Honoring the late Dr. Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, CxC’s founding director

Without Dr. Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, Communication Across the Curriculum might not exist today. Lilly was the founder of CxC, a long-time teacher of Communication-Intensive (C-I) Courses in English and the Honors College, and an advisor to many LSU Distinguished Communicator candidates. She passed away on June 24, 2024.

With the goal of building a Writing Across the Curriculum program at LSU, Lilly was hired by LSU in 2004. She promptly began creating what would become CxC, a feature of LSU’s 2005 Quality Enhancement Plan. Her scholarship as an English professor and through the University of Minnesota Writing Project allowed her to bring a fresh perspective to communication teaching and learning, and proposed something more holistic than a singular focus on writing: multimodal communication. Of this decision to expand to multimodal, Lilly shared in a 2009 publication, “we can debate whether we are primarily in a print-based culture, an aural/oral culture, or a visual culture, but there is no arguing with the fact of multimodality.” This was a key feature of CxC’s origins and remains so to this day.

Lilly’s innovative approaches are what led LSU to become the first University to formalize Communication-Intensive (C-I) pedagogy, embed C-I Courses within the disciplines, develop a new model for housing contemporary teaching and learning resources and services, and launch an unprecedented student recognition program. All of these elements have not just stood the test of time at LSU, but they have flourished. The forward-thinking, student-first values Lilly brought to CxC are now established as part of its ethos, and the program has continued to innovate, evolve, and expand. Because of CxC’s significant impact on student learning, and the continued importance of strong communication skills for students’ post-graduation success, LSU made CxC the sole focus of its five-year Quality Enhancement Plan in 2022.  

Twenty years after the department's founding, Lilly’s legacy lives on through innovative C-I teaching and learning via LSU’s nationally recognized CxC program. On average, 1,200 course sections are certified as C-I at LSU, spanning writing, speaking, visual, and technological modes of communication, taught by more than 300 faculty and taken by more than 15,000 students annually. Students, alumni, and faculty consistently champion the program, and regularly share how much this approach has impacted their skills development and career trajectory. CxC will continue to honor Lilly's impact while adhering to her reminder that it's "not just words anymore."