Stop WPA Intellectual Property Fraud at San Diego State University

We generally agree intellectual property should be owned by the person who created it. We also agree that knowledge is meant to be shared, especially at the university level where it should be accessible and open to everyone, not withheld, and definitely not discarded.

San Diego State University (SDSU) discards its students WPA writings. The WPA is the Writing Placement Assessment at San Diego State University and is required of all students to take in order to graduate from the university. It requires students to evaluate the uses of rhetoric in typically newspaper articles and write a critical evaluation of how it's used.

I scored a 10 on my WPA and was tutoring at Southwestern College in Chula Vista at the time, a local college 30 minutes away from SDSU. I was tutoring a class of students under the Power Study Program, a program dedicated to bringing tutors inside the classroom to understand students' learning needs beyond the hour or so they get from their teacher.

I went to SDSU to see if I could get my writing back from the school's testing services office. I did so in order to have a reference for the students who I was going to tutor specifically on the WPA. I was surprised to learn testing services would not give me the writing I'd conducted for the exam, but would instead give me a review session.

I had not signed any paperwork with any legalese or policy stating I could not take back or keep my WPA writing after the scores were in for the exam. So I scheduled an appointment and had a testing services employee review my test with me. I could take no pictures or notes of my written material despite having written it myself.

I told her I was tutoring at Southwestern College and wanted to use my WPA writing as a sample piece for when I tutored. She said I could look into setting something up with the university and have them come down to Southwestern to give students a WPA session. I said if I were to consider it, I would have to ask my bosses first.

Keep in mind I was not at SDSU on any kind of official business in any such capacity. I was simply going out of my way to be a good tutor so I could help my tutees succeed. This was obviously a personal visit and I was trying to collect my personal writing, and I had specified I would have to ask if I was interested.

A week later my bosses call me into their office while I was tutoring. They sat me down and vaguely told me SDSU contacted them regarding coming to Southwestern for a WPA seminar and that I had gone there to talk to them about it.

I was stunned and one of my bosses berated me enough I never said anything, until now. They indicated this was a significant professional error when it shouldn't have been an issue to begin with. I was overwhelmed and oppressed by the very institution that I was going to transfer into. I never explained to my bosses what had really happened because I was too scared and feared making the situation worse for myself.

But this is a larger problem than me, and it extends way beyond the WPA. There are millions of students being undercut by increasingly business-modeled universities that prize systematic testing to matriculate students. This is evident due to their practice of shredding students' hard efforts and the fault is with administration. Talk to most professors in any unofficial capacity and you'll find they hate adminstrators too, but they won't protest because they need their jobs. 

If you look through recent news, you'll find its happening not just at San Diego State Univeristy. Specifically at La Jolla's USC also located in San Diego, admissions administrators were arrested for bribery to guarantee her son's acceptance into the college. You can access the news article here: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/2-San-Diegans-Arrested-in-College-Admission-Bribery-Scandal-507071771.html

Knowing students are being undercut, ASK YOURSELF:

Should an institution dedicated to academics shred and discard writings students work so hard on?

Should your own intellectual property be available, even if archived?

How much do you value the things that come from your mind, your intellectual property?

And this is just the minimum. Any fight no matter how small is a victory, even if not won. It's adminstrators who shut me out: people with no vested interest in education. So if we can't rely on teacher, we must go to you. Petitions like this put people on alert with your help. SDSU is not upholding what a university's purpose is for. There's no excuse to shred the hard work of students.

WHAT CAN I DO?

Sign this petition and protest the WPA with your entire testing group. Go to the student council and tell them about this petition. Write letters to the university. Claim fraud on their false dedication to education and learning. After all, how are we supposed to promote it if we shred it?

I apologize that I am unwilling to disclose my identity. I fear my future professional opportunities being negatively affected if I were to disclose my name. If we garner the amount of support needed, I will reveal who I am.

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