Caps placed on registration for some English classes were completely lifted in recent weeks, but criticism of an introductory writing course, which multiple sources within the English Department said led to the caps in the first place, is still heavy.

Teaching assistants were pulled away from the English classes to teach the course, WRIT 111, Gayle Whittier, an English professor, told Pipe Dream. This created the caps and stifled the TAs’ individuality because of WRIT 111’s rigid curriculum.

Director of composition Kelly Kinney, the architect of the WRIT 111 course said it is not restrictive to TAs because of a uniform curriculum. Currently, first-year English department TAs take a writing course taught by Kinney that instructs them how to teach WRIT 111, which they do in their second and third years. Afterward, in their fourth year, graduate students design their own 200-level course — an offering that Kinney said wasn’t previously available.

For undergraduates, the class is intended to improve writing skills, making them stronger writers, speakers and thinkers, according to the course syllabus.

According to Kinney, before she joined the BU faculty, few TAs had taken writing courses, and it was common for a TA to be assigned to a composition course without training. Prior to her arrival, TAs would teach ENG 115 courses based on their own studies.

“I understand what it must be like for a grad student to have a level of autonomy taken away from them,” Kinney said, regarding TAs teaching WRIT 111 instead of literature courses. “Last year one of the compromises made to help the TAs was to lower the number of students in their classes.”

According to multiple sources, though, the problem isn’t restricted to how freely instructors can design courses.

“One of the saddest things about teaching WRIT 111 has been overhearing students in my section, and in others, comment that after having taken this class they will never again take an English class as long as they’re in college,” a source said. “And the reason that’s so sad is because WRIT 111 is not an English class, but shows the confusion the people have between the two. That, if anything, is where WRIT 111 does negatively affect the English department.”

Kinney said 15 of the approximately 18 TAs who taught this class this year spoke positively about the experience at the SUNY Conference of Writing held at SUNY University at Buffalo, and at another conference in San Francisco.

The reality of that level of support is contested, however.

“It simply isn’t true that many people are as enthusiastic about the program as Dr. Kinney seems to imply,” said a source.

Others are surprised at the way the course is being regarded.

“It is shocking to think about how [WRIT 111] is being perceived here,” Katie Navickas, a first year graduate student who will be teaching the course next year. “We are one of the only universities that don’t have this composition course. We are behind if anything, since we are just implementing it here.”

“As English majors we should be concerned with how the students are writing,” Navickas added. “The professors who are complaining about WRIT 111 are also probably complaining about how bad their students are writing. This is a solution.”