCRA
established a placement clearinghouse that listed positions for
reading teachers. At this time, WCRA also determined that guidelines
for planning future conferences would be established. In 1969,
the treasurer was bonded, associate memberships were offered to
administrators and librarians, and state directors – a new
position – were appointed by the president. Finally, a directory
project was initiated to identify college reading teachers, their
backgrounds, and their job descriptions to determine a potential
standard for the field.
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1970's
The 1970's. WCRA developed greatly in the 1970's, a period of
enormous change in the mission and practice of colleges and universities.
Affirmative action, equal rights, and the "new student"
rallied professionals in our field, and – in response to
these new imperatives – learning centers, reading programs,
and developmental studies blossomed across the country.
The young WCRA organization incorporated
in 1972 and filed its constitution and bylaws with the Corporation
Commission of New Mexico. In 1975 the Executive Board established
as WCRA’s unofficial motto, "the Blue Chip organization
for college reading professionals."
The president-elect was made conference
program chair, and on-site chairs handled local site arrangements.
Student memberships were initiated at half the price of regular
membership ($2.50). Conference proceedings were edited by Frank
Christ and published, with the first issue featuring papers from
the first three conferences. The position of archivist was established
in 1976, and a scholarship fund of $1,000 was set up in 1977 to
award a yearly scholarship to a graduate student pursuing a degree
relevant to the interests of members of WCRA. In 1979 the Board
created an annual service award, too.
In 1977 a formal vote determined that all
WCRA conferences would be held in the western region of the United
States, but eventually the W in the name was expanded to mean
the Western Hemisphere, and Canadians were formally invited into
the organization. WCRA voted in 1978 to hold no conference in
a state where the ERA had not been ratified, and although that
decision eventually became moot, some tentative conference proposals
were thwarted for a few years. Nevertheless, conferences were
stimulating, collegial, and energizing.
Liaisons with other professional organizations
were formally introduced in 1977, and the dues took a big leap
to $15 in 1978, but in 1979 the organization suffered a great
financial strain following the conference in Hawaii. After many
years of deliberation and discussion, the membership finally voted
to expand its name to Western College Reading and Learning Association
to welcome the many professionals in writing, learning assistance,
tutorial programs, mathematics, developmental studies, counseling,
and other fields, all of whom were finding our conferences beneficial
to their professional development.
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1980's
The 1980's. During the 1980's, WCRLA refined its services, including
bigger and more diverse conferences, a juried journal, the establishment
of Special Interest Groups, and elections by mail ballot. In order
to facilitate management, the offices of treasurer and secretary
became two-year positions, to be elected on alternate years. A
formal relationship was established with the young sister organization
of NARDSPE, which would later come to be called NADE. A new service,
developed over several years, became the well-recognized International
Tutor Certification Program, recently retitled International Tutor
Program Certification (ITPC).
The conference changed, too. Friday Night Literary Society was
inaugurated, a renaming of the traditional hospitality room. A
wedding ring was found in the bedroom of the hospitality suite
at the San Diego conference, and to this day no one has claimed
it! New conference features included dinner-on-the-town night,
newcomers' welcome sessions, and the first designated computer
room.
At long last, the organization's name was changed in 1989 to
CRLA. Although there was sentimental angst about dropping "Western"
from the name, the membership finally recognized the increasing
number of members from the Midwest and the East who joined the
conference and the organization each year.
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1990's
The 1990's. The organization truly came
into its own in the ’90’s, creating an election process
that allows new officers, especially the president-elect, adequate
time to prepare for new duties; a new position of membership chair
on the Board; contracts with commercial mailing services; more
scholarships and awards; a strategic plan; removal of the conference
from spring to fall; an International Symposium on Teaching and
Learning; and creation of a Professional Association Liaison Committee.
In addition, a Communications Task Force identified new means
for the elected officers to communicate with the general membership;
a Past Officers Council was created; the Tutor Certification Board
developed a new process for training and certifying peer mentors.
In addition, the Board voted to raise CRLA's dues from $25 to
$40, obviously still the best bargain in professional development
in the ’90’s.
