Mina P. Shaughnessy - Director of Instructional Resource Center

Director of Instructional Resource Center

In 1974, she was overlooked for a promotion as Dean of the Basic Education Program at City College mainly because she largely attributed the need for remediation and reform to faults of the educational system and not the students (151). Starting in 1975, she was appointed director of the Instructional Resource Center (IRC) and associate dean of City University of New York. The IRC collected and disseminated the research on basic education classes and the resources being used by the various CUNY divisions for these classes. The IRC also provided inservice training for writing teachers and created curriculum materials and placement tests. In 1975, Shaughnessy became one of the founding editors of the Journal of Basic Writing (JBW), which supported multidisciplinary research on the study and teaching of underprepared writers. JBW quickly became an important forum for basic writing scholars and continues to do so today.

In 1976, CUNY experienced severe budget cuts which caused them to let go of most of the staff that Shaughnessy had so worked so closely and persistently with. These budget cuts also eliminated free tuition and raised the admissions standards, which changed the dynamics of those admitted to City College back to more traditional students. In March of this same year she agreed to publish her finished book Errors and Expectations with Oxford University Press. Errors and Expectations is the synthesis of the information she gleaned by carefully reading and studying 4,000 placement exams. She discovered in them logical patterns for the errors commonly made by basic writers and gave ideas for the concepts that need to be taught to improve their writing.

In March 1977, two months after the release of Errors and Expectations, Shaughnessy was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Throughout her illness, during times when she was feeling better, she continued to plan teacher development courses, give lectures, and make plans for another book. Her fame continued to grow as Errors and Expectations became a very popular resource for composition teachers and programs. The cancer spread to her lungs and continued to other places in her body. Her friends remained with her and gave her what support they could during her illness. She died at home on November 16, 1978 at fifty-four years of age.