The De-chartering of CCCC

I'm scouring MLA, NeMLA, and UPenn for calls for papers (CFPs) in which my research fits and belongs. Nothing seems quite right. And even if one per conference did, the lack of other panels related to my work that usually inspire invigorated teaching methods and new research makes me hesitant to to go. Other related conferences like IWAC and RSA only happen every other year instead of annually. In all this, I have many questions dancing around in my head. Where do I belong? Where can I connect with other peers and scholars I look up to? When will I next see friends that I normally reunite with at CCCC?

What is/was CCCC?

CCCC stands for Conference on College Composition & Communication. It's website boasted that it has been the largest professional organization dedicated to researching and teaching college composition since 1949. My first CCCC was supposed to be in 2020, which was canceled due to Covid-19. I presented at CCCC in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 on the composition student research process, emotions and AI-use in email-writing, dis/ability studies and graduate student labor issues. It became the event of the year I look forward to most during graduate school. I felt welcomed and appreciated as a novice in the field and graduate student. I found community in the disability studies standing group. I met friends, colleagues, co-panelists, and researchers I look up to. I volunteered free labor as a stage 1 proposal reviewer. I even won a travel award for CCCC in 2025. It was my place, and I encouraged other graduate students in my department to try and make it theirs, too.

This week has been a rollercoaster for me emotionally. On Thursday, I woke up to the news on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Facebook that CCCC was at risk of being discontinued by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), the home organization for k-college English teachers in general (though it feels less-focused on college-level composition than CCCC) and CCCC. When attending CCCC, part of the fee includes membership for NCTE and a subscription to the CCC journal. This news was not on any of NCTE or CCCC websites or social media accounts. I was seeing this from scholars in the field who I followed on LinkedIn and random anonymous scholars on the professors subreddit. I wanted to know more information, but could only find personal information rather than open, professional communication from the organizations. Some said it was too late. One piece of news said CCCC was at risk and urged us to reach out to members of the NCTE executive committee with pleas to save CCCC. I did. On Friday, the executive committee voted to de-charter CCCC, announcing the official information in an email that missed the tone completely. I've felt stuck in a weird space of loss ever since.

the email from NCTE announcing CCCC's de-chartering

What happened?

This information was out for just over 24 hours, and it was out because of CCCC leadership that spoke up, not NCTE, the organization in which leadership was putting CCCC's existence into a vote. Even with this information out, it is the middle of summer, when many college writing instructors are on vacation or not paid to check their professional emails or go to work. There was no formal announcement beforehand.

Things I found out through non-official channels this week:

• CCCC was at risk of dissolving (Thursday)

• NCTE customer service representatives were not allowed to comment on the issue and were not able to record any comments on the issue (Thursday)

• CCCC leadership was not given a fair amount of time to create a budget that would prove CCCC's sustainability to NCTE executives (Thursday)

• the executive director of NCTE held leadership in CCCC, but had not attended CCCC in at least 2 years (Thursday)

• some reasons given for dissolving CCCC included a "culture that jeopardized NCTE's non-profit status" and unsustainable costs of trying to make CCCC more accessible for members with disabilities (Thursday)

• NCTE executive committee voted to de-charter CCCC (Friday)

This reminds me of when a former workplace unfairly punished me and did not grant me access to a labor union representative when I asked for one (which is against the rules). I'd describe the process as quick and in the shadows, hidden from view of other powerful stakeholders. In my experience, processes that happen quickly in the shadows are not good/equitable/fair processes; the processes that happen like this are shameful, hidden because the decision-makers know what they're doing isn't right and they would face mass backlash because of it. I wrote a formal complaint against my workplace admin then, and I wrote a plea and statement of disappointment now.

The email above was an example of tone-deaf leadership. They wrote about ending CCCC sadly and unfortunately, then in the next paragraph marked this time as "exciting" because we could be grouped into the NCTE conference instead, which does not have the same membership or goals as college instructors, especially at-risk ones like me who are graduate assistants and have disabilities. The claim that accessibility is what caused the de-chartering also saddened me, as I have seen other smaller conferences be more accessible and blaming the disabled community for its de-chartering aims to pit us against each other instead of uniting us. We got no information about the upcoming 2027 conference or publications like CCC. We are in procedural purgatory.

What next?

I am planning to request a membership fee refund for NCTE as the only reason I joined was for CCCC events, committees, and group activities. I am looking for places where my previously submitted proposals for CCCC can fit, where I can go and hopefully feel a portion of the community I felt at CCCC. While some people are suggesting not leaving so soon, I feel their specific moves against disabled scholars is atrocious and should not be justified with "giving them a chance" to move forward. It is sad, but I am not without voice this time, like I was largely at my workplace a decade ago.

All this comes while I am finishing revisions for my dissertation and articles I plan to submit for publication. It is heavy, and I am tired. I hope for better things.

#IDMD #IDisappointMyDad #CCCC #CCC #NCTE #dechartered #Englishteachers #writing #composition #rhetoric #academicconferences