The semiannual Journal of College Reading and Learning continued
to improve as more professionals submitted quality research and
descriptive articles. The Newsletter was eagerly read by all members
for news of the organization and our colleagues. Annual conferences
continued to attract the best of our peers as presenters and speakers.
The biannual Journal of College Reading
and Learning continues to improve as more professionals submit
quality research and descriptive articles. The quarterly Newsletter
is eagerly read by all members as we seek to keep abreast of the
organization and news of our colleagues. The conferences continue
to attract the best of our peers as presenters and speakers.
Becky Johnen has a disturbing memory, however,
of the period when she was planning the 25th Annual Conference.
As she tells the story, "Alex Haley had agreed to keynote
the conference, presenting on the theme of 'Celebrating the Diversity
in Teaching and Learning.' Two months before the conference, he
passed away. The day his death was announced, my phone rang off
the hook with people all over the country expressing their condolences
to me. I felt as if Haley was a part of my family, and in a way
he was -- a part of my CRLA family."
Those who organize and plan and work many
long hours to arrange for and put on a conference can never be
appreciated enough by the rest of us. Pat Jonason, who was the
Conference Manager in 1993 for the Overland Park, Kansas conference,
writes of the experience quite eloquently. "What does it
mean to be the 'site chair' of a national conference...? The analogy
that comes to mind is that of an amorphous mound of wet clay waiting
on the potters wheel to be formed into one of those hardened,
imperfect pieces that my daughter used to tote home from her ceramics
class. When I said 'yes' to submitting a proposal to host the
national conference, I had no idea what shapes that answer would
mold me into. A blur of images comes to mind as I think back,
occasionally one becomes clear, followed by more blurring. Clear
images include...
Karen Lim, too, remembers some unique events
surrounding the San Diego conference, where she was Conference
Manager. "We had an earthquake the day before the pre-conference
institute that really shook up some of us, especially Tom Gier
and Karan Hancock. We witnessed a birth of a baby oryx during
our San Diego Zoo bus tour during twilight. Mexican presidential
candidate, Colossio, was assassinated in Tijuana the night before
our scheduled Tijuana Excursion Trio. And, on the last day of
the conference, a woman sprained her ankle getting off the bus
on a Greyline tour of the city." But, most of us who were
there in San Diego remember a super conference.
In 1995, CRLA comes to Tempe, AZ, a suburb
of Phoenix. Rick Sheets had helped host 10 years of the AZ Developmental
Education Day with Maricopa Community Colleges and the state/regional
chapters of NADE & CRLA. As CRLA on-site chair, he found the
experience to be truly a invigorating, taxing, and very rewarding
learning experience. It was the first CRLA conference to have
a web page which is still active at "Time for Transformations"
at http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/events/crla/index.html.
It was Valerie Smith-Stevens first CRLA national conference.
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2000's
The 2000’s. CRLA continues to mature
in the new millennium. Despite funding cuts and campus travel
restrictions, attendance at CRLA conferences has not declined.
The Call to Conference arrives in members’ electronic mailboxes.
The Association continues to meet professional development needs
of its members by means of conferences and the Journal of College
Reading and Learning and also through the now-electronic (and
even timelier) NewsNotes newsletter and an expanding website.
The Board and membership have adopted a
Position Statement on the Rights of Adult Readers and Learners
and also a statement of Guidelines for Professional Ethics. The
number of scholarship awards has been increased, and projects
initiated by Special Interest Groups and state/region/chapter
groups are generously funded. A joint Peer Tutoring SIG/regional
conference was held in Colorado. CRLA tutor program certification
and a revised edition of the Tutor Training Handbook are sought
by more and more programs, which now can issue ITPC pins to trained
tutors.
Collaborations with the Council of Learning
Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA),
formerly known as American Council of Developmental Education
Associations (ACDEA), continue to develop, and CRLA continues
to nominate worthy CLADEA Fellows. In addition, CRLA celebrated
its 40th anniversary in Portland and at the next conference in
Cleveland is asking all of us to celebrate the day-to-day accomplishments
we achieve in working to help students meet with success!
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