Theorizing the WEC Model with the Whole Systems Approach to WAC Program Sustainability

Abstract

When administration of WAC programs is discussed in WAC literature, program description and advice are typically emphasized rather than building a theory of administering and building WAC programs. Such a framework with roots in multiple disciplines that overlap enables WAC administrators and oversight committees to examine WAC programs systematically, even when they have developed organically over time. This chapter highlights ways that a WEC model can address threats to WAC programs’ sustainability, i.e., the complexities of higher education programs as they relate to administrative structures and leadership. The story of developing the WEC component of FAU’s twelveyear old WAC program is one of slow development, broad stakeholder participation, manageable growth, and limited scope. But it is also the story of an institution working through a systematic process of program building that is grounded in what Cox et al. (2018) call the whole systems approach to WAC program sustainability. This chapter traces FAU’s process as the first WAC program in the country to implement sustainability indicators as the basis for its formative self-assessment to track all facets of its WAC program. It also demonstrates how other such programs can draw on the whole systems approach for WEC program implementation.