ABSTRACT
When a writing center achieves financial stability and administrative support, the question is what comes next? This chapter focuses on moving away from a position of justifying writing center value and shifting to a position of reflection and innovation. In this chapter, writing center administrators (WCAs) are encouraged to complicate what it means to be part of an institution while still maintaining control over core values. Controlling writing center narratives allows for the control of expectations. The narrative of a writing center is the compilation of the work and experiences created within its space. The author claims that weaving the complexity of writing center work into the narratives will more accurately represent writing center work. By exploring authority, mapping previous trajectories, and sketching possible directions to take a center, writing center administrators can use their stability to embrace and reflect on the complexities of writing center work. Through reflections and analysis of the author’s experiences as the director of a writing center, readers are encouraged to examine their own positions and centers, and to look toward a future that moves beyond simply justifying an existence.
