The Stone Writing Center celebrated 50 years of literary education with an anniversary celebration at White Library on April 15. Faculty, staff and students gathered to honor the legacy of the one-of-a-kind learning environment. The SWC has been located in White Library since 2012 and has clocked more than 98,000 30-minute tutoring sessions in the last ten years of operation.
The Stone Writing Center opened in 1976 as the English Learning Center, spearheaded by and eventually re-named after the late Dr. Virgina Stone. Stone taught English at Del Mar College from 1948 to 1985, while also serving as English department chair, dean and special/social assistant to the president throughout her career.
“The concept of a writing center began in one room of the English Building. Del Mar College provided a place and the staff for students to get one-on-one instruction, supplemental to the classroom, in English skills. For the remainder of the 1970s, development of self-paced, diagnostic, and tutorial instruction was initiated in the ELC,” Assistant Instructor Margot Sorrell said.
The center has moved plenty of times throughout its 50-year span. Del Mar added additional resources and room as time went on, expanding in the ‘80s due to the increased demand to the English Annex Building, the location of the original lab.
The main goal when it had moved was to hire professional tutors, and get computers for the students to use, to ease all aspects of the writing process. The original building was torn down in 2017.
“Over the past 50 years, the SWC has seen many changes, including location, faculty and staff, and technological innovations. However, the SWC has never wavered from its original mission: to help students become better writers and lifelong learners. To honor Dr. Stone’s legacy, we want students to know this is where they come for help with their writing,” said Sorell.
In 2004 the Board of Regents voted to rename the English Learning Center in honor of Stone as a formal recognition of the groundwork she laid decades earlier.
Stone’s family sent good wishes to the center on its anniversary in a statement.
“So many years ago, our mother, Dr. Virginia Stone, saw a need for a way to improve writing skills and freshman English students. And after two years of laying groundwork, she planned a lab class as an adjunct for the freshman remedial English classes, as John DeSant, which opened in a small classroom across from the office of the old English building. It had equipment that is entirely outdated today, but was rather cutting-edge in 1976. Thanks to her vision, the center has continued to serve the Del Mar community for the past 50 years. My sister, Kay, and I are pleased that Del Mar recognizes its value, and that her name is remembered. Mom would be tremendously honored by the Stone Writing Center, by having her name on the door, certainly, but more for the support and continuation of her vision, because helping students to write better is and always has been the purpose. Kay and I send our very best wishes to the Stone Writing Center for its 50th anniversary,” wrote Stone’s daughters Sharon Stone Reed and Kay Stone Land.
