ABSTRACT
With some notable exceptions, most debates on whether to mainstream basic writing students tend to focus primarily on how effectively the basic writing (BW) program prepares students to succeed in the regular college-level composition course (or courses), and secondarily on how effectively the program prepares students to enter what some scholars have designated as the academic discourse community (Bartholomae “Inventing”; Bizzell). Although these debates are certainly necessary and motivated by the good intention of determining what curriculum might be best for our basic writing students, they also remain singularly focused on the BW course and ignore other factors on campus that might affect student retention and success. These factors include, among others, required general education courses besides composition, the quality of student services, and the overall campus climate. The best basic writing program in the world may still not help students succeed academically and persist to graduation if these same students are failing other courses; receiving inadequate support services in such areas as financial aid, academic advising, tutoring, and personal counseling; and feeling unwanted on campus, whether because of race, class, age, a disability, or simply because BW students are labeled, pejoratively, as “remedial.”1
